Well, for Mossopp and all the others interested, this is spy's guide to getting rid of computer spyware crap
It did work, even with those programs that used to be executed and change the IE first page - and then nothing seemed to work - but system restore.
1)ok, shhhh, you don't need to buy a virus killer but need to search for viruses all the same. It's remarkable but -shock! horror! -
virus killers like Norton and Avast can't identify all viruses on the system.
I use two online virus checkers, and it's interesting that one might find different viruses than the other ( which goes to prove my point )
This:
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/indexie.php
and this:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Those were also recommended by my ISP but I knew them - and used them beforehand.
Run a scan with both of these programs, and erase the files they locate manually. If you can't erase a virus ( get the message "the file is in use" ) logon in Safe mode and erase it then.
People say to disable system restore because there are viruses that find their way in the restore directory which can't be modified from windows. Trendmicro finds a lot of those viruses, when it does, disable system restore, then enable it again - if you want to use it. That will get rid of the viruses on the restore directory.
2) You need a good spyware detector. After much consideration and although spyboot is good, the best one for me is Pest Patrol. That is a program that will find more spyware than spybot or adaware and will advice you what to do in those cases. It has some extra cool features. Example: Pest Patrol found the spyware installed with kazaa, the advice was to "delete or ignore". Kazaa comes with spyware that allows spam websites to identify you. The spyware is not malicious - hence the delete or ignore - but you're gonna get a lot of unwanted cookies just by using kazaa. Spybot could not find the kazaa spyware but if you remove that kazaa will not work ( that's why I got rid of it alogether )
Pest Patrol comes with Cookie Patrol too; that, enabled, will not allow the "bad" cookies to be installed in the system.
Only problem is that Pest Patrol is a commercial program. But it
is the best.
also be aware of startup/cleanup option of msconfig located at the system directory. So far I'm using this coz I haven't found any reliable registry cleaners. Better leave the registry alone.
Also defrag every now and then
So that concludes spy's guide
I'm currently looking for a program that would identify attacks without being a firewall, kinda like the "immunize" option of spybot, though I'm not too sure that one works...