Now that you've got rid, you can set Spybot so it won't permit owt to do it again. Works for me.

But Spybot never found it, so Spybot can't immunise against it. I've got something called Spy Guard and another called Spyware Blaster to hopefully stop any further problems.

You have to watch out for some of these rogue spyware removal applications, that claim to remove but actually install spyware!

I will do, thanks. Although, I think all of the ones on spywareinfo.com would be safe.

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...

The icon on my version is two windows with a spyglass, the thumbprint is used on the internal logo though. Its the genuine one though as its from a coverdisk ;)

Anyway it lists coolwwwsearch but not coolwebsearch. Perhaps they are the same...

It found coolwebsearch and coolwwwsearch. It just didn't get rid of them properly. And yes, it is the version with the thumbprint, but like Mike's it's on the program rather than the icon itself.

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.

Welcome to my world.

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.

These people need to be forced to use Mozilla or something. It's for the best.

some people really shouldn't be allowed to play with PCs

I second that comment. Although not letting idiots use PCs would do a lot of us out of jobs.

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.

Well I run Spybot in advanced mode. What's this about the hosts file?

 

I would update it daily, but it hasn't found any updates in a while. Maybe I have an old version.

Update to version 1.2 for Spybot if necessary.

 

The Hosts file resides in settings, but unless you enable Advanced mode, I think it might be Hell's own job to find it. <G>

 

I found it like I found all the other computer stuff I "know" - by accident.
<G>

 

Also, the latest version of Adaware is 6.00, build 6.181. Older versions will not update as I recall.

 

Spybot is sometimes slow to download updates if busy. Try changing the mirror to a U.S. site if you have difficulties. Conversly, U.S. users should try to use UniDo to take advantage of the time differential. ;-)