Spyware and registry programs

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skins81
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Spyware and registry programs

Post by skins81 »

I'm just curious if anyone has any strong feelings about the best products out there to clean up your computer; both free and for purchase.

My computer has been running slowly. According to the windows task manager, I'm running 67 processes, and that seems high. I use adaware and spybot, but I think they might be missing something.

This is definitely not my field of expertise. Any help is appreciated.
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Post by welch »

For comparison, I'm running 42 processes right now.

First, have you gotten the latest "bad guy" definitions from add aware? I don't use Spybot, but, in general, make sure that both products are current.

Do you have a firewall? Norton Internet Security is a personal firewall, and there are other products that do the same thing. Small home-style routers do also.

(That's so you can block the evil demons from coming back once you find and kill the ones that might be on your machine)
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Post by skins81 »

My system runs McAfeee Security Center, which has a personal firewall. My versions of adaware and spybot are current. Maybe 67 processes isn't that high after all.
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Post by Redskin in Canada »

I have Norton System Works, Norton Firewall, Spybot, Spyblaster, Ad-Aware and a few other goodies.

My experience is that not one product covers all bases. :cry:
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Post by skins81 »

Redskin in Canada wrote:I have Norton System Works, Norton Firewall, Spybot, Spyblaster, Ad-Aware and a few other goodies.

My experience is that not one product covers all bases. :cry:


So it seems. The reason I asked is I downloaded a program called NoAdware v3.0 and when it ran it found all kinds of stuff in the registry; things I thought were being found by the spyware freeware. So I'm contemplating buying it, but maybe what it is finding is a big marketing ploy to get me scared enough to buy it. I was hoping a computer guru would be able to point me in the right direction.

Has anyone tried NoAdware v3.0 and did it find things you thought were not there?
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Post by Redskin in Canada »

Try the easy to use freebies first:

Spybot, Spyblaster, and Ad-Aware.

Norton System Works also has now a spyware detection engine but it will cost you some My 2 cents

Actually, the REAL good anti-spy software is not for starters. That software allows you to get into the Windows registry and do something REALLY stupid if you do not know exactly what you are doing. The flip side is that they allow you to see something that is missed by the "automatic" scanners. Like virus development and prevention, spyware is catch-up race all the time.

Have a look at:

http://malware.com/

and

http://www.securitywonks.net/site/index.php

Happy surfing...
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Post by skins81 »

Thought I would share what I learned.

I talked to a few IT guys, and depending on what you do, just working in IT doesn't mean you know how to get rid of this stuff. These guys defer to people that clean up computers all the time.

My cousin, it turn out, cleans up computers for the public school system where he works. He's cleaned like 100 computers in the last year.


When I told him the computer was running 67 processes, he had me run MSCONFIG from my start menu. (The computer runs WIndows XP Home edition) It brings up a System Configuration Utility. The last tab is labeled startup. He said to disable all of them, that none of the processes were vital to boot the computer. It turns out, many of the programs were running in the background that didn't need to be. Things like iTunes and Quicktime were loading up when I booted the computer, but they really didn't need to be. You can start them manually any time you want to.

So now I only have certain processes checked to run in this startup tab of the system configuration utility. It's about a dozen or so processes related to my McAfee Security Center. There could have been a need for more, like some print servers need to be running at startup for example, but this computer stands alone and there is no networking, etc.

That cut down the number of processes running to less than 20 form 67, making the computer more efficient.

He had me run Add/Remove programs from the windows control panel just to see if any of the popular spyware showed up. He was looking for things like Bullseye network and Bargain Buddy.

For the free stuff, he uses SpyBot to immunize the computer, but he does not use Adaware. His feeling is that Adaware will clean up malware when you run it, but that it might be making the computer vulnerable to attack. There was a lot of loose talk about using a specific dll file, and then he lost me from there. He said some of the worst cases of spyware he's seen had Adaware loaded on the computer, so he just doesn't use it. It's really just a gut feeling of his, he never tried to find actual proof.

He had me run something called HijackThis (a free program), which is a bit of a dangerous program if you don't know what you are doing. If you delete certain things found with this you can really screw up your computer, but there's no harm in simply running it to see if any malware was missed. It turns out Spybot caught all the spyware on my computer, so nothing extra needed to be deleted. He described some tricky spyware that seems to be deleted when you add/remove programs through windows, but continues to load itself back on when it boots back up. He uses HijackThis to find those items.

Anyway, the computer works fine now.
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Post by cvillehog »

There is also Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta).

On my computer, I also run a commercial program called CounterSpy, which I got for free from the local computer club.

Or, you could just run a Mac and not have to worry about it. ;)
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Post by JansenFan »

Also if you search for ToniArts Easy Cleaner, there is a free program that can be used to clean your registry, startup, temp internet files, history, unnecessary files, duplicate files, recent files and probably something else I am forgetting.

It's free, so it's likely not the best, but it has really improved the computers I have used it on.
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Post by Justice Hog »

The IT guy at my place of work strongly recommends Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta) (as previously recommended a few posts ago by cvillehog. According to him, it's among the best (if not thee best) software out there.

I posted another link (directly to the download site) just in case you might find it useful.
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Post by Chris Luva Luva »

skins81 wrote:Thought I would share what I learned.

I talked to a few IT guys, and depending on what you do, just working in IT doesn't mean you know how to get rid of this stuff. These guys defer to people that clean up computers all the time.


Yea, anyone who works with PCs realizes that its a huge field. Its impossible to be an expert on every single thing all the time because technology changes so quickly.

I work in IT and youre thread got me up to date on some stuff, thanks! :D
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Post by redskinz4ever »

Redskin in Canada wrote:I have Norton System Works, Norton Firewall, Spybot, Spyblaster, Ad-Aware and a few other goodies.

My experience is that not one product covers all bases. :cry:
very true i had to take my tower to a computer store to totally clean it up ...at $75.00 an hour .... only 2 hours and everything is fine now.
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