Ad-aware not working

[sharpshooter1286]

I get all these things like gator and my search bar and stuff on my compute and it all came from kazaa. I delete kazaa, run ad-aware and its still screwed up. so i do a system restore, run ad-aware again. and the things i deleted, like gator and my search bar are still there. now my computer is starting to mess up, i have a different homepage i never put on there. Is ad-aware this faulty for anyone else? its not deleting the things, and some one told me that ad aware has spyware in it anyway...whats another good spywarer remover besides ad-aware that is free?

[Wolfen]

Spybot (http://download.com.com/3000-8022-10194058.html?tag=lst-0-2)

Run this in conjunction with Ad-Aware

System Restore doesn't exactly get rid of programs. It's just mainly to reset any bad things that might have happened to the registry. Try both those, if they don't work, try doing a search and delete any instance of Gator and whatever else you're having problems with.

You may also want to run MSconfig, then go to startup, and look for Gator on that too. If you uncheck it, the program won't load on next startup. Could even uncheck anything else you don't really want running at startup, it'll give you a quicker boot.

If all that doesn't work, reformat.

[Rob218]

Umm...I remember something call SpyBot Search and Destroy. You might want to check it out. Used it a few months ago and it cleaned out alot of crap. Then it identified a system folder as spyware and deleted it. In the end causing me to format my hard drive then reinstall windows..just check over what it wants to delete.

[sharpshooter1286]

will i need to reinstall ne thing if i reformat?

[Rob218]

Format = Wipe clean and dry your hard drive = no more previous programs. Luckily when I formatted I'm just a kid so I didn't have anything important on it. When you format you have to reinstall Windows and any other program you want back on there. Formatting my drive was probably the best thing I've ever done for it. I also got a REAL browser and haven't had a problem with popups or anything of the sort since. Only use Formatting as a last option. It was mine due to constant registry errors and programs not running.

Wolfen how do I run MSConfig?

[MantisMag]

do you know what reformat means? reformat means you wipe your hard drive completely clean. so yes. you'll have to reinstall EVERYTHING. that includes windows.

[sharpshooter1286]

ok one more question...how do i get rid of "web saving from ebates" on my computer, ad-ware nore spy-bot can get rid of this one. when i try to uninstall it from the add/remove programs list, it gives me the WJVIEW error message

[Wolfen]

Rob218 - If you're running XP, go to Start > Run > msconfig. I don't know if it's the same for the other Windows or not. Last one I had was Windows ME :rolleyes:

As for the EBates thing, is it already deleted off the computer, but the program is still in the Add/Remove Programs list? If it is, there is a way to delete those, but I don't know off hand. If it's still on the computer and not coming off, only thing I could think of is searching for that and deleting it too. Usually programs that are in the Add/Remove programs but are uninstalled may have a registry key for it, but I don't recommend doing anything with the registry, unless you're really daring. ;)

But yes, formatting is last resort. Repairing Windows is a joke, since I've never found a supervisor code to do it (and I know all my passwords). I can't really think of anything else if Spybot and Ad-Aware doesn't fix the problems. I would suggest getting Norton Systemworks, that program is very good to have. If you do get that, or have it already, try that out. If nothing works, you could always delete anything that even looks like what's giving you trouble. If you mess something up, reformat and reinstall.

Sorry it keeps coming to that ugly "R" word, but in the end, a fresh copy of Windows is always a relief.

Also, if you end up reformatting, to escape further trouble with having to reinstall everything again, use either the Windows partitioning software, or get PartitionMagic. Seperate you Windows and programs with a partition and all you'll have to do is reformat the Windows partition without touching your programs.

Sorry for the long post, hope it helps! ;)

[Rob218]

I had something along those lines. Never deleted it either because it didn't seem to affect anything. I located all the folders and wiped them out..just the registry was never deleted.

[Wolfen]

PowerQuest PartitionMagic (http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/)

Just noticed PowerQuest is either a partner or owned by Symantec. No wonder it's a great product :D

[sharpshooter1286]

spybot worked, no problems as i can see. ill still do some searches on it tho, and sweep all my files again just to make sure. thanks guys. as for web saving from ebates, it hasnt affected anything...if ne one knows the way to get it off the add/remove programs list then please let me know. all helps really appreciated.

[kauai_paintball]

I had alot of crap on my computer,
First, ad-aware just gets rid of cookies etc, it dosent delete programs
I first got reg scrub (really good, 5 star) which scrubs your registry, and finds tons of crap.
And i got spybot SnD, which protects, and then i typed regedit into the run program, and pressed ctrl f, and typed in the name of the virus, whatever it highlight that you know is a virus, delete it.

[fire1811]

i agree run spybot to remove all the problems
then to keep them off of there

go to google and search for "spyblaster"

find it and dowload it.

you need to keep it updated just like your antivirus.

i have had one piece of spyware on my comp since i started using spyblaster its great.

[sharpshooter1286]

i installed spyblaster, and i enabled all that protection and checked for updates. is there anything else i need to do or will that just keep me protected?

[fire1811]

that should be fine

[sharpshooter1286]

kauai_paintball, whats this reg scrub you speak of?

[kauai_paintball]

RegScrub download (http://www.downseek.com/download/get/?id=17821&url=http://www.gravitybox.com/download/regscrubinstall.exe) thats the link, its my favorite software. besides limewire.