I ran Ad-Aware - it found a few things, cleaned them up and told me the PC was fine. Then I ran Spybot. It found malware that Ad-Aware missed, cleaned it up, and told me all was fine. While it was scanning, I noticed file after file of bank names. Knowing my kid wouldn't be checking out banking sites, I tried PC Tools Spyware Doctor. http://www.pctools.com/
It found three malicious programs - 1 from Russia and 2 from China - that had changed the Registry to look for banking info. I purchased the program (use coupon code pctools20 for 20% off) and it cleaned up the Registry and hopefully fully removed the offending spyware. Does any one know if this is the best program to use?
I wouldn’t feel safe about the OS until you did a complete reformat then reinstall of the OS.
I’ve tried Ad-Aware and Spybot, and Defender and they’ve never found a thing on my machines. So I’ve got no advice there.
Be careful of the programs you purchase and download online. we purchased one a year ago. It cleaned up the computer just fine. A year later, last week, our computer wouldn’t function, and the virus program wouldn’t scan/clean-up. We called a geek to come fix it and he told us that these online companies insert a virus timed to go off at the time you need to renew your subscription. Nice people in this world!
WTF‽
Would that have happened to JEdgar?
According to my D-Link router, I get a couple of dozen door-tries per hour. No big deal.
Reformat and reinstall. Then set up basic user accounts for the kids and keep the admin account passed to yourself. If they need something installed, you’ll have to do it. It’s a hassle, but it’s safer.
I’ve been using it. I have found that it finds different problems when I re-run the full scan repeatedly, so that’s what I’m doing..... So far, so good.