Anti-Spyware Programs Clean but Don't Disinfect

The Houston Chronicle ^ | October 31, 2004 | Matthew Fordahl [Associated Press]

[quidnunc]

Salinas, Calif. — Though less than a year old, the PC took more than åfive minutes to start up and never shut down without stalling on error messages. Attempts to Web surf generated at least a half-dozen pop-up ads and — frequently — system freezes.

Internet Explorer's home page was hijacked. Attempts to reach some sites, including eBay — were redirected to random search engines that only called up more ads. Google search results were altered. And the modem, without permission, tried to dial distant lands in search of porn.

Welcome to the nasty world of a PC infected with adware, spyware, dialers and their ilk, all of it installed without the knowledge of its owner — my brother-in-law.

No sooner had he spent nearly $1,000 for the Dell Dimension 4600C than he lost control of it to advertisers and porn peddlers.

My brother-in-law, bless him, had committed the computing equivalent of running with sharp objects: Installing free software willy-nilly, clicking carelessly on misleading ads or spam and letting relatives (not this one) have free reign during visits.

But my job was not to judge. It was, rather, to make the violated system hum again. I agreed have a go at degunking it provided I could write about the experience. He agreed.

-snip-

[It's me]

read later

[silent_jonny]

Installing Kaaza is hard drive suicide. I once helped a company get rid of the program and all its tenticles. While I was doing that the kid who installed it on the company's computer asked me which shareware program I thought was best. I turned to his sister, a serious businesswoman, and told her to keep him from the computers.

LOL! You can't fix stupid.

[D-fendr]

Your probably right but if you've already spent 5-$600 or more on a PC should you toss it and buy a Mac? for $1200.I wouldn't…

I'm sitting in my office with five desktops and two laptops (5 macs/2windows), so I probably wouldn't toss it either.

But most buy a new main 'puter every 2-3 years. I don't understand why more average users aren't switching by now. The guy in the example spent a grand - plus a nightmare and extra tech support. When you consider the extra security stuff and your time, hassle, worry and potential loss of data, I honestly don't think the cost reason is a good one anymore - unless you really don't have enough money to buy smart.

If you have the time and patience to learn a new and completely alien OS then by all means get Linux

I'm with you there. I tried it for a while. It's switching one set of techie time for another. The point for the average user is to spend time computing, not time being a techie.

I have been using Microsoft products since DOS 5.0, I don't store a lot of irreplacable data on my hard drive so security is not a big enough reason for me or alot of other people to start over again from scratch.

I appreciate you helping me understand my question of why people put up with all the hassle. It's the hassle and worry - time and trouble - that makes it, IMHO, worth it to start over. There are many, you may likely be one, that are technically inclined and experienced enough to keep their PCs running and secure without too much effort. Again, I don't think this applies to a great many who do not fit this description. The person in the story and many we've seen on this thread do not. I'm wondering why they don't consider the simpler alternative.

Starting over on a Mac is really much less painful than you might think. I've helped quite a few. The apps are much the same - email, browser, Office, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Macromedia, Quickbooks... very little learning curve and many find them easier to use.

And you trade all the security software, hassles and tech time learning and maintaining discussed in this thread for two simple maintenance chores. Your ratio of time spent computing vs. time spent maintaining changes dramatically.

Finally are there any good games available for these alternative OS's yet?

I'm not a gamer, but I believe the correct answer is "no." If you're a PC gamer, you need to stick with it, and be a PC techie. From my experience gamers are usually quite involved with the technical.

My question was about the average user, the large middle market that use the computer for internet, word processing, spreadsheet type applications. And I wonder if it isn't - besides the pain of change - somewhat of the frog in hot water syndrome. As long as the water gets hotter slowly enough…Lately the temperature has been rising more dramatically.

I really appeciate your response and discussion. Thank you for your reply.

[Robert Drobot]

www.spyAssassin.com

Kills 'em dead. My second defense is Zone Alarm Suite. Both of these programs are my gatekeepers 24/7, and they don't prisoners.

[sigarms]

Because some spyware/adware is designed to actually interfere with the anti-spyware programs.

Therefore, you need to run these programs in Safe Mode. In Safe Mode, there are no spyware/adware processes running on the system.

[Cloud William]

My current PC has a new software combo that I'm very happy with: Outpost Firewall from Agnitum and the newest Antivirus program from Kaspersky. The antivirus product is a truly industrial-strength piece of work. It removed *hundreds* of evil infiltrators that even Norton Antivirus, Ad-Aware and Spybot combined had missed.

