[Steveinid]

I am looking for a good program to get rid of the parasiteware I have recently acquired. I have tried spybot but it didn't catch them all. I'm still showing popups and underlined keywords. I tried spyassassin and it shows I have more but they want me to pay for the program. I have no problem paying for it but I want to make sure I am buying a good product.

Anyone have any recommendations on a good product to get rid of this stuff?

[Hawaii5]

Several things for free you can get.

I use the Free spywareguide.com blocklist that sets the killbit in the registry for known bad CLSIDS: http://www.spywareguide.com/blockfile.php Doesnt get them all but it's free and stops some of the scum.

They also have a freeware scanner that targets some of the more common ones but not all of them. Good for a quick scan.

http://www.spywareguide.com/txt_onlinescan.html

I also use the paid version of Ad-aware, Spybot Search and Destroy and the paid version of X-Cleaner. They also have a freebie at http://www.xblock.com/download-freeware.shtml but it doesn't scan the full database.

The value for me in X-Cleaner is their help desk will work with you one-on-one to make sure your system stays clean. Top notch support although only be e-mail.

I have also been beta testing their new program called X-RayPC. It scans for all hidden and known processes and compares it to spywareguide's database in real time, flagging spyware and adware entries in red and safe controls in green. Very cool stuff, but still in beta. They tell me they plan to release it next month as freeware. You can contact chris@xblock.com if you want to beta test I think.

Also for CoolWebSearch I use Merijin's http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html it is free and the only one that completely gets rid of CoolWebSearch which is probably the worst piece of spyware trash I have ever seen. Getting rid of it requires a digital enema.

[Catwoman]

PestPatrol also has a free online scan. It won't clean the crap it finds, but you'll have a pretty good idea of what's in your computer.

I use AdAware and Spybot, and when I did the scan with PestPatrol it found another 117 pests!

The program itself isn't free, but it sure seems to find and clean an awful lot of stuff that you don't want in your computer.

www.pestpatrol.com

Catwoman

[Hawaii5]

PestPatrol is great, but it identifies as cookies as spyware. How many of those pests were cookies? If you want to go ahead and promote products that kill your livelihood go ahead. That seems to be a trend among anti-spyware makers wanting to scare mroe consumers into thinking cookies are spyware.

For affiliate deals I promote Regblock.com. Blocks malware, detects spyware and doesn't target cookies. Good tech support there too.

I no longer recommend any anti-spyware that identifies legitimate affiliate cookies as spyware. It's killing our livelihood and it's getting worse.

[Drewbert]

>Anyone have any recommendations on a good
>product to get rid of this stuff?


OSX.

[Catwoman]

Thank you Hawaii for the recommendation, I had never heard of that product. That's good to know and I will look into it. I use the free PestPatrol scan every now and then to see what's on my computer because it catches a lot more than the others, I didn't buy it.

Yes it finds a lot of cookies every time, but it also finds a lot of other stuff that I delete by hand. Their site has a lot of information on spyware and other internet pests and how to get rid of them.

Catwoman

[Hawaii5]

I use the databases for research at:

PestPatrol.com, Spywareguide.com and Kephyr.com

The big problem with Pestpatrol i have is they flag cookies which are not spyware. This hurts us all. I don't mind if users want to delete cookies on their own, but I have a big problem with any product that says they are spyware. This is as just as bad as Norton.

I also promote Regblock.com because it doesn't attack cookies and has a good affiliate program, but the database is more limited than pest patrol.