Spyware Scanners

[oracle]

I'm going to be writing up some general support info aimed at "computer illiterate" internet users. I plan on including a section on spyware and spyware scanning software, and was curious to know what options there are.

I usually suggest Lavasoft (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/)'s free Ad-aware program. I know there are other programs available, and wasn't sure if any of them would be a better choice. Does anyone know of/prefer other software, and what makes it better than Ad-aware?

Considering that this info will be aimed at the average end-user (read: complete dolts) the software should be able to be installed, updated, and ran with a minimum of difficulty and complexity. It is also preferable that the software provide some sort of active protection, such as the "Ad-watch" feature in Ad-aware; scheduled automatic updates would also be nice. Oh, and of course it should be free!

Surely this info may be available on the internet, or I could even download and try out the softwares myself, but generally I find that first-hand accounts from computer-savvy people are much better... So hit me with your's.

[kyuss]

I have found the free version of SpySweeper (http://www.spysweeper.com) has the ability to find and remove more spyware/adware than adaware.

Download of 3.5 mb, easy installation and easy configuration.

It actively watches for tracking cookies and also actively watches software loaded into memory.

Might be worth you having a play with.

[Bifrost]

Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd) is the best I've found.

There are also several which I have not yet tried recommended in this thread (but be careful, this thread IS in Bitching and Rants and the first post is rather...um...angry and hateful...I should know - I wrote it :)):

http://forums.zgeek.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17737

[imp]

Originally posted by kyuss
I have found the free version of SpySweeper (http://www.spysweeper.com) has the ability to find and remove more spyware/adware than adaware.

Download of 3.5 mb, easy installation and easy configuration.

It actively watches for tracking cookies and also actively watches software loaded into memory.

Might be worth you having a play with.

I used to suggest this one for the above reason but now I just don't bother since it pops up rego. requests after the trial time is up. It's a pain.

Ad-Aware doesn't bother with that, and you can do an auto-update to find new "defs." or lists of new spys.

[kyuss]

Originally posted by imp
I used to suggest this one for the above reason but now I just don't bother since it pops up rego. requests after the trial time is up. It's a pain.

Ad-Aware doesn't bother with that, and you can do an auto-update to find new "defs." or lists of new spys.


Damn hey, i didn't know it done that, ah well.

[imp]

Originally posted by kyuss
Damn hey, i didn't know it done that, ah well.

They're sneaky bits of software. Like ninjas... only bad ones. :D

[iaidoka]

adaware killed 30 objects on my system, including 3 that were in my rego :swear:

[tikdoph]

I've used both Ad-aware and Spybot S&D and found them both to be good. The update feature in Ad-aware was easier to use than the Spybot S&D one, and Ad-aware updates their definition files more often. Spybot hasn't updated their definition files for over a month. Ad-aware's was updated three days ago.

That being said, Spybot S&D's "Immunize" feature is very useful because it protects you from being reinfected again by anything listed in the definition files. The old saying 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' holds true here. It also has a countdown timer that tells you how much time remains until the scan finishes.

I once somehow ended up with LOP Search hijacking my system and nothing I could do would get rid of it. It was plastered all over my desktop, and it would hijack my homepage no matter how many times I reset it. I downloaded Ad-aware, ran the update, scanned my system, and nothing... it didn't find it. A week later I downloaded a newer update and bingo, it detected the LOP Search components and removed them from my system. Problem solved. This highlights the need to make sure that your end users know that they always need to check for available updates prior to running a scan, and that just because a problem wasn't fixed the first time doesn't mean it won't be fixed if they try again in a week or two. Sometimes it just takes a while for the coders to be aware of new spy/malware and to work out how to get rid of it.

[imp]

Originally posted by iaidoka
adaware killed 30 objects on my system, including 3 that were in my rego :swear:

Yeah don't you love it when people put shit in your registry? :rolleyes: I'll get 'em good *shakes fist*

[tikdoph]

I would also suggest visiting http://www.spywareinfo.com. Check out the 'Download' section for various spyware removal programs and their reviews, and check out the 'Articles' section for general spyware info, which you may find useful to include in your documentation.

Note: Bold links on this site indicate spyware removal products from paying sponsors. Avoid these and just stick to the free ones.

[DOGG]

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/index.html)

Does fast, basic searches. free.

It once detected what adaware and spybot missed. I also recommend those 2 programs.

You should mention also that it's necessary to regularly patch windows.

[oracle]

Thanks for all the imput, everyone.

[Drakin]

I use a copy of corporate pest patrol.

It's pretty cool, specially considering i thought it was something else when i downloaded it..

[tikdoph]

Originally posted by Drakin
i thought it was something else when i downloaded it.. 30 cones a day will do that to you. :D

[angel_b]

Thanks to this thread, I installed and ran Spybot.

The results were frightening. :eek:

[Afta Image]

Well, I would recommend using both Spybot and Add-aware. Both are great utilities and I have had very little trouble at all on the 5 pc's they run on.

Infact the only trouble I had was on one machine, the Add-aware updater would play up and would only update to an early 2003 version of the reference file. I ave corrected it and then scanned my machine to find a whopping 341 incidents of spyware (I think I hold the record, I hang my head in shame :( ).

The only other thing I would say is what about a firewall, prevention is the best cure and firewalls can help alot. I was always cleaning up shit of my dads machine (I dont want to know what he was doing :eek: ). We put on zone alarm firewall and so far he has had no drama's (this is over 2 months now, a world record for my old man)....

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[angel_b]

I installed and ran Spybot - and found about 180 incidents of of spyware and other nasties. :eek:

I removed a program called BackWeb, which appeared to be an insidious commercially-driven spyware program attached to HP software. Now, I'm getting the following error message on boot-up:

"Problem with shortcut

The drive or shortcut connection which the shortcut "Updates from HP.lnk" refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or network resource is available and then try again."

(Wording may not be exact - I took it down in shorthand)

Can anyone tell me what I need to do to stop this message coming up?

[kyuss]

It sounds as if that shortcut is trying to initiate a program at startup which spybot removed.

Check in your Start > Programs > Startup folder and verify that the "Updates from HP.lnk" shortcut isn't in there, if it is remove it.

If there is nothing in there, click Run, type in msconfig, in there click the Startup tab, if there is anything in there to do with "Updates from HP.lnk" disable it.

[angel_b]

Bingo! It was in the StartUp folder.

Thanks, kyuss. :)

[oracle]

Originally posted by Afta Image
...I ave corrected it and then scanned my machine to find a whopping 341 incidents of spyware (I think I hold the record, I hang my head in shame :( ).I ran it at a friends house on the computer the secretary uses... Had over 700 incidents of Spyware on it :p

[AntZ]

Tikdoph - for the immunization, you should really try Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html). I found it from a link on the Spybot site, but at the moment it provides immunization against 1200 odd different things.