Quote:
|
Originally Posted by RATT
Thanks slothy. How do you remove spyware/adware by hand?
|
It can be tricky. You need to know what to look for.
First thing you need to find out is the name of the executable that is running and causing the problems.
Start the registry editor (Start->Run type in regedit and click OK) and explore down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run. Then on the right hand side look for thing that you don't recognise. You'll have stuff in there to launch any chat clients and any other things that start automatically. Look for one you don't recognise.
If you do find anything you don't recognise make a note of the executable name and then delete the entry for that executable.
Then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run and do the same.
* Be careful, editing your registry can have nasty consequences if you edit or delete the wrong thing. Any actions are immediate and there is no Undo option.
Now fire up Task Manager (right click on your task bar and choose Task Manager), click on the Processes tab and turn on the Show process for all users check box.
Now look through the list for any process with the name as what you found in the registry. If you find it (and there may be more than one running), right click on it and choose End Process, and click OK to confirm. Do this for instances of the process.
Now, open Windows Explorer and right click on your C: drive and choose Search. Then in the filename field type in the name of the executable and start the search. When it finds them, delete them. If you get an access denied it probably means it's still running so check Task Manager again.
Reboot and do the all of the above again. I've found the sneakier ones have some method of coming back after a reboot. One even had 3 or 4 different executables in various locations all looking out for each other. It was a bitch to get rid of and took me over half a day.
Two chicks at work got major spyware on their personal lappies and after trying the manual method it was decided a nice clean reformat was in order. That might be your last resort. :-(
Good luck!