I have a 'spy' on my computer ~ help!

[chocovrdmicears]

It appears I have 1 allusive spyware item on my computer that both my clean-up software and my noadware programs cannot get to. THe spyware identifies it when I do my scan, but it can't seem to clean it. Ironically the bugger is labeled as an anti-spyware program. I tried doing a search through my files & folders by it's name but it won't come up. It appears that it is in my 'registry' ? Does anyone know how I get into my 'registry' and how I can get rid of this little thing that is making me crazy!

[tweety129s]

If you go into start then run, type regedit. This the registry for your computer. You can do a search for the file name and delete from there. Just be careful what you delete from there because there's no getting things back. Just check out the pathway that it lists before deleting.

BTW, I had a spyware program come up on friday. It was from Nielson Online.

[chocovrdmicears]

Thanks for the info..I did what you said and found lots of things in the registry/software.I see a file there with a similar file name, not exact. Is there a way to tell if it is the culprit or would I see my legit antispyware program? When you say check the pathway..what am I looking for? there are many items that i don't recognize...how do i know what i can remove? Or should I leave mystery items alone since I am NOT computer savy?

[tweety129s]

When I say the pathway I just mean like C:/Documents....... Wherever the file is located on your computer. If you recognize the folder name as the culprit then you can delete it. I wouldn't delete anything that you're unsure of. Have you tried spybot or adaware?

[Nite0wl71]

It appears I have 1 allusive spyware item on my computer that both my clean-up software and my noadware programs cannot get to. THe spyware identifies it when I do my scan, but it can't seem to clean it. Ironically the bugger is labeled as an anti-spyware program. I tried doing a search through my files & folders by it's name but it won't come up. It appears that it is in my 'registry' ? Does anyone know how I get into my 'registry' and how I can get rid of this little thing that is making me crazy!

Would the name of this by any chance be anti-vermin?

[chocovrdmicears]

I run NoAdware and WinCleaner One Click that cleans cookies, invalid registry items, temp internet files etc.. that I purchased @ Staples.
The program that keeps coming up when I run the NoAdware as spyware is called WinAntiSpyware. It shows it as being in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE. When I follow that in the registry there is a file called WinAntiVirus Corp. When I do my spyware scan it shows the name as WinAntiSpyware. It this the same thing you think?

[Nite0wl71]

My DD had antevermin on her computer. It was just a lot of popups about buying anti spyware. It kept getting worse, whenever she opened her browser it always went to there first. Finally she couldn't get online at all.

I went to Best Buy Geek Squad and they wanted almost $200 The computer programmer where my DH works told him to bring it to him. He cleaned it up for us, she had lots of spyware and 2 trojans. I ran adaware all the time and it didn't catch it or clean it up.

[cglaura]

I run NoAdware and WinCleaner One Click that cleans cookies, invalid registry items, temp internet files etc.. that I purchased @ Staples.
The program that keeps coming up when I run the NoAdware as spyware is called WinAntiSpyware. It shows it as being in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE. When I follow that in the registry there is a file called WinAntiVirus Corp. When I do my spyware scan it shows the name as WinAntiSpyware. It this the same thing you think?

It seems to be a program similar to SpyBot or AdAware. Did you check to see if it was listed in your Ad/Remove Programs and maybe you can remove it that way?

[chocovrdmicears]

It seems to be a program similar to SpyBot or AdAware. Did you check to see if it was listed in your Ad/Remove Programs and maybe you can remove it that way?

Yes, I checked. It's not listed under the ad/remove programs list.I can only see it when I go directly into the registry. It seems to be a sneaky one.

[cglaura]

www dot pctools dot com says

Free, secure and easy Spyware scan. Removes Winantispyware.

I have used this site before I bought Norton/Symantec. What virus protection do you use, perhaps you can try their site? Symantec had this listed & how to remove it manually, but all regedit, which I don't know about you, but editing my registry gives me the willies like my computer is going to blow up or something.