ANyone know any good free anti-spyware programs?

I have been using Hyjackthis to remove wierd things like home page resets that IE picks up from the internet.

Recently I picked up one that I can't remove. Every time I reboot my home page gets re-set to a crappy seach directory called free4u or something like that. I cant find the file that is causing this.

Worse yet I use a router and the router has been crashing every couple of days (I lose internet connection) since this started, leading me to believe that I have contracted something nasty.

Anyone have any reccomendations for free programs to clean up IE?

Thanks

I use Spybot (Free)...
The home of Spybot-S&D!

Here is the most reliable and lasting way to clean up IE and it's many problems. Enjoy!

Between Spybot-S&D and Ad-Aware ( http://www.lavasoft.nu/software/adaware/ ) you can get a decent level of protection/cleanliness. It's what I use on my own machines, and even manage to survive the onslaught of crap that my parents put it through. (I've tried to educate them on safe computing, but just can't the message through )

I too recomend Spybot and/or Ad-Aware.

And also switching to another browser might be a good idea.

But since IE sometimes is the only option, I suggest getting the google toolbar also. (http://toolbar.google.com/)

It has a built in pop-up blocker that works great, alot of spyware and such use pop-ups, not all, but some do, so its always a good idea to have something that blocks em.

Thanks all, ill try spybot and add aware tonight.

Ezhar, I have an old copy of mozilla, I was thinking about switching to it since the hackers probably focus on IE vs some of the less used programs.

thanks for reminding me.

I have been happily using Pest Patrol however I recently got *something* and it took running PP, Adaware AND SpySubtract to get rid of all of it. SpySubtract does mis indentify some things so you cannot blanket delete. You need to read and decide what of the list needs to go.

EDIT: note that some people claim the google toolbar itself is spyware.

Google toolbar is in some sense spyware, in that it contacts a server every time you visit a website -- it needs to get the server's Google PageRank. However, unlike spyware, it's up-front about this, it gives you the option of turning it off, and it's easy to uninstall the toolbar.