A while back I had a freeware program that contained an annoying popup that kept reinstalling itself when i loaded the program. Program was handy, spyware sucked! Anyway, I've had a fair bit of experience removing spyware over the last 6 months with that sucker and come across a fair few programs that have caught everything. So I thought I'd knock up a quick guide with some useful programs and tips I do to clear out spyware.
Note: Using this is at your own risk, I will not take responsibility for you deleting crucial windows files.
So, you've got some spyware or some nasty virus thats popping up in your face every 3 seconds and you're looking for the nearest object to stab it with.
Download the following programs for spyware removal (Google them)
HiJackThis
This will show any toolbars that have installed themselves and weird other programs
Spybot Search and Destroy
Ewido Security Suite
Adaware
These 3 programs all do general spyware scans, I've found Ewido picks up a lot more than S&D and Adaware. But using all 3 to cross reference should get a lot of spyware.
CWShredder
Great for malware and malicous scripts
Killbox
KillBox is a great tool, If you find a DLL that is working with a virus and you can't delete it, simply select the file, click ok and BAM! It's gone quicker than Ignant in a womens shoe store.
AVG Anti-Virus
Probably the best and most up to date FREE anti-virus program on the net to date. A lot of people use this and it catches a lot of virii.
Process Explorer
This lets you see which processes are running on your pc, who makes them, and if one process is using another one as well. You can kill them off through this program.
Heres a good place to start... the Start Button for Windows. (Windows XP Pro)
Click Start then > Programs > Acessories > System Tools < Disk Clean Up.
Tick the boxes, espeically the Temporary Files folder.
Run the programs mentioned above and do scans.
Go into your C:\Windows\System32 Directory, right click and arrange icons by modified. Scroll to the bottom and you will find the most recent files that have landed in that folder. Check the file names that look suspicions, i.e. .exe files. If the look like "somekindof.trojan.exe" then delete it. If it doesn't go, use Killbox on it. Try and get any DLL files that are associated with it. If you are unsure on any of the file names, Google them.
KillBox is a great program for removing processes in use, but use it at your own risk.