How much spyware do you have?

[DukenukemX]

I downloaded this program called Ad-aware and it scans your PC for spyware.

It's free to download and works very well. When I ran the program it found 151 spyware crap. :eek:

Some of the files are linked to IE so I couldn't delete a few spyware files and IE crashed everytime I ran it. Probably because I deleted some of the spyware. So I restarted into safemode and ran Ad-aware again and deleted the remaining files. IE works fine again and I'm free of spyware. :D

The benefits of removing spyware are great. It won't hog your network connection. It won't use your CPU. Plus no one knows if you have been to playboy.com. :naughty:

So I offer everyone a challenge. Download spyware and run it. See if you can beat my 151. :king:

:WARNING:

If your using Kazaa or Divx5 they will not work when the spyware is removed. They refuse to work without the spyware. A safety feature in them prevents you from using there software without it. Of course there are ways around this like Kazaa Lite or Divx5 spyware detect removal hack. Other programs may need there spyware. Those are the only two that seem to need it. Also to 56K users the download for Ad-aware is under 1 meg. Just some FYI. Go get it.

http://www.lavasoft.nu/downloads.html

[Saffith]

151? Damn, that's a lot. I've only got a few cookies it doesn't like.

What the hell are you doing to get that much spyware?

[Zeo]

286 I think................On the other machine....sped it up considerably after that garbage was gone (mosto f it came with demos off CD's...........that computer hasn't been online enough to have that much junk on it from web sites, which is why I didn't scan it sooner.)

[ZeldaLord]

God, people shoud ban that shit...

[Kratheous]

...Hahahahahahahahaha... I only had 9 files.

[AtmaWeapon]

I ran it the other day and had about 150 files. Grokster woudln't run without some of it, so I had to reinstall, but I think what Ad aware is calling spyware is the banners in Grokster itself. So, I'm living with a tiny amount of spyware right now.

[Menokh]

I already have this.
In my windowsMe it came up with 28, i deleted all of them except what Kazaa needs to work. It's a shame that this can't look inside .exe's and find hidden spyware in them, that is becoming a more and more comman way of hiding spyware lately.

ZeldaLord, it won't be banned. Some of the info gathered by spyare goes directly to the government.

[DarkDragon]

195.
Most of them were there because of my dumb-ass sister installing Comet Cursor.

[SSJ3500]

After running this does it deleate the files it finds?

[DukenukemX]

You would be surprised where the spyware came from. Kazaa, Winzip, Divx, and other stuff I forgot.

My family uses this PC and when the message comes up asking to install Gator they click yes. :rolleyes:

After removing the spyware the PC runs much better. With 151 spyware removed you would think so. :laughing:

[SSJ3500]

ok, I only have 109 files found

[itschris]

Originally posted by SSJ3500
After running this does it deleate the files it finds?

You can choose what you want to delete.

The last time I did it, it found about 25 files.

[Menokh]

I've never had to deal with Gator.
When my dad used windows and IE he somehow knew to click no. When I removed IE, and as such either used Opera or Mozilla, I never got another message telling me to download it again.

[ZeldaFan001]

It found only 5 files.

Does it permanently remove these files or can the goverment still access these files? (i.e. only marks the files as deleted and can be recovered using an undelete program.)

[MrCow]

... the thing probally is spyware itself lol

[Menokh]

Ad-aware will rmove any spyware/adware it finds. Once the stuff is gone it will be gone until you intentionally or unintentionally install it again. It is a good idea to run Ad-aware about once per week.

Of course as I said earlier it is becoming more and more common for developers to embed the spyware in the executables themselves. Also Ad-aware will not remove any windows components that report back to MS, becuase it would probably damage the OS.

[Brian]

Hmm... I'll probably download this. If I'm lucky, maybe it will delete Cyber Sitter to! ;)

[MrCow]

lol poor brian