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How do I get rid of spyware?

While working on my computer at work online advertisement files will save to my desktop. I have my pop up blocker on and it seems to be working but I keep having items on my desktop for advertisements how do I stop this?

Dave's Answer:

Oh man, I can't think of anything that would drive me bonkers faster than the situation you're describing, honestly. If there's one thing that drives me crazy about working within the Windows environment, it's how there are thousands of sites lurking, poised, ready to infect my computer, and once infected, tons of different spyware programs to ruin my computing experience.

First off, though, let's define spyware. Spyware is any software that's actually running on your computer without you explicitly granting it permission, installing it or wanting it there. Most typically, spyware tracks what you're doing and reports salient data to a remote server, for example capturing keystrokes and trying to report email addresses or credit card numbers. Very bad stuff!

Some spyware does the opposite, though, just acting as a conduit for third parties to drop information on your computer, and I think that's what you're seeing with these online advertisements showing up on your desktop. This category of spyware is called adware, by the way, but it's still the same insidious type of program running without permission on your computer.

To deal with the scourge of spyware, you need to install an anti-spyware tool (why does this remind me of the old Mad Magazine's Spy Vs. Spy comics?). There are a number of choices, ranging from free to fairly expensive, so let me run down a couple that I feel are the best options.

First off, the single most popular solution to avoiding spyware is LavaSoft's Ad-Aware. This is a great little program that you install and then it promptly scares the daylights out of you by reporting all this spyware that's probably already running on your computer without you knowing. Zap everything, then you'll be able to run your Windows system with just a bit more safety and comfort. Ad-Aware is what I run on my WinXP computers.

Microsoft has also been putting considerable effort into figuring out how to eradicate spyware from Windows XP computers, and while it's rumored that the upcoming Windows Vista will have a much smarter backend to minimize the risk of spyware, in the meantime it's worth checking out Windows AntiSpyware. However, this application is still in "beta" so there's a slight chance it'll do something bad to your computer, I suppose. My experience is that Microsoft doesn't release something into beta until it's pretty darn stable, so unless you have an exceptional or unusual configuration, you're probably a perfect customer for this application.

A third strong solution is from a German developer, called Spybot Search & Destroy, and it's very highly rated by publications like PC World in this category. To be candid, though, I do know of people who have had problems with this program, especially when they try to switch to another app and delete this one. Buyer beware.

Finally, my favorite choice, and the program that I've installed on the PCs of various family members, is Webroot's Spy Sweeper, a program that costs a few dollars but has an excellent reputation in the industry and frequently wins computer magazine awards as best anti-spyware application on the market. Also nice is that the company offers a free spyware scan right on their Web site, if you're not sure whether you've any spyware installed on your computer or not.

When you're deciding what anti-spyware to install, remember that one critical factor is how trustworthy the company is. It'd be terrible to install an anti-spyware program just to find out that it's actually sponsored, secretly, by a spyware group and that it flags and deletes all spyware except from that group. Not too likely, but I would certainly counsel you choose from one of the top four or five solutions in this space, not test out something from a company you've never heard of before.

Once you have one of these programs installed, you should be able to both eliminate the adware that appears to have infected your computer and avoid a reinfection in the future.

Good luck!

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Categorized: Windows Help (Article 4199)
Tagged: ad-aware, antispyware, spy sweeper, spybot, spyware, webroot, windows xp
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Comments

the best way to get rid of spyware is prevention. be smart about the sites you visit and always use a secure browser, like mozilla's firefox or Opera.

Posted by: matthew at September 22, 2005 5:55 PM

I've been using Trend Micro's free online scanner for years. It's called "Housecall". They have recently added a beta version that also scopes out Trojans and spyware. It takes awhile to scan the full hard drive, but they give you the option to delete anything and also have their usual high quality info/data/specs on most of the bad guy's stuff.

Here's the link for the beta:

http://housecall-beta.trendmicro.com/en/start_corp.asp

Their home page is http://www.trendmicro.com - home to PC_cillin anti-virus software.

just select a country and download the scan software and check the box for your drive. Then continue surfing while it scans.

Cool, huh!

wish I was, but not affiliated with this fine group.

Posted by: patcher at September 27, 2005 10:24 PM

Just wanted to pass on that Lavasoft's AdAware is by far the best spyware remover out. Even the military uses it and that should tell you something. Spybot is also good, but you need to be careful to look at the list of files closely to prevent removing a program that you might not want to remove example: files affiliated with your ISP. I am guilty of that. By the way great site Dave

Posted by: david at October 18, 2005 2:08 AM

The Google Adsense ads that appear, in this section, often include "antispyware" programs that are actually, just the opposite. Dave, it looks like you do a ton of good work on this site. I would hate for a visitor to pick up a "nasty" from an ad, here. I'm not suggesting that you remove the ads. I use them too, on my sites. They can be very beneficial to webmasters and to visitors of the site. I guess you should just consider what they, sometimes, promote.

Posted by: Ed at March 3, 2006 5:18 AM

I work for a very large company as a PC repair engineer. We have offices in almost every state, yet I can fix almost every software related pc problem remotely. We use Dameware Mini remote control to remotely access each PC, which are all connected via a large wide area network.

When a user calls me, I ask them for their IP address. If they do not know what that is, I explain to them, what it is, and how they can get it, via the “ipconfig” command.

Next I enter it into the “Dameware” program, and a few seconds later, I can see everything they see. Now there are some pc’s that are just infested with spy-ware, pop-ups, Trojans, viruses etc.

