Spybot is your best bet. It is an awesome free program... AdAware is also decent. I'd recommend using both, d/c'ing your internet after you update them and then running them a couple times each, restarting after every scan.

Spyware is a b

I second Boston's recommendation of Spybot Search & Destroy, which is available from Safer Networking, here. It's a fantastic piece of software and should annihilate most if not all of your problems.

It found some spyware, but this thing downloaded a HUGE virus/malware suite and most of it is still there (though disabled). Downloading AVG now.

How fast is FF3? I am reluctant to upgrade FF because it's annoying to reinstall extensions, especially if they aren't FF3 compatible.

It's faster, supposedly, but I prefer to wait for a stable release.

I use McAfee (only because it's free from my ISP and I'm paranoid), AVG, AntiVir, AdAware SE, and Spybot S&D. Google'll bringup all of those. You might also want to try AVG's rootkit detector thing.

Honestly, your real best bet is to just pony up the $50 and get SpySweeper with Antivirus. Found things that neither AVG or Adaware did.

I think Circuit City has SpySweeper on sale for $20 this week.

Well, yeah, SpySweeper on its own is a comparably paltry $30, usually... but that only covers adware. Why not toss in antivirus as well, since the program as a whole is done rather well?

Eh, it's your computer and your money, do as you want.

If you have no money, go with S&D, but be wary as it thinks the solution to any malware problem is to just delete the whole file(s).

Spy Sweeper and Pest Patrol are pay ones I've heard good things about.

~Tobe

Echoing the Spybot and AdAware. Also, get an updated Fire Fox. Honestly, I don't know what the eff you're surfing for that the newest FF isn't "reliable" for you, but quit being a douchebag and just get it already.

As for IE, for god's sake, let this be a lesson. You can never-ever-ever run anything MS that's connected to the internet, not have it updated, and not expect to come down with some retarded crap in your PC. Update your IE, dude. For serious. Keep it updated as often as possible.

Also, for FireFox, NoScript is your friend. Bit of a B sometimes, but it is so your friend. Pretty much, you tell the website whenever it is YOU want code to run. Also, entering an unknown website? OHSNAP look at all the java and flash and random runtime codes running in the background. NoScript stops it for you and let's you know. You can allow, temporarily allow or deny any codes to run at any time. I love it.

Vec. Get Firefox 2.0.14. Also, have you ever thought that the lag from it could have been the spyware?

In any case, the Ad-Block Plus extention is made of win too. Blocks pretty much any ad: Java, Flash, text, iframe, whatever. It has downloadable filters and also lets you make custom white/blacklists, and even collapses killed ads for cleaner browsing. Spybot also loads cookie/site/download blockers into Firefox now.

For removing spyware I've found nothing better than Windows Defender. For blocking it I've gone with FF myself, I do prefare IE, but I was forced to change due to Norton removing their adblocker from the latest version of Internet Security (apparently they did this cuz Vista has it's own adblocker...yeah, so, what about those of us not on Vista...?). But yeah, Norton for viruses, Windows Defender for adware and spyware, and FF for blocking ads, and I've had no problems for a while now.

For removing spyware I've found nothing better than Windows Defender.

LOL, you have to be kidding me. Window's built in 'spy ware remover' is the worst thing out there, quite possibly worst than the stuff the spyware itself recommends you download.

Vec. Get Firefox 2.0.14. Also, have you ever thought that the lag from it could have been the spyware?

In any case, the Ad-Block Plus extention is made of win too. Blocks pretty much any ad: Java, Flash, text, iframe, whatever. It has downloadable filters and also lets you make custom white/blacklists, and even collapses killed ads for cleaner browsing. Spybot also loads cookie/site/download blockers into Firefox now.

It's involved enough upgrading FF once, I'm not doing it twice when 3.0 comes out. I have to search for extension updates or even manually update them myself.

There's been no spyware on my computer for like 3 years until Saturday so it's not spyware. FF is just very heavy and IE loads faster because lots of it is resident in Windows automatically.

