And some of them do a bad job of it. A good example being Ad-aware trying to remove the sponsor that is optionally installed with Messenger Plus! 2.
Ad-aware doesn't actually get rid of it all, and so some shit is still left over and popups still occur. However, it removes enough to fuck-over the uninstall program, so even if you uninstall Messenger Plus! 2 (which genuinely removes the sponsor when you uninstall) the nasty stuff will still be there.
Yeah, Ad-Aware screwed up the removal of new.net scum, forcing a OS reinstall.
I find Spybot to be a lot safer in removal, but I find that I need to run run both so that nothing is missed.
That's weird, I swear by Spybot. I've got everyone at work using it now, too. Can't believe it missed something so obvious.
You got the *real* Spybot, right? The one with the thumbprint icon? There's a faker commercial-y venture out there that manages to make itself come up first on Google when you search "spybot"
Edit: If I was ALLOWED to go to work, which I'm not...
AARRGGHH!!!!!
on leaving the house last night I said to the babysitter 'fell free to use the internet'
today I have had to run adaware, spybot, hijack, system mechanic & delete 3 folders manually - it's taken over 30 mins to remove all the crap (including a 'helpfull' toolbar).
babysitter will NOT be invited to 'use the internet' next time.
PC Licence.
I say no more.
(And no, the European Computer Driving Licence is NOT what I'm talking about)
babysitter is here now - she says 'it said I have to click yes to access the site'
aarrgghh
in other news: she did something similar on her own PC and agreed to a 09 style premium rate dial up number - luckily her son binned that after just £19 of browsing.
I heard today that the local PC guy in town wanted £55 to 'equip a PC with sound' so this girl could chat online - he had the PC in the shop, so had no real excuse for not knowing she only needed a microphone
so you're right, some are making a good living from numptys
Spybot works a lot better if run from the Advanced setting, using that to access and activate the "hosts" file.
I use Spybot and Adaware with great success, and both are updated daily if possible.