CoolWWWSearch

[Head Wreck]

okay, anyone got any advice on how to keep this at bay.

this is the second time this week i am clearing it of my pearents computer

[The_Dark]

stay off porn and free stuff sites. nothing is free.

[bav]

Dunno if you've tried using Spybot S&D yet, but if not give it a shot. It has a built-in immunization table (I'm not sure if CoolSearch is in it, tho).

[Hermine]

AdAware SE isn't bad either.

[bav]

AdAware SE isn't bad either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea, I actually find that Spybot and Adaware complement each other very well...what one doesn't get the other usually does.

[Jarodaka]

Get one of these?

[Head Wreck]

thnx guys.

an apple would be nice right now, cept i have to buy a new(ish) car soon and replace all my coms gear after that (broken my radio)

so far i have used a combination of spybot, ad aware, cws shredder to get rid and clean the computer out.

wondering if anyone else kniws of any programs that block this entering the system

[Ginevra]

When I was still using MSIE, before I switched to Firefox, Merijn.org was an invaluable resource to me in helping to try to clean up my system. You have to dig and search a little for the info needed, but with as computer literate as you are, HW, I'm sure you'll have no issue quickly putting the knowledge to work for you. :

Also, when you run those tools, you may want to boot into Safe Mode with the system restore off so that it doesn't self-replicate. This is a known issue with these little fsckers; hard as hell to get rid of. Then, after you're done running the tools, turn the system restore back on and reboot.

Also at Merijn.org, there are 2 tools that I've used successfully in the past called CWShredder and HijackThis. The linkage gives explanations about what they do. I found the forums at Merijn.org to be as equally helpful as the tools.

Any chance Mum & Dad might go for Mozilla over MSIE? There's not that much difference graphically. I've had nil issues since switching.

Edit: I missed, somehow, where you said that you already had CWShredder. My bad, HW.

[The_Dark]

OK, Coolwebsearch is a bit harder to get rid of than most viruses. Spybot and Ad-Aware will not remove it completly and it will just keep coming back. You need CWShredder. The Author of the program recently sold it to Intermute software. You can download it here:

http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshr...r_download.html

It's the only thing I have ever found that removes all varients of CWS. Also, if you have CWS, you most likely also have trojans on your syste, I suggest The Cleaner from Moosoft Development. This has to be the best Trojan virus scanner/reover I have ever seen. http://www.moosoft.com/

Remember.. Turn system restore OFF and run these programs in safe mode. Otherwise, it is going to come back.

[Head Wreck]

cheers

thanks for the heads up

[Hermine]

Yea, I actually find that Spybot and Adaware complement each other very well...what one doesn't get the other usually does.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I do that too. And hey, PCWorld.com agrees too, for what it's worth.

But I've periodically come across stuff that they just can't get too. Generally, yeah, you end up resorting to something else for some of the nastier things. It's sort of hit or miss with this stuff; that's why a combination of two is better.

If you're really stuck, folks on the AdAware SE forums will often give you a link to a specific removal tool for whatever is ailing your machine. I haven't found you a removal toool there, but it does have lots of handy info on stuff that will get it, so a search there might be useful. You're apparently not the first to have this problem.

[Ginevra]

If you're looking for a specific tool for this bug, this page has it. As stated previously, Merijn.com has a crapload of information available for the viewing.