Adware removal?

Question

On my son's computer, Norton is showing that he has seven adware threats. Norton does not give you the option to delete them. Is there a program I can use to get rid of them, and is there any instance where he needs the adware or is it safe to delete them all? He is on a network at college so I don't know if that makes a difference. Thanks for any help.

ky331 · Answer

it's very much dependent on the particular adware 'threats'.   if these are simply 'cookies', they may  be  essentially harmless (or in certain cases, even a desirable convenience).  if they produce popups, that can be a nuisance that should be removed.   but there is no one/universal program that will automatically catch & remove everything.     some good starting points to remove adware/spyware would be:   Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06     http://majorgeeks.com/Ad-Aware_SE_Personal_d506.html   SpyBot Search & Destroy 1.4  http://majorgeeks.com/SpyBot-Search_&_Destroy_d2471.html   Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta [for win 2000 and winXP --- will *NOT* run on win98/98se nor winME ]   http://majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Windows_AntiSpyware_d4466.html   and then, if there are still things remaining, you can come back here, to learn about HiJackThis (which is more complicated to use)

dxernnj · Answer

jany03,

Suggest you run one or two of the following. Many puter folk today seem to be running at least two. These are all free, get along well together and will help with SPYWARE issues. The MS beta1 does have real time protection so you might want to consider the MS one plus another.

Others will make suggestions on this board as well.

http://www.lavasoft.com/

http://www.safer-networking.org/

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=321CD7A2-6A57-4C57-A8BD-DBF62EDA9671&displaylang=en

http://www.ewido.net/en/

krobo · Answer

download.com has many programs for removing viruses and adware free too :)

Virus & Spyware

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