spyware and other icky things

Anyone know of a good program to check for spyware etc?

Google "Spybot" - contribution optional.

I use a combination of Spybot - Search and Destroy and Ad Aware. There is some spyware that one will catch that the other won't, so I just like to be safe.

Does anyone know of a good package that operates like a virus scanner and run all the time?

I also use SpyBot and Ad-Aware. Both can be found at www.download.com

I use AVG Anti Virus as a virus checker, and it will also pick up some spyware and the like... if you leave it running in the background, it will pop up as soon as the file gets transferred to your PC.

The web addy for AVG is www.grisoft.com

hijack this is an excellent program to get, as well as bazooka spywarescanner, both of which can be found at http://www.cnet.com, just head to the download section and search for spyware. cnet also has ad-aware and spybot-search and destroy, both really good programs to have. oh along the lines of running at all times, spybot has a nice feature called immunize that lets it constantly block crap.

on a side note, i think everyone should have a copy of StartUp. it is a handy utility that shows up in your control panel that gives you easy access to all the things that run at start up

I use Ad-Aware (crappiest IMO), Spybot Search and Destroy (best IMO), and another one called Bazooka spyware scanner.

Spybot has picked up things for me that Ad Aware missed, it's pretty good and automagically uninstalls stuff.

Bazooka spyware scanner is JUST a scanner. In other words it won't uninstall anything, you have to do it manually (it tells you how, step by step).

Even Spybot has missed some VERY annoying spyware which only Bazooka picked up for me. I had to uninstall this garbage manually, delete registry keys, delete files in safe mode, do searches for really weird files and so on; I have no idea what someone who isn't tech-wise would do because it was even a pain in the rear to do myself. (Although in my case it was a little wierd because spyware rarely gets installed "all the way"....I have a program that blocks other programs from adding things that run on startup.)

Hey look at that, Nada linked to the startup monitor website already...
I use this--

http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

But you have to know what you're doing with it. Sometimes install programs NEED to add something that runs once at startup to complete driver or whatever installations (Windows update loves doing this), so you have to know when to allow a program to add to your startup procedure. But this IS nice because I've been able to tell 99% of the time when spyware tries to install itself, before it really takes root in the system. If you're visiting a website or whatever (not installing anything) and all of the sudden a weird sounding program tries to add itself to your startup procedure...chances are it's a virus or spyware. SOFTWARE firewalls are a good backup defense (and alerter!) in this sense too.

Spyware/virus authors should be locked up in a room with just a clock in it and beaten severely every day, promptly at specific times.

the nice thing about the scanner is that it does generate the log file, so that you know exactly what is registering as spyware, whether it is in the registry, or it is just the folder left over from removing it with spybot or ad-aware.

oh and garoad's warning about using the start-up utility goes for using hijack this, it flags everything that could possibly be a hijack, but most of it is legitamate, so just be careful.

That's right I had forgotten about Bazooka's log file feature, that's nice.

I'll have to try hijack this some time, that'll be my forth spyware detector program. lol

if you hadn't guessed, i HATE spyware...and those toolbars...ooooo how i detest them. heh, I am a little obsessive compulsive about keeping my computer clean, i need to have control over my processor cycles what can i say, i hate it when it slows down because of some stupid program running in the background with out my permission haha.

offtopic-ish, did you know that windows has a built in delay for opening windows(400ms)? you can change it to whatever time you like(personally, i like 0, which equals instantaneous). if you go here and scroll all the way down to the last post it tells you how. Man i love that guys sig! hahaha.