I have ended up with alot of spyware on my computer from file transfers and what not, and i think its causing me to not run msn messenger and i can't open up my firewall setting in control panel i ran adware a few times, anyhting I can do besides format?

use google?














and look for Spybot search & Destroy

yeah, i use that one. It's working quite well, I should think!

In future use "avast!"

Go to Add/Remove, try and remove anything that sounds suspicious (i.e. anything with "Search", "Toolbar" or "Search Toolbar" in it), make sure nothing that sounds like spyware runs on startup - run msconfig (Start > Run) and uncheck anything in the Startup tab that sounds like spyware - google will usually show a few websites which will tell you if a program's spyware or not.

Go to http://www.hijack-this.net and download hijack this then take a screen or copy paste the results here.

ad-aware finds a ton of spyware. it finds stuff that spybot cant find, and the other way around.
its best to have more than 1 antispyware program. but Ad-aware is the best in my opinion

http://pestpatrol.com/pestscan/index.htm
This won't remove your spyware, but it's a nice scan.

1) Ctrl-Alt-Del.
2) Click on processes.
3) Google everything on there unless you know for sure something is suppposed to be there.

Make sure you kill every process called 'svchost.exe', they are leet haxx that steal your gigahurtzz

lol

Okey I will give you a tutorial on how to get rid of your spyware. read carefully!:

Download the free Personal Version of Ad-Aware SE from http://lavasoft.com/
Install it, check for updates then run the program. That should get rid of most of the spyware on your machine.

Now download Spybot Search & Destroy from http://www.spybot.info/
Install it, check for updates then run the program. That should get rid of almost all of the spyware on your machine.


Now download Crap Cleaner from http://ccleaner.com/
Install it. Click on the Cleaner tab. Run the Windows and Application cleaners
Click on the Issues tab. Scan for and correct the issues that will come up.

All of the apps I mentioned are free.

Now your pc should be running like new. I really hope this helps.

Solutions

1) Linux
2) Reformat
3) Reformat
4) Stop downloading anything with the word "free"
5) Linux
6) Never think of using IE
7) Actually read the freaking license agreement
8) Reformat


NO anti-virus, No firewall, No viruses and I have absolutely no problems.

OS X

le gasp!

Linux and OS X are all well and good, but they're not exactly gaming platforms. Some developers may choose to port their games over to either platform (id do this with most of their games now), and WINE (and projects based on WINE) can run the vast majority of games on Linux, but there are some that aren't native and don't run in WINE. Then add in the relative difficulty to install Linux, and the fact that OSX is restricted to Macintosh computers which are expensive.

Macintosh (Apple) is a good computer. Very fast and reliable, not like IBM and such. But I stick to IBM cause 1) Cheaper and 2) Windows runs all the games I need. I once ran linux, and it was crap. Looks were awesome, but I ain't good with all that programming crap, so installing [CENSORED] was way to hard.
 Quote:Download the free Personal Version of Ad-Aware SE from http://lavasoft.com/
Install it, check for updates then run the program. That should get rid of most of the spyware on your machine.

Now download Spybot Search & Destroy from http://www.spybot.info/
Install it, check for updates then run the program. That should get rid of almost all of the spyware on your machine.


Now download Crap Cleaner from http://ccleaner.com/
Install it. Click on the Cleaner tab. Run the Windows and Application cleaners
Click on the Issues tab. Scan for and correct the issues that will come up.


Spybot is the best I reckon, cause it does a good job at detecting most stuff. I have no idea about that adware though, but I will dl and inspect. Although, if you find that something is still eating all your ram, then format and start again. Worked for me.

At the helpdesk, we generally use:
ad-aware
eWido
Spybot.

Download all of these and update their definitions, then reboot into safe mode and do a scan with all of them. This will most likely get rid of everything bad on your computer.

If it doesn't reformat ASAP because spyware is NOT a harmless thing. It instantly grabs any personal information you or your parents enter for anything: banking, random website logins, etc. and sends them to someone who will eventually use them to rip you off.

This one time at band camp, spyware stole my soul... and my shoes.

 Quote:Originally posted by EnEsCeMake sure you kill every process called 'svchost.exe', they are leet haxx that steal your gigahurtzz


I can't believe I [CENSORED]ing fell for that.

...you can actually kill svchost.exe processes? I thought Windows would protect against that.

Not going for the files themselves.
They can can have stupid dogs lecturing me in search but they won't tell me when I'm trying to delete important files? Bah, humbug.

Just kidding, my own stupidity. Remeber, DOS fixes all problems.

Mac = multimedia
Linux = programming
Windows = games

I wonder if you can make a triple boot computer. That would be cool and excessive.

Windows seems to be the best all around. Mac is awesome at media sucks for games, Linux is great for programming stuff and development, but sucks for everything else, and Windows is awesome for games and decent at the rest.

 Quote:4) Stop downloading anything with the word "free"
What about soldat? :P

Linux and other UNIX derivatives and clones (with the exception of OS X) are also good at security and hosting servers.

 Quote:Originally posted by Swarmer
 Quote:4) Stop downloading anything with the word "free"
What about soldat? :P

How many times is the word "Free" on soldat.pl?