In the last few months I’ve had to deal with crazy spyware on my machine and my sister’s machine. It used to be the case that you’d get spyware on your machine by installing a program like Limewire or getting suckered into adding the Bonzi Buddy to your computer. Now visiting the wrong web page with Internet Explorer can get spyware installed without your knowing.

Removing spyware

If you’ve been infected, you’re in for some work. It’s like dealing with a flea infestation, without all the vacuuming.

1. Download and install these three free programs: AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy, HijackThis! AdAware and Spybot S&D are similar, but they each seem to cover some things that the other doesn’t, so it’s good to get the overlap. HijackThis is a very powerful and dangerous tool. Don’t mess around with HJT unless directed to do so by a guru (more on that in a bit).

2. Use AdAware’s update function to install all available updates and run a full scan. Then allow it to fix everything it finds. There might be some things which you’ll want to keep, but if in doubt, fix it. AdAware might require you to restart your machine.

3. Use Spybot’s update function to install all available updates and run a full scan. Be sure to select a mirror located in your country, or you may get a checksum error when downloading the update. Then allow it to fix everything it finds. There might be some things which you’ll want to keep, but if in doubt, fix it. Spybot might require you to restart your machine. Spybot also has some Internet Explorer protection features. I’ve only run into a couple issues with this one, and usually it involves watching some cartoon on the web. Since doing this kind of activity isn’t critical to my happiness, I just move on.

4. Run a full anti-virus scan. If you have AV software, make sure the definitions are up to date. If you don’t, you can do an online scan at BitDefender or you can install AVG Anti-Virus.

5. Run HijackThis and save the log of what it finds. Do not mark/fix anything until you’ve gone to The PC Guide Discussion Forums and posted a description of your problem, your prior actions, and the full log file. One of the experts (Budfred’s a good one) will go through your log file and give you further instructions. If you’re not comfortable with rebooting into safe mode or using a command line to delete files in your windows\system32 directory, recruit someone who is.

That’s about it. It’s a lot of steps, and it’ll take you a few hours to do it, but for the really vicious stuff, it’s the only way.

Preventing spyware

There are a couple options:

1. Don’t use Internet Explorer. The combination of insecure software and market domination makes IE the target for all kinds of hijinks. Try Mozilla instead.

2. If you’re like me, you like using IE (for no good reason). In this case, use Windows Update to get the latest security patches for Windows and IE. Download Spybot S&D and/or SpyWare Blaster and run the protection scheme. Update your virus definitions or get AVG to protect your system.

Good luck.