2kmaro
Think
Premium,ExMod 1 BC
join:2000-07-11
ColossalCave
clubs:  
1 edit | The most cost effective combination seemed to be:
AdAware SE - Freeware
Spybot S&D - Donateware
Spyware Blaster - Freeware
Spyware Guard - Freeware
Pest Patrol - $39.95
Giant Anti-Spyware - $29.95
Spyware Doctor - $39.95
BOClean - $39.95
gets rid of 90.44% (at cost of $149.80 U.S.)
But to move up to the 'next level' adds a heavy cost for just a little over 2% improvement:
Spy Sweeper - $29.95
BPS Spyware/Adware Remover $29.00
ups it to 92.65% (total cost of $208.75)
I came up with those after analyzing the lists and test results that Eric put up. I put together the top list (the $149.80 package) for myself and used it on all of our systems at work for a quick cleanup. I forget the exact order I ran them in, but each one ALWAYS found something that had been left behind by all the others run ahead of it.
I run Spyware Guard, BOClean and Giant Anti-Spyware continuously on this machine - somehow they don't get in each other's way  . Add Kaspersky Anti-Virus for actual anti-virus protection and you can imagine what my running tasks bar looks like!
Using the "immunize" and "innoculate" features of a couple of those seems to really help also - preventing certain ActiveX controls and access to many malicious web pages automatically.
A couple of tools that can help you identify these things are:
HiJackThis from »www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html
which can be very helpful in eradicating new versions of CoolWWWSearch and variants. But you generally need help interpreting the results to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Another tool to help find what's behind the various services running that are shown in the Windows Task Manager is Process Explorer from SysInternals at
»www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freew···xp.shtml Both of those are free tools.
--
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Barry LePatner |
