Disabling system restore is a bad idea. The system may be in a bad shape
now, but at it basically functions. If the spyware rip out goes awry SR may
be the only way to get back to make a second attempt.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp|


"zippy" wrote in message
ink.net...
Have you made sure that you updated products? Are you running these
programs in safe mode? Have you disabled system restore *before* running
these programs? Try these steps and see if they help.
"Michel" wrote in message
...
My Internet Exp has been hijacked by CoolWebSearch and AdAware, Spybot &
SpywareBlaster have not detected it or removed it! What can I do??

"Walter Clayton" wrote:

Generally all I use is AdAware first followed by SpyBot. There's a lot
of
overlap in the two tools, but they also concentrate on non-overlapping
areas. It's also wise to follow up with installing SpywareBlaster. None
of
these require run time presences although SpyBot will offer to install
such.
No harm in doing so and in some instances, especially with multi-user
machines, a necessity. The biggest issue is remembering to run them
periodically after checking for updates. The latter is one of the
reasons,
other than not changing usage habits, that people get reinfected. It's
easier to avoid being click happy than it is to clean up the mess
afterwards.

There are instances where AdAware/SpyBot may be neutralized or unable
to
clean something. I handle those on a case by case basis since you're
looking
at going with some highly specialized tools that if misused will leave
the
machine unbootable (note that there is a nasty that the current version
of
AdAware had been cleaning incorrectly that would make it impossible to
log
on to the machine without taking corrective action).

Depending on your level of expertise there are some tools that
circumvent
issues with removing nasties that are resident in memory even in safe
mode.
If an XP machine is being disinfected I use a bootable CD created using
Bart's tools with fully updated AdAware, Trendmicro, McAfee and
Kaspersky
tools (all free versions) incorporated. This also allows me to correct
any
registry issues on the host machine without any major hassles other
than
knowing what parts of the registry need be hacked. The reason I
include
and
run AV scanners is generally if some one has a load of spyware it's not
unusual they'll have nastier stuff as well.

--
Walter Clayton - MS MVP(WinXP)
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
http://www.dts-l.org
http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/default.asp|


"Andrew" wrote in message
...


I already know what Spyware can do and all to your computers but
what
is
the best Spyware and Ad-aware remover programs out there I'm using
Spybot
1.3 and Ad-aware 6.0 from Lavasoft and I heard having two good
Spyware
and Ad-aware remover programs that it will remove about 90% of
Spyware
and Ad-aware off your computer and keep it out.