My roommate's computer is infected with mystery adware...what can I do?

spybot s&d v1.5

I use Lavasoft Ad-aware and Spybot: Search and Destroy[. You might want to wait to see what more computer-savvy people might suggest first though before going to get those.

I wouldn't recommend anything other than the programs that you have to pay for. Why? Well because I've tried my fair share of anti-spyware programs and have also done a lot of research behind what each can do. A lot of the free ones really don't pick up as much stuff as the ones you can pay for, and you can easily test this by running comparison tests between the programs (just don't clean after the test finishes).

The two big names that come to mind are Webroot's Spy Sweeper, and PC Tools' Spyware Doctor. These two have been named the best anti-spyware programs a few years in a row by different magazines and such. Really, it's a matter of personal preference between the two, so tell him to download the trials for both and see which one finds more spyware and go with that one. I use Spyware Doctor, and I have been using it for 2 years now. It's an excellent program, and I've been spyware free for a very, very long time.

Uh, actually, this is less a case of what he can do to fix his computer and more a case of what I can do to fix his computer before he finds out that it got infested on my watch and I take the wrap. (no idea how that happend, though)

Porn sites and warez are probably the leading causes of spyware.

As far as getting it off of his PC before he returns, then I'd most likely just go here: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+anti-spyware&btnG=Google+Search and try as many different programs as it takes to rid yourself of the problem.

It wasn't porn or warez.

Will doing a system restore fix this? Something's preventing me from installing Spybot and Ad-aware.

Windows Defender- It's free.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Okay, so I got a program called Spyware Terminator, but it says it can't remove certain bad things until I end certain processes which I can't do because my Windows XP task manager is screwed somehow. Is there a way around this?

i had that happen to me before, really annoying if you don't know what happened
double click on grey area of the window, it'll return to normal

Double-click on the gray area above Task. That should restore the Task Manager to it's windowed mode where you can get to the processes tab.

[EDIT]I really should refresh before I respond so I don't repeat something...[/EDIT]

Watch out though, as there are some bogus anti-spyware programs, that are spyware themselves.

And as to how it happened to be on the computer, were you using Internet Explorer?

Yes.

I think there were some hackers who used Google ads to get their spyware out so you could've been infected without going to porn or warez sites.

Don't use IE.

Um, most paid programs tend to be worse. Think about it, an opensource program can use the entire community's joint spyware watch in order to solve problems faster, where a closed private company's spyware watch is limited to their staff of 10 or 20.

If I have no spyware, and haven't had any for the past 2 years, then I believe it's doing just fine. It has an update about every other day, and gives you additional protection to new spyware or ones that have found a way to bypass the protection.

Okay, so I've been scanning my computer with this Spyware Terminator program, but there's something it can't get rid of. When I run the scan it finds a trojan and a keylogger, tells me to stop a couple processes (which I do) then says it can't delete all the items and I should restart and then do another scan.

So I'm at a dead end. Is there another possible solution or is it time to buy a Mac?

PS, can they really do that with Google ads? I was browsing a site that had them...

Start in safe mode and run the program.

Did you actually base that on evidence or did you just hunch it? Because I've had to deal with spyware that all of the free ones missed and only Spysweeper caught.

Be careful about paid programs with free versions that don't clean anything. Some of them are malicious and report bogus findings in an attempt to get you to buy the full version. Be sure to Google around to make sure you aren't mistakenly using such programs.

Well, firstly I wasn't using the free version of Spysweeper, secondly it did clean up my computer.

This is exactly true. Like I said, the best way to determine which program is the absolute best is simply by running comparison tests, which most of the big name magazines and websites have already done for us. It isn't hard to find information on which anti-spyware tool is the best software on the net.

Spysweeper and Spyware Doctor are both very close in their efficiency. I've found spyware with SD that SS could not find. However, the reverse scenario is true as well. It just depends on who finds the spyware first, and rids of it first. But, all in all both are equally good programs.

I'd boot from a clean CD or DVD and scan from there, possibly with different scanners, to verify that there is really a trojan and if there is I'd reformat.


I'm not entirely sure if it was Google ads or another ad service that was abused. But it's a possible.

ignore davecat and run spybot, tell me what it finds.

Spybot works pretty well, and so does adaware.


If you run HiJackthis you can take the results to a nerdier community and they can help you fix it.

I can't run Spybot, the install always closes before completion...I assume whatever's infected this computer is preventing me from running it.

(I couldn't even go to the Spybot and ad-aware pages in IE, I had to download Firefox)

should have had firefox in the first place

start -> run

msconfig

turn off all startup items, all non-microsoft services.

regedit

hkey_current_user -> software -> microsoft -> windows -> currentversion -> policies

delete anything like "norun" and "disabletaskmanager"

if you see things about disabling changing of backgrounds or active desktop, you have smitfraud, and need to get the smitfraudfix as well.

format.com

haha Jon that's pretty good

Go buy Kaspersky. It fixes damned near everything.