Best spyware/virus removal?

[Dabrowski]

I'm looking for something that might scan my hard drive and remove bad stuff. I encountered some spyware on a site, and now my homepage keeps getting replaced with a search assistant.

I've found a Home Search Assistant in the Add/Remove programs, but when I try to remove it, it says "Unable to open "http://looking-for.cc/uninstall/HomeSearchAssistant.html".

I've already found and uninstalled a toolbar that it installed.

Any ideas?

Edit: Also, when I run the task manager, there are 48 processes running, but I don't recognize most of them. Is there a way to find out what's good and what's bad in there?

Another Edit: When I go to that link that it couldn't find, it says that I have to download an uninstall. Should I do that?

[tacimala]

I would try running Spy Sweeper (http://www.webroot.com/downloads/), then CWShredder (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html), and then hijackthis. Click on the link under Try It for Spy Sweeper. Both CWShredder and hijackthis are on the same page under the second link. Make sure to save hijackthis in a new directory somewhere other than your desktop because it creates back ups of the settings you remove and puts them in the same folder.

Spy Sweeper you can install and update only once (by update I mean like updating the definitions much like a virus scanner). Install it, update it, and perform a scan that will take up to a half hour. This will find most of your problems. Then you can run CWShredder to look for any CoolWebSearch variants. It's quick and only looks for certain things. That might not even find any, so don't be alarmed when it doesn't. After that run hijackthis, which scans your running processes, your registry settings for internet explorer, and your startup programs and registry settings. This gives you a good look at what is directly hijacking your browser, i.e. a search bar you can't get rid of. To run it, click on Scan and it will show you everything. You can do a lot of damage if you remove something incorrect though so be careful. If you aren't comfortable with removing the entries that show up, save a log file of the results and post the log file here.

[gil]

ive been hijacked a few times and do i hate it but i did a simple google seach keyword remove Home Search Assistant and i got tons of search results try doing the same but for now i found a thread that talks about the subject: http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/12373.html

[NMS]

I use Ad-Aware Se from lavasoft. No idea if it works in your case but it is worth trying .. it is free

[gil]

by the way i use Spybot Search and Destroy , CWShredder, and of course i have an updated anti virus list and a firewall somewhere in the mix i will also tell you to check out http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html and you might want to use an alternative like mozilla

[tbonekkt]

What's spyware? Us mac users don't know what that is... :D

Just kidding. I use Ad Aware, Spybot, and SpySweeper.

[gil]

wow a mac i have not used one of those circa 1986 oh 7th grade or so i think it was a mac or was a colleco?

[tbonekkt]

Might have been a Commodore 128. ;)

[gil]

just kidding mac are awesome at video editing and the likes rather use one of those instead of a pc if i where into that.

[Dabrowski]

by the way i use Spybot Search and Destroy , CWShredder, and of course i have an updated anti virus list and a firewall somewhere in the mix i will also tell you to check out http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html and you might want to use an alternative like mozilla


Actually, rather than futz with fixes at this point, I am using Firefox. Maybe I'll just not use IE anymore. Typically, those things only affect the browser, right?

[(jj)]

Spyware can get installed with other programs and while most target IE there is no guarantee that you still can not get hit with them if you only run FireFox.

It never hurts to play on the safe side and use SpyBot or AdAware to keep your system checked and clean

[gil]

there you go i use mozilla's firefox also and so far i have not been hijacked. Knowing

that people love targeting mircrosoft based products which people love to find

security holes and exploits for IE and other microsoft based software, firefox and the alternative

browsers are by far safer than ie unless you find patching up you ie fun.

[gil]

jj makes a good point but most offten those programs are aiming for ie also if you

decide to download shareware for instance bundle with spyware and you try to disable

the spyware your shareware will also be disable so remember even if it is a pain in the

butt always read the fine print in order to know what eles is being installed on your

computer.

[Dabrowski]

jj makes a good point but most offten those programs are aiming for ie also if you

decide to download shareware for instance bundle with spyware and you try to disable

the spyware your shareware will also be disable so remember even if it is a pain in the

butt always read the fine print in order to know what eles is being installed on your

computer.

Gil,

With all due respect, I know the words that come from your head are puncuated somehow--please pass some of that on to us! :D

But seriously, thanks for everyone's help.

[gil]

Wow, I was now aware that grammer was part of a prerequisite in order to post on the forum. Dabrowski, is my grammer up to par now? ;^)

[Dabrowski]

Wow, I was now aware that grammer was part of a prerequisite in order to post on the forum. Dabrowski, is my grammer up to par now? ;^)

Hey, there are no prerequisites that I know of, that was just a request. But with a period or two, I only have to read posts once (or twice if they have PHP code in them).

[Dabrowski]

I ran through about two hours of scans and steps on one of the sites that claimed to have high success removing HSA, but it didn't work. I'll give it another shot sometime.

[Barry]

In addition to the other products mentioned in the replies, I also use Spy Sweeper. You can get a trial version to run. It also has a setting which will lock your home page. Liked it enough, that I bought the package. Another time limited product is call Giant. It found a lot of items that others had missed and for the one time I needed it, it worked very well. Search for 'spyware' through a search engine and you'll find quite a lot of information and tools you can use to remove the stuff.

[Adam_F]

Spyware: Adware
Virus: Norton Antivirus 2005
Firewall: Norton Internet Security 2005 (includes antivirus)


Adam.
Perl 5 Unleashed (http://www.webbasedprogramming.com/Perl-5-Unleashed/)
Insurance Articles (http://www.insurancetarget.com/)

[DanoruX]

Anti-Spyware: Giant Antispyware
Anti-Virus: Norton AV
Firewall: none/router

[Barry]

I've run Norton, McAfee, Panda, Etrust, and AVG for antivirus, each has their own idiosyncrasies. Since I'm running four workstations, it gives me a chance to compare. Can't say that I'd put one ahead of another, but at least for now, I've not found any viruses and each has been good at preventing installation of a virus.

For spyware, I'm using Ad-aware, Spybot, SpySweeper, and Microsoft's new beta, what use to be Giant's spyware on my new OSs. Did have one system which I had to use the first three, plus SpyDoctor to remove over 65,000 infections. Yes, did keep a screen snapshot of that number. This was using Ad-aware and it required running the program on specific folders before doing the entire drive. So much infection, the system would stop running due to memory fillup.

What is best? What ever you find that will do the job. Using all the above, is keeping my systems clean. I've got them all on CDs, so I can use them as needed when I need them.

Best of luck.

[Raid_5]

hijack this, spybot and adaware and kaspersky antivirus

[allan_spy]

What is the best spyware remover.

I tried all softwares on

http://www.quickflashgames.com/spyware/

and got rid of svchost in my startup folder. It also fixed About Blank pages problem. they all worked but i think antispyware is the best.