(no subject)

[rabidsamfan]

My work computer has got a bad case of adware and popups. Everytime systems cleans it out, it gets worse. They've finally gotten so desperate they've given me admin priveleges on my password. Do any of you computer types have a suggestion for a good, legitimate place to download something that will block or wipe these things? (Curiously enough, my home computer hasn't even glimmered with the problems and I got to mostly the same websites.)

Comments

[ancalime8301]

Spybot: http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10122137.html?part=104443&subj=dlpage&tag=button
AdAware: http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

My school only distributes Spybot, but you can use them both on the same system, and they'll each identify different stuff (I have them both on my comp). Those, when used together with a good anti-virus program, should pretty much take care of any popup/spyware problems.

Of course, you can also get a popup blocker -many toolbars offered by sites like Google, MSN, etc. have them- but when you've got spyware on your computer, blocking the popups is really only hiding the bigger problem, not to mention they block legitimate popups as well (like the review boxes on ff.n). If you want to get a popup blocker, you can specify what sites you want to allow popups on.

The difference between your home computer and your work computer may lie in differences between operating systems, whether or not they're up-to-date on updates, different software installed, etc.

[ancalime8301]

I should probably add that Spybot and AdAware both identify spyware problems existing on your computer, so they don't prevent that sort of thing from being dumped on your comp, they just clean it up after it's already there. :p

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Spybot helped. I'm not completely free of the darn things, but I'm much better!

Ever seen something that has xmlist in the name?

[ancalime8301]

Nope, I haven't, and when I Googled it, I got a bunch of incomprehensible stuff... like, apparently it's a type of widget in some sort of application... but I'll be darned if I know what a widget is! :p But if Spybot found it, you can probably delete it-I've never had Spybot delete something I actually needed.