Also, for FireFox, NoScript is your friend. Bit of a B sometimes, but it is so your friend. Pretty much, you tell the website whenever it is YOU want code to run. Also, entering an unknown website? OHSNAP look at all the java and flash and random runtime codes running in the background. NoScript stops it for you and let's you know. You can allow, temporarily allow or deny any codes to run at any time. I love it.

Before whenever I come across heavy flash pages, my browser would at times freeze, then later I would have random spyware and other annoying (sometimes dangerous) programs affecting my computer.

But ever since I used No Script, Firefox runs faster and spyware intake is virtually zero. No script has been a true blessing for me, but I'm not just a user of No Script...

I'm Also the President!

But seriously, No Script is one of the best browser add-ons ever to use on Firefox, and a must for everyone.

That doesn't make it run better, Vec. >> You maybe have a lot of extensions and stuff - because base FF runs as well as IE, but of course it gets slower when you pile crap on it. How many extensions are you running?

You also may want to try just reinstalling Firefox cleanly - that helped tremendously for me once. You can use an extension like FeBe to port your passwords and whatever else you can't be assed into redoing.

I gotta ask this though, Vec... what version of Firefox do you have anyway? If it's 1.x, well... there's your problem. In fact... it sounds like 1.x if you have to manually update stuff. If not, in any case, SX is right. If you reinstall FF it fixes a lot of issues, and you can try making a new profile in Firefox. Sometimes it gets corrupted. Also, if you have a lot of extensions, disable them one by one and see which one causes the most lag.

Or just go through your extensions and say, "do I REALLY use this?" I used to have a lot of extensions that I got rid of, simply because I never used them enough or they were rdundant.

The only FF extensions I'd use would be gameFOX and ChatZilla. I don't really see any purpose in using any others but that's just me. *Shrug*

ITT: we pile on Vec for taking his oldversion.com mantra a little too seriously.

LOL, you have to be kidding me. Window's built in 'spy ware remover' is the worst thing out there, quite possibly worst than the stuff the spyware itself recommends you download.

Since when did Windows Defender come with Windows? o.o

I did some testing and it scans just as well as Adaware and Spybot, if not better. Although all of them missed things that the others caught. o_o

We've used both Spybot and Defender. Last time I used them the difference was Spybot deleted too much and Defender... heh

Spybot: "Yo, You gotta bug nibblin' on yo explorer.exe file. I'll just delete that for ya!" *crash*

Defender: "Excuse me sir and/or madam, I would like to bring to your attention that you have a small piece of malware using your explorer system file to hide within. Would you like to quarantine or ignore this file?" *click* "I'm sorry you need to be COMPUTERNAME/administrator to reply to me" *crashes explorer*

The last time Defender was decent, it wasn't called defender.

~Tobe

I was on IE6 as I often am when I want a quick browse (FF is rather heavy for loading a single link. Is FF3 faster?) and it crashed. Then I got tons of "Internet Speed Monitor" popups until I closed the many foreign executables that were running in task manager and disabled them with msconfig. Downloading spyware scanners, which I haven't had to use in years, I discovered it loaded a ton of viruses and malware. However, each scanner I download won't remove unless you pay. What are some good free ones?

I'm running Firefox 2.0.0.6 & it's usually -faster- than IE...and I'm still on dial-up!

Heh, I don't have a crapload of extensions either

Dunno about the freebies, but I'm using SpySweeper & haven't had problems with malware since.

Required Extensions: CuteMenus, Flashblock, Web Developer, Show Image

Extensions that are cool to have: Colorful Tabs, IE Tab, FoxyTunes, Tab Mix Plus, BBCode, Image Zoom, Firebug, Scribe

I downloaded FF3 and installed it in another folder. It is somewhat faster but some people say FF2+ eats memory. I'll probably go to FF3 after it is official.

I've noticed Firefox 2.0.0.14 eating memory, but only because I had Ice Blue theme enabled. It seems to make it eat more memory than really needed. o.o

As for extensions, I have Download Status Bar, Firebug, Ad Block Plus and FireFTP. XD

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ffpreloader/

This might help, Vec, if you're on XP or lower. If you're on Vista, then Vista's own prefetch program will use it (though if you're on Vista, then Firefox 2 loads faster and uses less memory than IE7 anyway)