Evil spyware mucking up my computer

[Korly]

My girlefriends computer keeps popping up some kinda evil program. Everytime she opens IE she gets a popup. Everytime she googles something, two more pages from some other search engine pop up.

Spybot keeps finding backweb, but it can't get rid of it. I did the msconfig thing and disabled it at startup, but it keeps coming back!

Help!

[Lhadatt]

Don't use IE.

[cka]

There's Lhadatt, master of tech support.

[Brotherman]

Have you tried Ad Aware? That might help. Also, a software firewall might help keep it from comming back.

[Jeremy]

I'll second the AdAware mention, as it couldn't hurt to run that on top of SpyBot, maybe you'll luck out and it'll get rid of the problem.

[Kenshin]

I tried to fix my sister's roommate's computer at college last year, and it was so completely infected by several layers of spyware that I couldn't even install AdAware. (The control panel had even been sabotaged.)

Had to backup her files over the network, and wipe it clean.

[voltz]

Good god man, don't you think that shit should be illegal by now?

That spyware crap takes away our privacy, then they have the nerve to hijack the system.

[Lhadatt]

There's Lhadatt, master of tech support.

Well, I could lock this topic, since we have multiple references to spyware in numerous threads. But seriously, you don't get this crap from any other browser. I don't see why people see numerous others saying "don't use IE" and yet they still use it... you'd think they would catch on.

No offense intended Korly. Try Ad Aware. There's PestPatrol too, but you have to pay for it, and I'm not sure it's all that better than Ad Aware/Spybot. If those still don't help, download Mozilla/Firebird, Netscape or Opera.

[Kenshin]

But seriously, you don't get this crap from any other browser. I don't see why people see numerous others saying "don't use IE" and yet they still use it... you'd think they would catch on.

Because I'm smart enough not to get my system infected. I set the right settings, install all the patches, and know where to not fucking click.

Why do I use IE? Because I really dislike Opera's windows-within-a-big-window interface (we ditched Windows 3.1 when?), and I don't feel Mozilla-derived browsers are at a level for me to use daily yet.

[Lhadatt]

Because I'm smart enough not to get my system infected. I set the right settings, install all the patches, and know where to not fucking click.

Good for you. Now kindly realize that most users don't know enough about their systems to take such precautions. Have you ever worked tech support or systems administration? If not, I suggest you try it sometime, if only to appriciate how little the average user actually knows about a computer. IE is a danger to Windows users, simply because it is so prone to destruction. That is why I have such a hardline stance against it -- the users (in general) know nothing, which makes it very hard to help them out at times. If you can convince them to take proactive measures, no one will have to deal with the problem, and everyone will be happy.

Which, by the way, is one of the goals of this section of the forum: Happy Computing.