Just when you thought it was safe to put on antispyware!

[PDANEWBIE]

Just wanted to let you all know I came across a great page that has a list of all the BOGUS anti-spyware programs that are out there.

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

They have the name - what is bad about the program and why it is on the list. Alot of these are valid points from "ripoffs of other programs" to no free trial period, to no support, to just does not work.

Remember people keep your PC's clean but don't support the people on this list.

[shawnc]

Great post pdanewbie. Thanx for the info.

[Darius Wey]

I think by far the most widely recognised anti-spyware applications are Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta), Lavasoft Ad-Aware, and Spybot Search & Destroy. Unless your computers don't react kindly to these three programs, I'm not sure why anyone would look for a spyware solution outside this group.

[PDANEWBIE]

Actually there are a bunch of other small removers that work great and I use those more as 'specialized' removers if the main ones don't work.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

This site has a ton of other utilities that the 3 listed may not "fully" remove.

I think in all using a bunch of apps to get rid of the infestations suck but there are alot of utilities out there that can help clean the samll pesky things that the 3 major ones can't.

but in all if you can clean it with the main onse stay with them.

[victore]

I agree with Darius's list of antispyware programs. While Microsoft may one day charge for it's program, I hope that Spybot and Adaware will remain free.

[David Prahl]

I agree with Darius's list of antispyware programs. While Microsoft may one day charge for it's program, I hope that Spybot and Adaware will remain free.

I'm with victore and darius, those three apps and 'hijackThis' are the only ones I trust and use regularly. I work in desktop support for a large university and we do the same thing.

[PDANEWBIE]

Then you guys should all visit Marijn's site and look at their other tools they have there.

I know on more than one occassion those other tools saved me from doing rebuilds on PC's that the 3 major ones did not find and fix.

I'm not saying my way is the only way and I am not saying you will need these other tools every day but to say that with 3 programs you catch all spyware is rather limited and I hope you don't come across the day you need more and can't find it.

CWShredder has taken care of things none of the other 3 have found. And one time I had problems running Spybot on a machine at all and I had to run his little utility that killed a version of about;blank spyware that makes it to Spybot does not run.

Just a thought for anyone thinking just 3 utilities are all your going to need.