Had to rid computer of Spyware

[Bigander]

Well i guess i accidentally turned of Mcafee and i got flooded w/ spyware the otherday. It was from ucleaner.com which would make fake pop ups on ie saying that your system is infected and that you had to buy their program to get rid of it. It was really annoying when it kept happening evry minute so i searched some computer forums and used SDfix in safe mode and it cleaned the registry and now my computer is all better!

 

[Donaldsrockets]

You wanna know how to avoid that crap in the future???

Don't EVER click OK on any of those!!!

You have to be so careful of what you download these days as a lot of those freeware programs come bundled with spyware especially screensavers, games etc.

 

[Bigander]

You wanna know how to avoid that crap in the future???

Don't EVER click OK on any of those!!!

You have to be so careful of what you download these days as a lot of those freeware programs come bundled with spyware especially screensavers, games etc.

I didn't, I think it might have come in through an ActiveX control.

 

[davel]

Why did you allow an ActiveX application from an unknown/malicious site to download? Configure IE to always ask - or better yet, get rid of IE and get a more secure browser.

 

[cjl]

Just use firefox

IE can be secure too - just make sure to never let it download files or run ActiveX stuff without asking (which IIRC IE7 does by default).

 

[Bigander]

I don't even know what site it was but i know it seemed like a legit, i learned my lesson! I've got the security settings more secure now for blocking unknown ActiveX controls and Prompting for other ActiveX controls.

 

[by basher]

"SpywareBlaster" and "SpyBot - Search & Destroy." Freeware that kicks butt!

Get off the beaten path of McAfee and Norton. Checkout PC Tools products and Kaspersky for anti-virus protection.

And, of course, browsing with Firefox and emailing with Thunderbird practically takes the bullseye off your computer.

My experience.

 

[cjl]

Spybot Search & Destroy
AdAware
Microsoft Windows Defender
Zone Alarm

If you have those (all freeware, though you have to look carefully on the zonealarm site to find the free version), you'll almost never have any spyware again. Of them, I'd say the Zone Alarm is the most important (good firewall). Also keep in mind that these are all antispyware - you'll still need antivirus in addition (though zone alarm will stop most viruses too)

 

[DJDeadParrot]

"SpywareBlaster" and "SpyBot - Search & Destroy." Freeware that kicks butt!

For preventing malware invasions, these two are the best ones. Just remember to run updates every week or two.

AdAware is a good program to have to remove malware infections, but does not prevent incoming infections.

Disable all ActiveX controls. Some will even tell you to disable JavaScript, but this may inhibit some essential functionality on websites you frequent.

Double up your firewalls. The MicroSoft firewall ain't bad, but you'll still want to back it up with another one, like the Zone Alarm firewall.

Or you could get a Mac.

/written from a PC

 

[paparoof]

Macs are PLENTY vulnerable too. A false sense of security is plenty dangerous.

The best way to keep your computer from getting infected is to stay OFF the Internet entirely.