Help. How do you remove adware on your PC?

[WeakestLink]

I started to get a LOT of pop ups.

I figured out the adware was called Bullseye and went through the "uninstall" of the software. However, in order to "complete" the uninstall, I had to answer some "questions" such as "How many popups would you be willing to veiw each day" and the only choices being 1-5. Or "what would convince you to keep the software" with the only answers being things like "more targeted ads", "better deals", etc. In other words, the survey required to uninstall the software required you to agree to keep the software. So I hit "proceed" and the software was supposedly removed.

Of course, the popups continued. Now it's a software program called Web Savings, which I assume I "authorized" while answering the survey to remove Bullseye. However, I cannot find an "uninstall" option for the Web Savings adware, and every time I try to delete the files, I get the message saying that I am not allowed to delete b/c they are protected files.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Spybot Search & Destroy

Ad Aware

Usually downloading both of these and scanning will remove most spyware. Make sure you download the latest definitions. They can co-exist peacefully.

I use Spy Sweeper when things get difficult. It's not free though.

To keep spyware off, you might want to uninstall kazaa or some of those music sharing programs that have advertising. Switching to Mozilla / Firefox will help out, too. Spyware is worse than viruses nowadays.

 

[D'Ecosse]

HijackThis also excellent tool to have

Available here for example along with a description of how to deal with each of the items it reports.
If you do a search on HiJack this, you will also find many references of places to post your log-file so you can have an expert guide you on what to remove & what not to!


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[Jonathan]

All good suggestions.

Depending on what you have you may even have to go through various steps to clean everything out.

Among the utilities suggested, I would also suggest "CWShredder". Try this:

1) Run CWShredder
2) Run HijackThis, careful on this one, good to follow directions from a known site as Ken indicated
3) Run Ad Aware 6.0
4) Install GOOGLE toolbar, or some equally effective pop up blocker
5) Install (and keep running) either Norton or McAffee (until you are clean it is quite possible you will not be able to install either application)

A word of caution, as some of these are browser and search hijacking applications, you may find you are unable to properly search for and/or download the necessary applications (even with direct links), the last thing you want to do is get an even more malicious application trying to fix the problem (spoofed searches, websites, and phony applications, etc.).

I suggest doing your downloading on a clean machine, and then go to work. All of these may seem paranoid, but I have seen all of this with various incarnations of Spyware/Adware that has planted itself on a PC.

js

 

[satan_srv]

you know it's funny I have had my computer for over 5 years now with no firewall or anything and have never got any of this stuff. Either people don't have their internet browser settings right or they are doing dumb things like accepting downloads for programs they've never heard of. I don't know how people get this stuff. When I run ad-aware the only thing I get is cookies for advertising and porn, only self -induced

 

[Jonathan]

you know it's funny I have had my computer for over 5 years now with no firewall or anything and have never got any of this stuff. Either people don't have their internet browser settings right or they are doing dumb things like accepting downloads for programs they've never heard of. I don't know how people get this stuff. When I run ad-aware the only thing I get is cookies for advertising and porn, only self -induced

Unfortunately now if you are running without anti-virus software and/or a good pop-up blocker, you can get burned by this just browsing the Internet. I have now seen a few different popups that begin installaing files even if you don't choose to do so. However, to be fair, most of it comes from peer-to-peer applications and free internet services/applications leaving backdoors open to expose you to this junk.

It's good advice to get away from applications like Kazaa, if you are looking to grab files, get eMule (or something similar).

js

 

[hlweyl]

I use Netscape 7.1 to surf and I get no pop-up ads. To keep spyware off my pc, I use ad-aware and zonealarm.

 

[D'Ecosse]

you know it's funny I have had my computer for over 5 years now with no firewall or anything .....

Sorry, but that's just plain crazy!

 

[WeakestLink]

I used the Spyware software and it seemed to work. It eliminated about 10 different adware programs but when it got to the last one, the program freezes up. I rebooted 2x and it kept freezing. Anyway, seems to have worked.

Thanks for the help.

 

[NsXMas]

IE-SPYAD

IE 4.x-6.x. A Registry patch that adds a long list of known advertisers, marketers, and spyware pushers to the Restricted sites zone of Internet Explorer. This filter much known adware and other malware from your computer from the beginning — a more proactive approach than only using adware-removing programs after the fact.

 

[Gary W]

You might want to try WinStock XP fix , free ware:
http://www.spychecker.com/program/winsockxpfix.html


WinSock XP Fix offers a last resort if your Internet connectivity has been corrupted due to invalid or removed registry entries. It can often cure the problem of lost connections after the removal of Adware components or improper uninstall of firewall applications or other tools that modify the XP network and Winsock settings. If you encounter connection problems after removing network related software, Adware or after registry clean-up; and all other ways fail, then give WinSock XP Fix a try. It can create a registry backup of your current settings, so it is fairly safe to use. We actually tested it on a test machine that was having a Winsock problem due to some Adware removal, and after running the utility and rebooting, the connectivity was restored.

Gary