Want To Remove Gator And Other Adware/spyware?

[MSNwar]

Found this knowledgeable article at ExtremeTech.com that briefly explains how three different programs may assist in removing Gator and similar Ad-ware nuisances.

Download, install, and run full scans and cleans with ALL THREE of these programs listed below.

All will detect and remove gator to some degree, since it is among the top five most annoying things online, but they have different specialities. (if you are using Micro$haft's Internet Exploiter for your web browsing then trust me, you will be infected with a lot of different things!)

One note I will add is that you should be prepared for them to find like 150 things in your system, most of these will be "cookies" - little chunks of info stored by different web sites, such as username/password, how many visits to the page, etc.. - these can all be safely deleted and are not really a danger to you, they build up over time if you are using IE. The things you are really looking for are FILES and REGISTRY KEYS that are reported as spyware, these are the ones to get rid of.

PestPatrol and SpyBot-S&D might come up with a few other things on your system that you don't need to change, for example SpyBot detects "broken links" - shortcuts/icons that point to files that no longer exist - but these can't harm your system in any way. I recommend using Ad-Aware first (be sure to do the update before running the scan), this will get rid of most of your cookies and the main Gator components, then pestpatrol and lastly SpyBot.

Pretty much anything that Ad-Aware finds should be wiped, if there is something there that you aren't so sure about, copy the logfile text and paste it into a post for user review here. To do this, when Ad-Aware finishes its scan, 1) click "View Log" or "Show Log"; 2) select all the output there and right-slick your selection, then choose COPY; 3) Paste (right-click, paste) into a reply to this message!

I recommend posting the logs for the other two programs too, it may not be as easy as Ad-Aware though (will try them on here myself and add step-by-step instructions soon) but well worth it (if you just wipe everything that they bring up you may stop one or more programs from working, so better to leave your machine in its gator-infested state for a day or two longer rather than screwing up your current setup - just don't enter ANY personal or finance information on your computer during this time!!!! There are at least two ways I know of to hack through gator and steal all your passwords and other info, and I haven't even looked at the later mroe advanced versions.

Sorry to blab on like this. Here are the links:

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Ad-Aware 5.83

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Home Page: [ http://lavasoft.de/ or http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ ]

Latest version of the program (Direct Link): [ http://ftp.pcworld.com/pub/new/utilities/s...ecurity/aaw.exe ]

Latest reference file(*): [ http://www.lavasoft.de/aaw/binary/reffile.zip ]

(*)UNZIP TO "C:\PROGRAM FILES\LAVASOFT AD-AWARE" BEFORE RUNNING SCAN.

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Pest Patrol

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Home Page: [ http://www.pestpatrol.com/ ]

Latest version of the program (Direct Link): [ http://research.pestpatrol.com/downloads/e...tPatrolEVAL.exe ]

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SpyBot - Search & Destroy

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Home Page: [ http://security.kolla.de ]

Latest version of the program (Download Page): [ http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en...n&page=download ]

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Good luck!

- DaRcAntiX

Technical / IT Support

Education Queensland

[FthrJACK]

Adaware will NOT remove gator. it will remove some of it but then gator just replaces the files adaware removed.

To kill gator you have to stop one or two processes in Task Manager then manually delete a folder.. then run adaware.

possibly running Adaware in safe mode will get rid of gator, i havent tried that.

Sorry i cant give the process names here, but if i have to remove it from somones machine again soon ill post them.

[Crispy]

Why would anyone want to install Gator in the first place? i don't really get it ...

[MSNwar]

Beginners often install Gator because the web site they visit just makes it sound good.

My wife does things like that all the time, lol.

[Rick]

True! I had it at one time when I was a noobie on the net. It was very nice to fill in all those forms for me but then I didn't even feel it! I was getting screwed right in the rear. I have well learned my lesson and if you can keep this crap off your system in the first place, it is better. I sat down with my wife and explained how not to click okay just because it pops up and that if she wanted an app to let me know and I'll get it.

Adaware pro edition is pretty good at keeping those pesky cookies away and detects spyware keys right away. Note: This is different from the free version.

Rick

[beeboy]

Gators great for gettin ppls passwords and such. And seriously, adaware and search and destroy are must have tools.

[Drewdatrip]

Cant wait for Ad-aware 6....

=Drew