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Spyware Removal
~~Mike Baynes, MikesWhatsNews

It has become increasingly evident that the internet is fast becoming a battlefield between the malicious programs and the anti-spyware programs. In the past we were able to remove the spyware programs with a couple of programs, like AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy. Unfortunately, the newer spyware programs can no longer be controlled by a single program. The malicious software can change the entries it makes in the registry to hide itself from detection, and will often replicate itself  so all the registry hooks are not removed during the cleaning process. Some spyware programs are also allowing the installation of viruses on infected computers.

Quote from Panda AV:

"Spyware: a growing threat. Four of the six Trojans that appear in the Top Ten rankings download and install spyware. These programs collect data, such as the user's browsing habits, and then sell them to dubious marketing companies."

Many of the spyware programs are installed along with other programs when downloaded from web sites, or come bundled with other programs on software CDs. These programs are sometimes referred to as Rogue programs.

It has become so bad now that even Microsoft has purchased the Giant Anti Spyware program and is offering its Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) version for free for computers running Windows 2000 and later. They are also offering "The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool", which helps remove specific, prevalent malicious software from computers that are running Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000.  It does not help those using older MS operating systems, so we have to depend on a variety of other programs.

As we found with the Anti Virus programs, one program will not catch all the infections. If the spyware removers don't work you may have to use "HiJack This" and post the log results to one of their forums which will advise you on what entries you will have to remove from your registry to clean your computer.

WARNING: deleting the wrong entry may cripple your computer which is why the forums are recommended.

Links:

About:Buster 4.0
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4289.html

CoolWWWSearch SmartKiller MiniRemoval 1.0
http://www.spychecker.com/program/miniremovalcw.html

CWShredder 2.1
http://www.intermute.com/products/cwshredder.html

Javacool Software Spyware Blaster:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Javacool Software Spyware Guard:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

LavaSoft Ad-Aware SE:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Merijen HiJack This:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Microsoft AntiSpyware:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/
default.mspx

Microsoft AntiSpyware Preview
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/ms_antispyware
_preview.asp

FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/
software/faq.mspx

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890830

Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3.1
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html

References:

A good review of the MS AntiSpyware
http://windowssecrets.com/050127/#story1

Scott's Newsletter; Spyware in 2005
http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/66.htm

Forums for support:

HiJack this forum to analyze your log file;
http://hijackthis.de/index.php

How to use Spyware removers forum;
http://www.greyknight17.com/spyware.htm

Savemybutt.com SpywareForum
http://www.savemybutt.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

See Mike's Anti-Virus pages ~ http://virusinfo.hackfix.org.  To subscribe, send a blank email to: virusinfo-request@freelists.org?Subject=subscribe