i downloaded a spyware s/w sometime back, now there's something wrong with it nd i can't uninstall it?

Question

can someone please me tell how to uninstall it from the pc without affecting other programs and i would also like to know whether it is safe to download free spyware s/w if not, what is the safest way to prevent the pc from being spied or monitered

Answer 1

If what you loaded was true antispyware you should be able to uninstall it. If it is a rouge spyware scanner which is actually spyware masquerading as antispyware it is more difficult to remove. Here are some links to real free antispyware programs:

Spybot Search and Destroy is an excellent program for scanning for and removing spyware. The resident modules can be a bit buggy, but the extra included tools such as startup manger are great! http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Adaware is another good scanner and removal tool but it has no resident abilities at all in the free version. http://free.lavasoft.com

Ewido is fairly new as a free spyware scanner, but it comes from the people who brought us AVG, so I expect good things: http://free.grisoft.com

Microsoft has their free scanner avalable for download although many advise that this tool is a bit permissive of questionable programs and add ons! Defender does offer a couple of options the others do not have such as scheduled scan and a resident process for active protection. http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

The Yahoo toolbar includes an Spyware scanner that works ok. Yahoo does not advise this but you can run this program outside the toolbar by simply creating a shortcut to the exe file found in the yahoo directory under program files. http://toolbar.yahoo.com/

A new player is on the scene with SUPERAntiSpware. I was fairly impressed with the deep scans performed by this product, and it found some inactive files with spyware embedded,that the others had missed. I will add this to the list of tools in the arsenal and see how it really performs on active spyware. If you want to try it you can download it here: http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

Once you have your system cleaned up of all the spyware, then you should protect yourself against new infestations. Spyware Blaster does a very good job and does not use up any system resourses in doing so. Works with both IE and Firefox browsers: This Download can be found at http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Another good way to avoid spyware is to use the Firefox browser. While not immune from spyware infestation, you will certainly not have as many problems as when you run I.E. Easy Download at http://www.mozilla.com

Answer 2

Run both Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/) and Skybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/) to remove any spyware. Run both as one may caught something the other missing. Then go to microsoft.com and download Defender to protect against future infections.

Answer 3

Try one of these free scans to remove it.
I like ewido the best.
Spybots search and Destroy http://www.download.com/3000-8022-101221...
adaware se> http://www.download.com/ad-aware-se-pers...
http://www.webroot.com/land/freescan.php...
a-squared Free> http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free...
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall...
http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/...
X -Cleaner Micro Edition scan http://www.spywareguide.com/onlinescan.p...
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner...
http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan...
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html...
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/ac...

http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virus...
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareb...
Spywareguard too.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareg...
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/...