Spyware

[Stu]

I have spyware and/or browser hijacker on my PC that the
current version of Microsoft's product cannot find nor
remove. I have also tried other tools (AdAware,
NoAdware), none of them can find this. When I try to
download an update from Microsoft, I get the message that
my internet connection could not be found, even though I
can connect to the internet just fine. Any ideas on the
absolute best spyware tools are appreciated. I'm
becoming leery of 3rd party products because I think they
do their own damage if you trial them but don't buy them.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Can you give some description of the evidence leading you to believe that
you have spyware in place?

Can you say what you've tried already?

If you want to try a different commercial product which is not a
trial--consider an online scan from Trend Micro's scanner. It now covers
viruses and spyware, and removes both.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com

 

[ziggy]

Try Panda's Active Scan from the Panda website. I had a
virus today that removed all of my Xp games from the Xp
folder. Active scan found and removed the virus.

 

[Ron Kinner]

Trend and Panda are both good ideas. If they don't help
then get HijackThis.exe from
http://tomcoyote.org/hjt/hjt199//HijackThis.exe

Save it to C:\hjt (new folder) then Open it and select
Scan and Save Log. Note where you saved the log then
send it to me as an attachment.

Ron Kinner
Microsoft MVP 2004 & 2005
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Stu]

I'm not sure what evidence you are looking for, but I'll
try:

1. I change my homepage. It is immediately changed
back to about:blank.

2. When I go into IE, it goes to about:blank, and pop-
up windows start displaying. None of my anti-spyware,
including Microsoft's, seems to be able to remove this.

Thanks, Stu

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Frankly, I'd go with Ron Kinner's advice and offer of help.

It appears that Microsoft Antispyware doesn't deal with this correctly at
this point, and I don't even know of a "single button" third-party tool for
it either.