adware/spyware or what ever... pleasehelp

i'm sorry if you guys have been thru this lately, buti need somehelp on down loading stuuf to clean up my computer.i have three teenagers who spend way to much time on this thing.just look at the number of posts i make and you see how much time i get.any way do you guys know of any free places i can get help to clean up this thing?also make it faster? thank you for any help. some one told me bear share is bad true? thanks again.

Re: adware/spyware or what ever... pleasehelp

Bear Share is bad, and your teenagers are probably using it to download porn or illegal music.<br /><br />Now that I've got that off my chest. You need to download a couple of free spybot shredders. One is SpyBot Search & Destroy . Another one is Ad-aware by Lavasoft. Another one is by Microsoft. It's a Beta and they will be charging for it beginning around December.<br /><br />For virus cleansing, check www.trendmicro.com Housecalls online virus cleaning product. It won't prevent future virus's, but it will find and remove any that are there now.<br /><br />Additionally, you may want to load Panicware's Popup Stopper from www.panicware.com. It'll stop those annoying popups. If you're running IE 6 w/SP2 you really don't need it though.<br /><br />And get that Bear Share off.

Re: adware/spyware or what ever... pleasehelp

Sharing is definitely bad. I would take it off the computer. If you don't have one already, make sure you have a virus scanner and that the virus defs are up to date.<br /><br />There is a difference between spyware and adware. There is a really good article at the following URL that explains the differences.<br /> http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/spyware.asp <br /><br />As for spyware programs, I use Spybot and Ad-Aware SE. Both are free and seem to do the trick. I've also heard people say good things about Microsoft's spyware program.<br /><br />Here is one final thought. I was sucked into helping a friend in a similar situation to you. After a number of hours we got the system working fairly well. If my system at home starts acting up, I can wipe out the hard drive and reinstall everything in about 2 hours! I'm not suggesting you should do it, but it puts things into perspective.<br /><br />Good luck!

Re: adware/spyware or what ever... pleasehelp

For a while I had MS spyware and adware, the spyware would change internet settings which I didn't care for so I dumped, haven't had a problem since and don't miss having to change internet options all the time. I have the latest Norton and run adware once a day--Bob