I have used Spy Sweeper quite a bit recently as friends and relatives are bringing me their completely spyware hosed up computers.
Spy Sweeper is a great utility for detecting and removing spyware but I have found that in some cases it will think a program is cleaned and the next time you reboot (especially with hijackers) they come right back.
Here is what you can do.

First, run the full scan and clean. This will get rid of the bulk of your problems.
Go to Start and then Run and type in msconfig and click OK.
This brings you into the System Config utility. Click on the Startup tab.
This will show you all the programs set to launch during bootup of your machine. You will probably see a number of suspicious programs there.
By unchecking the box next to them you will prevent them from loading. Just make not of what you uncheck in case it turns out to be something needed for other programs to run and you have to add it back in later.

Once you have completed going through the startup programs and close it, allow it to reboot the PC.
Once the machine is back up and running again, run your spyware detection software again and do a full scan/clean. You will probably find some of the items you already removed back again. Let the program clean it again. Once finished go into the (assuming you are using Spy Sweeper) quarantine area and look at the details on the filenames it cleaned. Make note of the filenames. If all else fails, you can reboot the computer into safe mode with command prompt, search the hard drive for newly created instances of those files and then delete them. This is something you cannot do once Windows is up and running as the program files are in use.

If you are using Spy Sweeper you can go into the Shields area, select Internet Explorer and then click the button to reset IE to factory settings.
This is kind of important. Although you might have gotten rid of the hijacker in previous steps, the default web page may be pointing to a web site that will re-infect you as soon as you load IE. By resetting it all within Spy Sweeper you remove that risk.

These programs are really pernicious and if you leave one behind it could very possibly infect you with others as it goes.
I spent a couple hours last night cleaning up a 16 year olds PC that had over 12,200 traces of spyware, adware, hijackers and trojan horse programs.
A couple months ago I had one that I finally gave up on and just wiped the drive clean for a fresh start. That is always a last resort for me but the spyware on it was not detected in any apps I tried and it kept doing browser redirection and I was not able to get rid of it. Some of these things constantly rename themselves so you cannot tell by filename what it is.

Good luck.

 

another good one is spywareblaster. it wont clean your machine, but it blocks that nasty stuff from getting on yer machine. Free download and runs in backround. Just keep it updated.

Ron

 

If your running XP it would be a good idea to learn how to turn off System Restore while you are running Adaware, Spybot, and CWShredder. It's not hard to do cause I'm a real greeny when it comes to computers and I learned. Don't forget to turn it back on when your done.

 

OK ... please enlighten me. Why turn off system restore while you run Adaware or any of the others? I've used AdawareSE personal, spywareguard and spywareblaster for a long time and never touched my system restore for that purpose.

 

You turn off system restore because hackers have figured out how to send a virus there. Then, when you go to use system restore you have the viruses all over again. System restore was a great idea but the key to it all is to backup your computer weekly or whenever you do something important.

 

How do you turn it off in XP

 

One way to turn off System Restore:

Right-click "My Computer", go to "properties", then the "System Restore" tab... check the "Turn off System Restore on all drives" box.

You can also get to the properties window through "Control Panel" -> "System".

 

Anybody know if Mozilla Thunderbird is compatible with IE 5.5 and is it POP3 capable as in being able to pull in mail from other web based email services.
As far as zonealarm and older OS's go, I'm still running Win98 OEM and I upgraded to ZA 5.5 with no problems.

 

Thanks again everybody. I downloaded and ran Ad-Aware, and it caught lots of things, including the CoolWeb thing. It has now all been removed, and the computer is back working the way it should. Thanks again