Hello,Over the last few days I've seen some spyware-like activities on my computer like random popups. I was wondering what the best spyware removal program is? Preferably free.[TABLE BORDER=0][tr][td]

[/td][/tr][tr]

[td]

[link:www.fsworldonline.com/~timsfsstudio]Click here to visit Tim's FS Studio!] Updated August 31st!

[/td][/tr][/TABLE

Without a doubt AdAware - www.lavasoft.nu

Agreed. Ad Aware is great.KP

Diffenitly Ad-aware. I've been running it on a couple of different systems here for he past few months, and it works great.Ryan-Flightpro08 :-cool VATSIM Pilot/ControllerZLA ARTCC Senior Controller (C-3)SAN TRACON Lead [link:www.taxiwaysigns.com|Taxiwaysigns.com] Scenery Designer-----------------------------My "Home Made" System Specs:Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz ProcessorTurbo Gamer ATX Mid-Tower with 420W Power SupplyEPoX 4G4A Motherboard with Intel 845G ChipsetVisiontek XTASY GeForce4 128MB Ti4600 (Det 41.03 Drivers)512MB PC2100 DDR RAM40GB Matrox 7200RPM Hard DriveWindows XP Home Edition SP1*No CPU or GPU Overclocking*3dMark2001SE Score: 11298-----------------------------Click [link:ftp.avsim.com/library/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=&FileName=&Author=Ryan+Fretwell&CatID=Root]Here to Download my New American Eagle POSKY CRJ-200!

An interesting footnote....Some programs packaged with spyware have a tiny disclaimer in the license...."Installing this program will disable Adaware".Quite a battle going on between those that feel your PC is not yours to control, and those who try to protect us from such b.s....I agree, Adaware is tops and it is one of the few freeware programs I sanction for use by techs on my WAN.... It has resolved many an issue where a reimage seemed the only way to bring a system back on even keel...-John

Is that URL correct? I'm getting: "Proxy Reports:10061 Connection refused"

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

>Hello, >>Over the last few days I've seen some spyware-like >activities on my computer like random popups. I was >wondering what the best spyware removal program is? >Preferably free. Timbo, Was your pop-ups from "messenger" ? Thats what I have been recieving and its not from MSN Messsenger ( I have that disabled). The messages have been about Degrees of somesort!!Bill

Also, if you're running Kazaa like many, you may not know that Kazaa is spyware itself and tries to install more. A teriffic alterative which I've been useing for quite some time now is Kazaa Lite. This is essentially Kazaa with the spyware removed from it. Works great.www.kazaalite.com Earl

Disable the Messenger service, if you don't need it, to stop those pop-ups.http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55795,00.htmlAlso, only download Ad-Aware from their site. There are some bogus programs that claim to be Ad-Aware but are virus infected.http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=163

I have Adaware too. It's very good and simple to use.../)_/). _ Cl

Thanks for that Edam, I ran services.msc from the command line interface and disbaled the messenger service :-)Bill

>Thanks for that Edam, I ran services.msc from the command >line interface and disbaled the messenger service :-) Heh...one less person being annoyed with that crap.Glad to have helped.

Thanks for the replies! No, I'm not using Kazaa, it was one of those stupid "Free Diploma" ad's. It looked very unsettling because most ad's that try to mimic Windows alert messages have an Internet Explorer border but this one was genuine. I'm glad to see it's been reported and I'll disable it now.[TABLE BORDER=0][tr][td]

[/td][/tr][tr]

[td]

[link:www.fsworldonline.com/~timsfsstudio]Click here to visit Tim's FS Studio!] Updated August 31st!

[/td][/tr][/TABLE

There is a Ukraine-based company that produces software that allows advertisers to deliver pop-ups through a number of common messenger programs.I was going to post a link, but I can't seem to find the story again. Darn. Anyway, Ad-aware is a must. You should also install RefUpdate. It updates you Ad-Aware application's spyware database, much like your virus scanner probably has an auto-update that updates your virus definitions.