Any good spyware removers out there?

[Beware the Beast Man]

Something in me just doesn't trust those adware cleaners I see online (like the ones that show up with said adware :eyes: ). I already have Bazooka and Spybot Search & Destroy, but they don't pick up everything. Any other decent ones you know of?

EDIT- forgot my anecdote. Mrs. Beast was surfing this morning. She went on elle.com and the machine crashed out because some adware dumped at least a dozen files on to our desktop. :grr:

[Wat_Tyler]

1. I think Captainjack started a thread on that earlier.

[Fenris]

5. Check and mate, sir.

:thumbsup:

[Beware the Beast Man]

11. I want to be just like him, too.

:P

[Chovexani]

2. There is no one good spyware remover

The trick is to use different ones together because some of them catch things the others don't.

Ad-Aware + Spybot is a killer combo. Using that with Mozilla I haven't had a single infection.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Adaware is good.

Better yet, toss your PC off a cliff and buy a Mac.

[Beware the Beast Man]

6. DELETE

dupe.

[Beware the Beast Man]

7. You got $1500???

Besides, some of the music editing programs I use don't run on Mac.

[Chovexani]

14. You know, I'm a Machead but this mindset REALLY bugs.

Honestly, I think Mac people need to practice a little of what they preach and let people use the computer that's right for their needs. As much as I hate Windows and think PCs are pieces of shit, I use one to get my computer gaming fix because gaming on the Mac is just awful. The situation has improved somewhat since OSX came out, but we still have to wait ages for ports to come out, we almost never get expansions (*cough*Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal*cough*), and it's usually an exercise in hair pulling trying to get fan-created content to work because most gamers use PCs (Sims content, Infinity Engine mods, NWN hak packs, etc.).

I swear Mac people act like fundie xians sometimes. Yes, Macs are wonderful computers and I love all of mine to pieces (I have an autographed Lisa for crying out loud) but they are not perfection incarnate, and wish we'd stop acting like they were. We'd probably get more converts.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. My suggestion was because Macs don't usually get spyware.

If you need PCs for specific applications, then that's what you need. If you don't need those applications, you will have less headaches with a Mac because you will be less plagued by viruses and spyware. That was my only point. By the way, I use both. I do prefer the Mac fort a lot of other reasons, but for the purpose of this discussion, I made the suggestion only because they are much less susceptible to infection.

[Red State Rebel]

4. Spybot Search & Destroy

along with Adaware (both free) do pretty good.

[Beware the Beast Man]

9. Spybot's great, but not 100%.

That's what I use now. It's very user-friendly.

[jdsmith]

8. Spybot, Adaware, Spyware Blaster

and MOST IMPORTANT update weekly.

Don;t even click on one of those for-sale deals.

[carpediem]

10. I used this step by step guide

I think someone here posted it.

My computer was really bad - i had visited a haircut site to find short haircuts for my daughter to look at and it completely took control of my computer. This worked and walks you through it. Also, I started usin Mozilla afterword - no more spyware. ( I was leary of using the free programs also, but have noticed no problems. I am on Win XP ) Good Luck.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

[AverageJoe]

12. Lavasoft's Ad-Aware progam is free and very good

It's worked for me to get rid of everything but spyware from something called "brilliant digital." I had to reformat to get rid of that stuff, unfortunately.

Here's a link to lavasoft's download page:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

[Beware the Beast Man]

13. Thanks, all!

I'll keep all your suggestions in mind, except that buying a Mac thing, just too broke for that now! :thumbsup:

[miss_kitty]

15. Spy Sweeper

I downloaded it and it came up with 4 more pieces of spyware and a bunch of fragments that Adaware and Spybot missed. but in quarantining them, i messed up my Musicmatch and now my Flashget is a demo model. But Spy Sweeper keeps shit OUT of your IE- I assume here, but I think IE is the one browser that allows these hijackings

Also look into using a different browser-I know this sounds broken-recordy, but Firefox...
http://www.mozilla.org/

and I saw other people speak highly of Avant
http://www.avantbrowser.com/

in these threads
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=1752076

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=1752102

On Edit: The State of WA, which owns my computer, and thinks I still USE IE (hahahaha!) ORDERED me Spy Sweeper this week...

[Beware the Beast Man]

16. I was using my SBC Yahoo DSL browser for a time

Which I think may run on the Mozilla engine (they're very similar). I liked it much more, and I think I'll stick with it. Thanks!

[demzilla]

17. Adaware is better than Spybot

Spybot caught a few things on our machine -- then we downloaded Adaware and it caught tons more.

[miss_kitty]

18. I had exactly the opposite thing happen

It boils down to where you visit and what each program targets. They are excellent in concert.

[EstimatedProphet]

19. Aluria-go ahead and buy it

Works for me quite well.

[Tangledog]

21. Ad-aware and Spybot here

... combined with the best (IMHO, OC) browser, Opera 7.5. No problems. I've never used Bazooka.

The thing is, you have to run them a lot and make sure to do the updates on an equally regular basis. I was unknowingly using a late-beta of the current Spybot engine, and it didn't update, kept giving me "no updates available" messages. I finally decided, "This is nuts," and got a new copy, and then discovered my oversight.

Did elle.com dump a lot of crap on your computer, or did that site just happen to be on when all this happened?