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My PC is contaminated with "Spyware"

 
Ranch Hand
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This morning I found my PC is "contaminated" by "Spyware" ad, URL, etc.
Whenever I reboot the PC, it pops up a windows saying "your computer may be affected by attempted attack. To protect.., please download Spyware software...". Then close this windown, it still pops up a browser window showing the download page. I close that one and open a new browser, the Spyware page shows up again even I set the "homepage" to "Google" !

I also notice on my desktop there are two icons for "Spyware" I permanently drop and clean them in trash bin, and reboot PC. It doesn't help.

How to get rid of this "SPyware" stuff ?

Thanks.
 
Greenhorn
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You can download ad-aware software from download.com, and run it to scan the ad-ware/mal-ware on your PC. Its a free software and should solve your problem. Its a good software from Lavasoft.
 
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And whatever you do, *don't* download the spyware remover that is being advertised !!

Ad-aware is good. I also recommend it. You may also want to try "SpyBlaster" by JavaCoolSoftware. It isn't a spyware remover. What it does is configures your browser with all the known bad web pages and activeX controls to block them.

Henry
 
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The smartaleck answer is to save your valuable data, get a Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, etc. CD, and install a better OS.

Sometimes this is actually feasible, say if you are a professional developer, sometimes not, say if you are a manager who has to use Quicken, MS Project, etc.

When I have to use Windows for a professional project, I setup a machine with all the important data on a D: partition, so I can periodically just do a

and reinstall Windows. I tend to do this about every six months when I'm working normal 70 hour weeks.

Sadly, a lot of programs and their installers really want to insist on storing the programs and data on your C: drive. Its bad design, but that is another topic.
 
With a little knowledge, a cast iron skillet is non-stick and lasts a lifetime.
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