Free equvalent to Adaware?

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

Extremely [H]
Joined
Oct 29, 2000
Messages
39,161
Hey all.

I service my familys computer every time I am home, and I live with a house full of people who can't help but be fooled by every fake dialog box that pops up.

(I just uninstalled some 30 spyware installs on the computer)

I tried adaware but in order to rtemove software you apparently have to buy it. I'm not looking to spend any money here.

Do any of you know of any free equivalents I can download?

Thanks,
Matt
 
30 is that all? I ususally see around 500-700 on the systems here AT WORK. I use Ad-aware 6 free version, and Spy-Bot S&D together to get almost everything. there's only 2 known spywares that are not handled by both of these programs, and that will probably change soon when they update the definitions again.
 
Well, spybot search and destroy is the only decent alternative to adaware, however, it's BEST used not as an alternative, but as a compliment. One of the two will often catch something the other didn't.

Also, there's a program called Hijack this, which tries to focus on things that neither of the other two look for. However, this program is highly sensitive and will often report harmless things, so you need to be careful with it.

BTW, I got 80 spywares found once only hours after a clean installation of windows (or so I thought...) Sometimes seemingly normal software is sneaking and installing that bullcrap behind your back.
 
Yeah I thought adaware was free. At least it was back when I used it.
 
Adaware IS free. It has a professional version now which is not. I don't remember what the pro version actually did (beyond the addition of something which will constantly watch for spyware similar to an antivirus shield program,) but, the free version is still capable of removing spyware.
 
Nazo said:
Also, there's a program called Hijack this, which tries to focus on things that neither of the other two look for. However, this program is highly sensitive and will often report harmless things, so you need to be careful with it.
Click to expand...

its not that its looking for spyware
its reporting classes of aps, processes and registry keys where hijackware gets entered
legitimate aps and malware are both reported, so you need to know the difference


Frist run Adaware (freeware edition), Spybot (freeware)
and CWShredder (freeware) CWTrojan removal tool a which is common hijack mechanism
then run HijackThis (freeware)
then post your log at Spywareinfo forums read the FAQ 1st ;)

after they help you get cleaned up
make a note of which aps have vaild entries (make a copy of the legitimate log file)
and run hijackthis after you install legitimate software so you can note new entries
(replace the copy of the legitimate logfile)
its then real easy to spot new invalid entries ;)
 
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