Spyware Detection Software review...

[brucek 38]

This is on the CNN web site today (11/1):http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/11/0...o.ap/index.htmlI'm sure others here might have better information on dealing with spyware / adware.Bruce.

[Guest Captain Barfbag]

It's not for the casual user, but Hijack This is an essential tool not even mentioned in this article. It looks under the hood of Internet Explorer, and helps you find those nasty little applications that send your search engine to bogus sites, and bring you lots of pop-ups. There's a steep learning curve, but once you've figured out how to spot the bad guys, it's unbeatable.CWS Shredder is a targetted application which goes after the "Cool Web Search" family of crapola programs. It's very effective, but only targets that one group. CWS is a particularly invasive and annoying package, so this little bit of freeware is well worth having around.I generally run Hijack This, Spybot and AdAware (all free versions) in that order when I'm looking for an infestation of pests. My own machine has been clean for over 6 months now, and I mean zero pop-ups or hijacked browsers. "The Girls" computer, on the other hand, requires a pretty thorough going-over about twice a month. Something about all those little dancing-monkey icons and free games. I even found a Download Trojan on it a couple of days ago. For that, I used Norton Antivirus. I got the 2004 version, complete with a year's worth of on-line updates, for ten bucks at a computer show. And while you're at that computer show, pick up an old book on DOS Command Line parameters. I routinely need to go in and modify attributes and permissions on hidden, read-only files that these #### install on the hard drives.Last but not least, give thanks to the AVSIM team, not only for providing a squeeky-clean, popup-free site for downloads, but also for giving us these forums where we can spread information and help each other out.

[kerosene31 349]

You should also consider using a browser like Firefox/Mozilla. Mozilla does not allow your browser to be hijacked in the first place. I am using the latest release of Mozilla, and it works great. It will cut down on spyware by not letting most of it load in the first place! http://www.mozilla.org/products/I used to think alternate browsers were just something people used so they could bash Microsoft. However, after some of the latest virus and security scares with IE, I took a serious look at Mozilla.

[Guest GCBarni]

And of course the author more or less adds to the problem by insisting that PC users should migrate to a MAC.....the folly in this idea is that those responsible for the junk in the first place would merely channel their endeavours towards the Mac OS once the user population grew.The same argument can be used against everyone suddenly switching to an alternate browser, although IE Explorer is a definite target presently, and always has been, it wouldn't be long before the next most popular browser were made vulnerable.Responsibility for a clean machine rests with the _user_; not strictly dependant upon some kind of magic bullet in anti-spyware/malware. These programs and the individual user need to work together to prevent PC clutter.