Sometimes this makes the PC not respond to my Dameware remote control request. So what do I do? Most of my coworkers give up at this point. Their solution is to re-image the entire PC. They send out PC Restore and Re-image Cd’s, to reformat the pc.

Basically they reformat the computer and reinstall windows and all the programs. But, I do not like to do this. I like to seek out and destroy the spy-ware. I do it, just like the Spybot program does. That is: “I search and destroy!”

So, here is my solution. I wrote a few batch files that map a network drive to the injured pc. The batch files also attempt to end as many unknown processes first. I made up a list of the most common ones, and I keep adding to the list, usually once a week. My batch file also cleans up the registry and other program files folders. I like to delete the entire run, and run once keys from the HK Local Machine/Software/Microsoft Windows/current version/local machine/run; run once keys.

I also clean the same under HK current user. Next I add back the run and run once keys. I also use the shutdown command to reboot the pc, and then once the batch file is finished, I am now able to remote control the computer and run some anti-spyware programs. I sometimes use the free ones, like Spybot and Ad-aware. But I also like to use Spy-sweeper and another program called Trojan hunter. From my experience those are the programs that I have found to work the best.

I rarely need to re-image any PC’s. I enjoy finding new types of viruses and spy-ware. And besides, I get to add them into my little batch files.

Dave Perry

Posted by: David Perry at May 25, 2006 7:57 AM

I have been trying to find information on how to
get rid of, what we believe to be Spyware, called
Bulbster. We never downloaded this or gave anyone
permission to download any software, etc. to our
computer. We noticed this shortly after our daughter had been in a music website listening to
music and we kept having problems with our computer running extremely slow and even having
repeated disconnects from the Internet and then
it signing itself back online! We discovered this
NUISENCE when we could not get our computer to respond and so we would do Ctrl,Alt,Delete and it
would show us a list of programs running on our
computer. EVERY TIME we have a problem and we go through the Ctrl,Alt,Delete, process, and there it is running, Bulbster, and when we try to end it, it just seems to duplicate itself! It is extremely difficult to get it to end, and if we manage to get it to end, it, many times, it will kick us offline, only to "Re-sign" us back online! It seems to be a very aggressive form
of Spyware, or something else very bad! Any help you can offer us will be very much appreciated! Thanks.

Sincerely,

Danna Drury

Posted by: Danna Drury at August 25, 2006 11:51 PM

Only site that worked for me
do you want to know to how to get rid of viruses for free. Do you want to know to how to get rid of cool web search
go to this web site and follow the instructions
http://www.how-to-get-rid-of-viruses-for-free.com/

Posted by: billy bob at April 22, 2007 1:02 AM

It so happened that a computer running Windows server 2003 got infected with spyware and virus. The desktop was getting washed out and Windows error reporting was coming up.It was not allowing to open any program either in safe mode or otherwise.Only the Norton anti virus could be stated, but could detect only one virus. It was quarantined but could not solve the problem. So I removed the Hard disk and installed to a Windows XP computer as slave and ran the antivirus and anti spyware. It detected several of these and destroyed those. This solved the problem.

sincerly yours,
kamlesh gorain

Posted by: kamlesh gorain at April 25, 2007 11:36 PM

Please can you help me get rid of virus on my psp

Posted by: SETH at June 9, 2007 10:10 AM

i have this thing on my pc called PC SCREEN Spy Monitor. i cannot get rid of it. can you assist?

Posted by: satwant at July 8, 2007 11:59 PM

hi i have a bad pop up messege on my msn messenger it just says that ive got a virus withour me knowing i just want your help to fix the problem

Posted by: geral at November 12, 2007 3:12 AM

I've got a bunch of spyware and viruses on this computer. Every minute or so, a bubble comes up claiming to be a Windows Security alert, but I don't think it is. I avoid it...I have Adaware AND Spybot, but they're both not working... I don't know WHAT to do. I'm an exchange student in Belgium from the USA, and I don't know how to tell my host family that their computer has Spyware and Viruses on it! I don't even know how it GOT there to begin with! Somebody PLEAAAAASE help me!!!

Posted by: Kelsey at November 20, 2007 10:29 AM

i want to sign out from my space

Posted by: sabrina at December 1, 2007 5:30 PM

Yo dave i am absolutley positive that i ahve spyware on my computer. I was reccomended to use spybot search and destroy. but when i o to download it the window will freze up and not download. It WILL NOT LET ME DOWNLOAD IT!! but my computer will allow me to download anyother stuff when when ithas to do with spyware it wont work at all any suggestions?????????

Posted by: NEED HELP at March 6, 2008 8:12 PM

I was online a few days ago and this annoying pop up, well it popped up. And now my computer says it is running this thing called antivirus 2008. Every few minutes a warning pops up and it says you have 40 virusus!!! And then gives me a list of tojan virusus i have. But After running my microsoft defender and McAfee it says my computer is fine. So After the thing did not go away I looked online to see if anyone else seemed to experience this same problem. And of what i saw it seems to be a troublesome little spyware. I have tryed so many different things including anti spyware programs. This thing will not go away.

Posted by: Ben at May 12, 2008 5:25 PM

iight, look. my computer is not acting horrible but it isn't acting GOOD either. i'm only a kidd so i need a FREE anti-virus, spy-ware, remover thingy. i really need some suggestions. oh and by the way. i have NO money! please, help me! i look for the free download thingy for spy-bot but i can't find it..
urgh! i'm begging please help me!
my computer has been through so much already!
thank you..-Brandy

Posted by: Brandy at May 29, 2008 1:11 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!