[processing please hold]

Any help would be appreciated. Off topic, comic responses are okay, I need a laugh or two.

[Focault's Pendulum]

Adware SE Personal version and Spy Bot Search and destroy.....both free

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think we had a thread just recently....

[Soaring Feather]

http://snapfiles.com/

[ShadowAce]

[FReepapalooza]

To my knowledge, Spybot is still free. Of, course they’d like you to sign up for more bells and whistles, but the basic program is free. Sometimes they make it hard to find the “free” button, for obvious reasons.

[Bernard]

Spybot is still free, although they will try to sell you a purchased copy. Go to download.com and search for spyware or adware.

[Domandred]

Spyware: www.lavasoft.com search for their free version of ad-aware. If it’s not from lavasoft it’s not the real thing.

Anti-virus: free.grisoft.com and download the free version of AVG. So good I’ve many times thought about actually buying their commercial version.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Look thru this thread ...others on the malware keyword list....:

Trojan Horses & Computer Help

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Spybot S&D

[SledgeCS]

I use Ad-Aware and SpyWareBlaster myself and really like the combo.

[jdm]

SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes.

[HAL9000]

After all the time and money wasted trying to protect Windows computers, it’s a better deal to just buy a Mac and quit worrying about it.

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

hijackthis

But you better know what you are doing.

past the log file to hijackthis.de for analysis (can download from there as well.)

[TommyDale]

SpyBot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Adware SE Personal
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007/3000-8022_4-10045910.html

Run them in that order, SpyBot first, Adware second.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This thread might be more useful...since the author of the changes started it:

Recent Changes to Free Republic
Posted on 03/06/2008 7:53:34 PM PST by John Robinson

[goldstategop]

SpywareBlaster 4.0. New version fully compatible with Windows Vista.

[JerseyHighlander]

While Freepers will step forward and help you out, you should go venture off to a dedicated forum for questions like this.
Here is a somewhat comprehensive list that you can definitely trust the source of.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic405.html

[AFPhys]

On my Win XP Boxes, I have used Spybot S&D, SpyBlaster, and the anti-virus program AVG concurrently, and they have been willing to play well together. They use different protection strategies that I have found suit me just fine. If you wish to pay for the non-free version, you can get advanced features for each, but I've found this very adequate. In addition, by using AVG, I've been able to uninstall Symantic anti virus which is a major speed improvement for any computer that I've witnessed. Oh... and all this assumes that you have some type of hardware firewall/router between your computer and the internet. It took me only about an evening to download and install and do scans with all of these (after uninstalling Symantic) and a good part of that time was locating and verifying good links for these products.

This combo are highly likely to accomplish what you need. Hopefully, you don't have any really nasty stuff on the computer that these won't handle. If you do, they will flag it at least in almost all cases, and let you know what has infected you. At times, really nasty stuff requires special treatment... with worst case things ... well, let's not depress you... get back to us if the worst case occurs.

Of course, the best virus protection I have found is to use Linux as I typically do, because of the wealth of bundled or easily available software, especially OpenOffice, GIMP, Stellarium, and many, many games and educational programs, and the apparent lack of ANY real virus or spyware problems with EMail or surfing. I recommend Fedora for desktops and Ubuntu or Mint for laptops as of this hour, but others favor other flavors.

[Sub-Driver]

I use Adware from Lavasoft and Spyware Doctor ($). I found you need both - neither doesn’t fully clean. Run daily...

Also get a copy of CCleaner (free). It’ll get rid of excess files and clean up your registry. Make sure you check the cookies you want to keep (like the FR).

Also install Windows Defender from the Msoft site. Not sure if it really does much but hell it’s free and runs in the background.

I believe Adware has real time protection - but that at an additional cost.

[SUSSA]

Adware SE Personal version and Spy Bot Search and destroy.....both free

Spyware Terminator is also free. I'd suggest running at least two of the three.