I had a really good PC until about a year ago.
It suddenly crashed. It was slow and I tried to defrag it. It helped a little
I think that the culprit was adware (lots of pop- ups, even WITH a blocker!) and browser hijackers.

I have MacAfee for virus protection thru the AOL small monthly fee, and it scans everything

I also have Ad- Aware6 by Lavasoft. For personal use, it is free. LOVE IT
First time I used it, I found over 200 tracking cookies, and quite a few browser hijack attempts!!!!!! There is also a quarantine button,in case you want to look at what was being downloaded.

Spybot is also good although some people hate it. Make sure that you use the tutorial first. It removes a lot of registries that I didn't even know I had!. ( CASINO? XXX?)
I like it because it has a recovery file. If I remove a registry that affects a program that I downloaded, I just put it back in.
Make sure that you use the tutorial first.
This one is also free.


I believe that these 2 programs got rid of ALOT of problems that I had before.

I use these a couple times a week.
Also I try to delete those temp internet files.
I find that trojans LOVE to sneak into these files!!!!

I'll have to check out the other programs mentioned!

Here are the links. Hope they help

Sorry about the mess Katsmom!
spybot
ad-aware 6

That is strange, Becky! It must have been some kind of hijacker/spyware.

I'm glad you got the mess straightened out.

I just upgraded my anti-virus to PC-cillin Internet Security 2004 & my I Hate Spam. I imagine Pest Patrol will be due soon too.

I installed Ad-Aware's free version on my pc at work but haven't had time to do the tutorial yet. It says my computer is clean but I'm going to run Spybot again & see if it agrees. I like Spybot also, Bisbet.

Melanie

I guess I'm glad I use AVG?? it's free- and fairly reliable-by the way-LOVE AD AWARE-

Hi Jenny. The program identified by Pest Patrol (on my computer) was definitely WeatherBug. Once I removed it, the item on the PP scan went away.

I still have the problem with automatic LiveUpdate (Norton AV) -- and have given up trying to solve it. I just update manually now.

RE: all the great online programs for detecting adware and spyware...

Can you guys/gals provide direct links to download these programs? I looked for some in the past, but was concerned when I was taken to '3rd party' websites to download the programs.

Strange. I tried to find you the Lavasoft link for AdAware, and I ended up at Lavasoftware, which seems to be something entirely different.

Hi

Try here ....

http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/

Cheers.

Mad

Hey Mad! Thanks, you found it!

Here's the USA site:
www.lavasoftusa.com

Rusty

Hi Becky

That's because I use the programme

Cheers.

Mad

After reading this thread, I got the paid version of Pest Patrol. I've had so many problems I wouldn't know where to begin. Anyway, I also have Spybot. Just before downloading Pest Patrol, I ran Spybot first. It found 12 items on my computer which I then deleted. Okay, I then downloaded Pest Control and ran it. Guess how many items!!! 161 on my computer!!!! That's a big performance difference! I'm SOLD!

**Milee10**

Thank you for the LINK for Ad-Aware! How about one for Spybot, now?

The more I use these programs, the more I have to scratch my head... One minute everything's fine, and the next minute -- 161 invaders!

I recently discovered that my updated Spy Sweeper program was corrupted -- and I'd never have known that, except for it suddenly not working at all. I re-downloaded the updated program; and it immediately found lots of new adware/spyware. I wonder if the creeps are able to corrupt our detector programs?

Katsmom,

Here's the link to Spybot:

http://www.safer-networking.org

Good program. Glad I have it and Pest Patrol.