If your home page or search has been hijacked, CWShredder works best to fix it.

CWShredder This utility will remove the CWS trojan that hijacks your browser and search settings. It can be found on SpywareInfo’s article about hijacking.

As there are numerous scumbags trying to prevent us from using CWShredder and other tools, we have uploaded most of these tools to our files section in Yahoo Groups/Computer Help and Discussion.

AboutBuster  AboutBuster removes Home Search Assistant which is a CWS infection. It also will remove other CWS infections.

Ad-aware Ad-aware searches your computer for spyware and removes it. Ad-aware needs to be updated on a regular basis, as more and more spyware keeps showing up all the time.

Spybot Search and Destroy Spybot basically does the same thing as Ad-aware, but each will find things the other misses. Spybot Search and Destroy also needs to be updated on a regular basis. Spybot Search and Destroy is sometimes just called Spybot.

Hijackthis  and some other goodies too! Hijackthis may be difficult for you to use, read the tutorial!

Hijackthis tutorial

Mike gave us a link for Spybot's Tutorial and FAQ How to uninstall.

SpywareGuard SpywareGuard does the same thing for spyware that your virus scanner does for virus, at least that’s what their site says.

SpywareBlaster Here’s what the site says about this utility: ‘SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed’.

SpywareInfo’s  newsletter will keep you informed about new spyware and what to do to protect your self.

Ad-aware Cloak Ad-aware Cloak 1.0 is designed to allow Ad-aware to open fully when there are items on the system which close Ad-aware when it attempts to start, such as some CoolWebSearch variants. To use Ad-aware Cloak, save it to your system, and run the program before opening Ad-aware. Once Ad-aware Cloak opens, click "Activate Cloak" and then open Ad-aware and scan as normal. When you are done using Ad-aware, close Ad-aware Cloak. While you are there, sign up for Lavasoft News, that's how I found Ad-aware Cloak!

Some of our members have downloaded spyware removal programs that found spyware, but in order for the program to remove the bad stuff, they want you to buy it first.  Not nice, if they didn't tell you this before you downloaded their program! One program that apparently Ad-aware & Spybot didn't find is SeekSeek, found by SpyHunter (one of those programs you have to buy before it will remove the spyware). SeekSeek is a browser hijacker. If you find SeekSeek on your computer, you can manually remove it. The instructions to manually remove SeekSeek are on krphyr.com.

From PC Magazine, 11 Signs of Spyware This is a must read!

CoolWWWSearch.SmartKiller (v1 and v2) is a new, real ugly variant of CoolWWWSearch. When running, it will close every browser window you use to visit a large list of anti-spyware-sites, and even will close Spybot-S&D and some other anti-spyware applications as well.

So if your copy of Spybot-S&D (or the anti-spyware application of your choice) closes a few seconds after starting, or your browser closes whenever you try to visit an anti-spyware site, try this CWS.SmartKiller removal utility. Simply unzip and run!

Spyware-Guide's list of known spyware.

Good site for spyware info, Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites  Link provided by CHAD member, Edip YALTIR

Spychecker This is a really cool site with lots of programs for spyware, virus and firewalls. A good site to have bookmarked.

The Parasite Fight Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware