Spyware/Adware - Cleaning & Prevention Tips
The following is a copy of a post I shared in helping a user with issues on excessive popup advertising. You must first clean your system thoroughly and then fortify your security settings to prevent reoccurrences in the future.
A. CLEAN YOUR CURRENT SYSTEM
These links may help and I recommend going to www.download.com and downloading SpyBot Search & Destroy 1.3 and Adaware SE (and update both to the latest definitions). Microsoft also offers a great tool as well. After downloading then clean your PC in SAFE MODE.
New Microsoft Antispyware remover
http://myitforum.techtarget.com/blog/hwaldron/archive/2005/01/12/1778.aspx
ADWARE & SPYWARE Removal
http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=1408
SPYWARE CAN"T BE REMOVED (post to these forums)
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php
http://www.spywaremanagement.org/index.php
http://hijackthis.de/en
B. PREVENT FUTURE ATTACKS
1. If you're on XP, move to SP2 and you'll have a much more secure version of IE (that offers pop-up blocking)
2. Strengthen your IE settings
http://myitforum.techtarget.com/blog/hwaldron/archive/2004/12/29/1089.aspx
3. Avoidance -- Do not click on URLs in EMAILs and be careful on websites you may wish. A way I've promoted this to users is to "think before you click"
4. Additional complementary browsers can be used and they won't conflict with IE. I like Opera and Firefox as add-on tools as they are a little less suseptible to spyware than IE on non-XP SP2 systems. This link discusses how to install Firefox.
Firefox 1.0 -- Recommended Installation Steps
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=158083
5. Toolbars/IE Shells - I'm not a big fan of this as I like to use the "keep it simple" approach on IE. Google offers a good toolbar. Maxthon and Slimbrower are excellent IE shells I've experimented with that offer pop-up blocking.