Unstoppable Adware on my PC

[DrewZ]

^ Hoggage

On a serious note, a combo of Ad-aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, Malwarebytes anti-malware, and CCleaner have never steered me wrong.
Malwarebytes tends to be the one that can get the real bad stuff.

[lovbyts]

^ Hoggage

On a serious note, a combo of Ad-aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, Malwarebytes anti-malware, and CCleaner have never steered me wrong.
Malwarebytes tends to be the one that can get the real bad stuff.

If it's the one I'm thinking of I can guarantee these will make no difference. I went to school for my A+, MCSE and CCNA and built computers, servers and did IT for several years and there is one particular adware program that even after several days of trying everything you mentioned, everything I could think of and tweaking the registry I could not get rid of it 100%

After running into this a couple of times and wasting for to much time if I could not get the system restore to work which it would not unless I caught it early then I found it's a LOT quicker to just format and reload the OS.

Type msconfig in the search bar and hit enter, go to startup and disable any services you do not want to run on startup, review the services tab as well, be sure to select hide all microsoft services . Go to uninstall programs and look for any funky names such as grocerygetter or something like that, typically adware programs have funny names. If IE is your default browser then reset all IE settings in the options. If you use chrome, go the settings and check your extensions as well as search engine. Next I would advise going through the registry but if you are not computer savvy than I do no recommend it.

Anyone that advises reformatting a computer due to adware does not know what they are doing. The only time you should ever have to reformat your pc is if you get the FBI or cryptolocker virus depending on the severity or due to other technical issues. I have removed both from multiple computers, a reformat is only a last resort.

You should also consider how you got it in the first place. I do not run AV on my machine and I have never had a virus. Most people either open an email/ attachment, click on a link/ad, or are going to questionable sites to begin with such as porn, torrents, etc.

Really? If it's simple adware I agree but I know of one that as I have said I have done all that and more. Yes what you mention does work with a lot of them and that is/was one of the first things I did but there is one (I dont remember the name) that is a real B*tch and I have read on several forums at the time everyone (Tech gurus) said the same, format because they also wasted a LOT of time.

[jnewton86]

If it's the one I'm thinking of I can guarantee these will make no difference. I went to school for my A+, MCSE and CCNA and built computers, servers and did IT for several years and there is one particular adware program that even after several days of trying everything you mentioned, everything I could think of and tweaking the registry I could not get rid of it 100%

After running into this a couple of times and wasting for to much time if I could not get the system restore to work which it would not unless I caught it early then I found it's a LOT quicker to just format and reload the OS.



Really? If it's simple adware I agree but I know of one that as I have said I have done all that and more. Yes what you mention does work with a lot of them and that is/was one of the first things I did but there is one (I dont remember the name) that is a real B*tch and I have read on several forums at the time everyone (Tech gurus) said the same, format because they also wasted a LOT of time.

A+, S+, N+, CCENT, CCNA as well. All of those certs you and I listed mean nothing when it comes to virus removal.