Some bullshit adware has added a “MySearch” toolbar to my Internet Explorer. Can someone tell me how to get rid of this kind of shit?
Try Ad Aware from Lavasoft. The best imo. The only problem would be if you got one of those installing spywares where whenever you restart the pc or windows it automatically tries to update or reinstall the same damn spyware… those are hard to get off!
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I had that searchbar and got rid of it with Spybot S&D. personally I use a combo of both spybot and adaware to keep things clean, I just install them when i want to use them then uninstall.
How do people manage to catch spyware on their computer ? I have never been infected with any of this stuff. And never caught a virus either in all the years I have been computing. Maybe I am just lucky.
Spybot is worth having installed because of the keen suite of other tools it has with it. I thought I ran a pretty tight ship, but my computer performance has improved dramatically since I discovered the Spybot startup manager. More comprehensive than msconfig, plus msconfig isn’t in Win2k to begin with. I love Spybot so much.
Or you just act sensibly. For the longest time, I ran without a virus scanner to the surprise of many who thought that I, as a techno-geek, would be armed to the gills to prevent viruses. But it isn’t necessary if you:
- Patch the OS
- Don’t run executables from dubious sources
- Configure your browser to deny or ask before doing something dangerous
Spyware makes its way onto machines through many mechanisms. Two of the most popular are bundled installations, and ActiveX installs.
With the bundled installation, the spyware is is bundled with something desireable and the two are installed together. You are given notice usually in the terms and conditions or license, but most people blow their way through those without reading. Kazaa is good example of bundling a whole variety of spyware because people wanted file sharing.
ActiveX installs are a similar beast. Depending on the security level of IE, the action differs, but int he default, you are asked if you want to install this ActiveX component. People are used to clicking yes to get at the content, so they click on yes to this too.
I had the worst spyware installed from a screensaver!
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