Cerek,
Rest mostly well assured that Avast will stop things like this from happening again. It's realtime scanner works great -VS- Virus and Malware. I wont say your are gauranteed set for life and Avast wont stop less insidious adware and tracking stuff. An anti-spyware program like SpyWweeper offers additional real time scanning and excellent removal... so I hear. I mention this more further down this post.
I would get ZoneAlarm ASAP to stop any already existing buggers from sending information out.
For a small fee I hear and have read that Webroots SpySweeper is the best anti-spyware. I plan on picking it up soon and I have seen it recently at Best Buy, Staples, and Circuit City for only 20 bucks. PC magazine gave it editor's choice. Obviously it is not perfect, but no AntiSpywar software is!
PC Mag review
excerpt from review:
Quote:
The best just keeps getting better. Webroot's Spy Sweeper 3.5, which once shared the spotlight with Lavasoft's Ad-aware SE Plus, is now the sole champ of the antispyware arena. The latest version, with its slight but effective improvements, is easily the best choice for protecting PCs from spyware and for cleaning machines that are already infected.
Scan time is improved in the new version. Because it was revised during our test cycle, we were able to run both versions 3.0 and 3.5 on the same test system, and we verified that Spy Sweeper 3.5 is approximately 30 percent faster, in line with Webroot's claims. Accuracy is up as well; the program got perfect scores on all but one of our tests.
Other improvements include the ability to remove both CoolWebSearch and TV Media completely. We found one pest that remains less than fully curable by Spy Sweeper's means, however. The program was unable to delete a key component of Istbar, although it did block the spyware bar from working. Spy Sweeper wrongly suggests that a user can delete the file; Windows claims Istbar is in use, making deletion via Windows Explorer impossible. You need to kill Istbar either via a command line, by removing dependencies on the file, or with Spybot Search & Destroy. Even the best occasionally needs a little help.
Of course, with all its Shields active, Spy Sweeper will prevent Istbar and almost every other pest from getting on your system in the first place. If version 3.0 got on your nerves with frequent requests for user interaction, you'll like 3.5's ability to block browser-hijack attempts without asking for advice.
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Good Luck! [img]smile.gif[/img]
[ 02-19-2005, 10:06 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]