PC utilities forum: Getting rid of Spyware

Thanks, NL, this does indeed answer my question. I'll go check 'em out today!
Taz

Ray, mucho thanks. I'm such a literalist that I thought the antivirus forum wouldn't include other related stuff. I guess that's where my question should have gone. Tx. Taz

I have always used Adaware and Spybot S&D with pretty good success. But now it seems the Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) has taken the lead. But Adaware still catches the MRU's.

MRUs, or Most Recently Used, are as they say - a list of the items you have recently used or looked at when using certain applications.

If you open a program - MS Word, Excel, Photoshop and so on - and go to the File menu at the top, you will see all the usual options such as Open, Save, Print, Preview...

At the bottom of this list you will see a short list showing the last few documents you opened. The idea of this list is to provide quick access to documents you recently read or worked on, without having to go to Open File and then search for the file you need.

A similar thing can be found in Internet Explorer (or any other web browser. If you click the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the address bar you will get a list of the addresses you have recently typed in. This is another example of a MRU list.

They are safe from the point of view that they cannot harm your system. They are, in effect, just signposts which provide a shortcut to things you may wish to access later on. For this reason they are classed as 'negligible' - they do no harm by being there.

The reason people like to know they are there and have the option to remove them is to guard their privacy - they perhaps don't wish others to know the last document they worked on was a job application, or the last spreadsheet they used was entitled MyBankAccountNumbers.xls, or the last web address they typed in was for a gambling site.

So it comes down to personal preference - keep MRUs and make life a little easier or delete them and preserve your privacy. MRUs are picked up by many malware scanners now, and it is up to you whether you keep them or delete them. At least you get the choice

In your case you can choose to remove the MRUs with no ill effects. It would still be possible to find the files you last worked on but it would be a lot more difficult and time consuming to do so. To see the effect in action I suggest you open your web browser and click the arrow next to the address bar to see the entries there. Close your browser, run AdAware and remove the MRUs. Then open your browser again and see that the MRU list is now empty. I delete MRUs as a matter of course, partly to save a little (not much) disk space and partly because I like to clear out unimportant (to me) things when I can.

I ran the beta on Microsoft SPyware for 2 Months and never got one hit on a spyware.
AT the same time I ran Spysweeper and Spybot and repeatedly got 2-3 Spyware hits.

You decide value of what MS has.

Jacomo

I have used most of the free ones out there, SpyBot and Adaware are decent ... BUT.... they did leave alot left on my system. Try running free trial of one of the pay ones and see what you have left. Most will at least scan system. I presently use Adware Filter by PCSafe. Keeps me clean.

I have that link in My Favorites along with other pearls I have gleaned from Bob over the years.

I'd like to address question#1: I, too, have Ad-Aware Personal SE and Spybot S&D (to which I have sent a donation, by the way. They deserve it!) I run them every day and I, too, found that each of them discovers what the other misses. A most important addition, however, is Microsoft Anti-Spyware. My browser was hijacked when I went where I shouldn't have, and the result was quite vexing. Microsoft Antispyware left my PC as clean as a whistle. And it's FREE!

My computer was slowing down and a friend suggested installing anti spyware. I downloaded free and trial programs to see which was the best and discovered that several found spyware that others had missed.

At first friends laughed and said that I was over protected but now, after being infected, they're as bad.

I have Norton 2005, Zone Alarm Pro, Trend Micro Anti Spy Centre(formerly spy subtract), Aluria Security Centre, XoftSpy and Webroot Spy Sweeper which are all paid for. The free programs I use are Spyware Blaster, Spyware Guard, Ad Aware, Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool and SpyBot. I also use McAfee Stinger (free) once a month after checking to see if there is a new version.

Spyware Blaster protects your computer before you go online and most of the others while you are on line. Others simply remove spyware. I'd also recommend a Registry Repair program. There are free ones but I use Registry Mechanic which I pay for to obtain the updates. Spyware often interferes with your Registry and after removal this needs repairing.

When I turn on my computer I open Spyware Blaster and go online downloading updates and scanning with 75% of the programs as I go along. It takes about 1/2 hour. It's rare that I pick up any spyware now and it's quickly removed. Any problems and I report the spyware. A download to remove it completely is usually available with 48 hours or less.

There are a lot of free spyware removal programs out there but BEWARE some are actually spyware themselves. It's just another way of taking over your computer. Use the ones available from here. Try them and uninstall the ones you find unsuitable.

I've noticed repeatedly people in these forums tend to use about FIVE different spyware scanners and tend to do so quite frequiently (once a day for some, once a week for others).

I personally only use two scanners, Spybot S&D(free) and Adaware (free), okay, so I also use spyware blaster, but that is a permanent fix.

So how often do I use these? Almost never (Maybe once every month or two)

How many hits do I get when I use them? Zero, unless that is I've been using Internet Explorer.

I currently use Firefox for all of my browsing and my spyware scans tend to come up clean, however I've actually scanned before using IE, browsed for a few minutes, and scanned again and had about 5 tracking cookies appear (the sites were non firefox compatable).

All of you people talk about this tool or that tool for removing spyware, how about using a browser that dosent have technologies like active-x that let spyware deep into the heart of your system (did you know Internet Explorer is integrated so deeply into windows if a program can gain control of it it gains control of the entire computer?).

Internet Explorer is full of security holes, yes, even post service pack two, don't believe me? Try searching on google. It apparently is possible to configure it to be more secure, but really one is better off switching to something along the lines of Opera or Firefox.

Well, that's my two cents.

If anybody has any information or experiences contradictory (that is having Internet Explorer be more secure for them than Firefox) I would like to hear about it, it seems quite odd, but I suppose could happen, and I'd like to hear about it if it did.

Lets look at the ethical aspect of paying, then the practical. If you are a programmer, wouldn't you like to be paid for your labor? Do you pay your dentist? Your doctor?
I always check out the software for a few months to a year and if the software does the job I need on my computer, I pay them.
Now the practical, what incentive would you have to work for nothing. Sure, some programs have advertisements, thats a way to pay the bills while developing software that people RELY on. And with all paid suscriptions, you get some extras, like no ads, automatic updates and a clear conscious for showing your appreciation for a great product.
I cannot remember once in my life that I looked for employment that did not pay.

Here's a question for you all---is there any evidence that anti-spyware programs you pay for any better than the free ones? To be more specific, I use AdAware and Spybot, both free, and I feel pretty good when they catch a bunch of stuff each week, but I have absolutely no idea how much stuff they might be missing. Can anyone provide any reliable information that I would be much better off with this or that anti-spyware program which you have to pay for, and if so, which paid program(s) would you recommend?

Spysweeper always caught adware and spyware that those miss in the past and tested plus spysweeper gos further in prevention as means of active protection and cookies handling since I got spysweeper I don't get anymore spyware. I have ad-ware and spybot also they alway find nothing since owning that program. This is why in my book spyweeper gets an 5 star. Remember those programs plus Microsofts doesn't have cookie handling which helps to prevent adware and spyware getting on the computer in the first place. Ad-ware and spybot only gets rid of the parasites they dont prevent you getting them.