[edchambers]

(I really appreciate your response and discussion. Thank you for your reply.)

I love talking computers as much if not more than politics,I tried a Mac laptop a few years ago, the interface was almost identical.It seemed a bit slower but what's kept me off of them over the years is the cost mostly.The computer I'm typing this on was free, given to me by someone who thought it was too old and obsolete to be useful.I've upgraded it considerably from parts literally scrounged out of Goodwills trash.Not because I needed to but just for fun God knows I don't need another computer my wife would probably leave me if I had actually bought one.I've also noticed that the upgrade-ability of Macs tends to lag behind PCs.As far as Linux goes I'd love to build a multi boot system capable of running Linux AND windows but the stuck up attitude of Linux users puts me off.When I try to download a version of Linux and I get redirected to a tutorial on how to install it I wonder why can't they have a simple install program.I've never needed a tutorial to install or run ANY Microsoft program.

[Malsua]

MY COMPUTER HAS BEEN SO MESSED UP IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS. I COULD NOT POST. CAN SOMEONE GIVE US STEP BY STEP DIRECTION ON HOW TO GET RID OF ALL THE MESS.

My FR homepage has a reasonable step-by-step. If you get stuck on something freepmail me.

[ccmay]

I understood that just fine. I guess you never change your own oil either...

You did not read my reply carefully enough. I said my mother could not possibly follow such arcane instructions. I can follow them perfectly well, and have in fact edited the Registry on my Windows machines numerous times. I've been into computers for thirty years, wrote my first program in Fortran on punch cards for a PDP-8, bought my first MS-DOS system in 1985, been running Windows since Version 2.0, so I know well enough how to clean up an infestation of spyware and viruses.

However, I no longer choose to do so, as my time is now valuable enough that the opportunity cost of spending an afternoon weeding out an infested Windows box is actually less than the cost of throwing it in a dumpster and buying a new machine. Any price differential between Macintosh and Windows machines vanishes in the first month of ownership, and it astonishes me that supposedly profit-oriented businesses do not realize this fact.

I have concluded that Bill Gates and his minions produce insecure, unreliable, frail, time-wasting garbage. My Windows 2000 system was the high-water mark of Redmond crapware, and it has gathered dust since I got a Mac G5. I'll not buy another Microsoft piece of $#!t as long as I live.

-ccm

[fooman]

presumablely you help her clean her machine.

But even if you bought her a new windows machine, you would still need these windows tools to keep it clean. I cleaned my uncle's machine during a party.

launch spy sweeper and let it run for an HOUR etc,

But it is understandable if you want to buy her a mac if you can afford it....


VOTE!

[stockpixx]

ping

[B4Ranch]

>>Good advice, but having tried unsuccessfully to clean a friend's computer of nasty spyware and trojans, the only real answer is to backup all the crucial data and reinstall XP.<<

Did you shut down java and active X while you were working on cleaning it up. If not, you can't succeed because the trojan will continue to script itself.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Diago]

bump

[jdm]

"And how would us non-professionals know which registry keys are suspicious?"

Just take a wild guess as to which registry keys need to be removed. I'm a non-professional as well and I'm constantly editing my registry. If you don't see me on FR for a week or two at a time, it's most likely because I've edited my registry.

[dagnabbit]

Low-Mortage-rates-and-member-enlargement bump for later reading.

[jdm]

Should Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware also only be run in safe mode? Just curious. Thanks.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Search on FR for spyware threads. There are many. On each you'll find one post that will have many links to some great programs.

For starters, download the new AdAware SE and update it. It does a very good job. Next, look for and download SpyWare Guard. It runs a small agent in the background at startup and keeps the filth from being installed in the first place. It also has an update feature as new spywarez get released.
I use those 2 and my PC has been very clean for a long time.

"Filthy nasty little spywarezes,
trying to hurt the Precious.
But we won't lets them
No we won't."

[B4Ranch]

I shut down Restore when I run any cleaning program. Some of them require that you have Java and ActiveX working for the program to function properly.

As soon as I am done with the program, I again disable Java and ActiveX.

Then I do a Search for files created and another for files modified during the time I was cleaning.

This gives me an idea of just where the programs were working.

[B4Ranch]

Before playing in the Registry, do a Restore. That way if you screw up, just go back to Restore and start over.

One of the better programs I've found for cleaning the Registry is Win UltraCleaner(about$25). It will remove all empty links that do not have a value to the system. By that I mean when you have removed a program and it left some empty files, UltraCleaner removes them.