Checking Your Work

After you install antispyware/anti-adware software, you'll want to scan your system to look for (and remove) any traces of such unwanted software or content on your PC. You can use a variety of Web-based (or accessible) tools to scan your PC as well. Because many experts recommend the use of multiple antispyware/anti-adware scanners (and this means scanners only, because you can easily avoid potential conflicts between multiple scanners by running only one at a time—see the next section for more information about potential related sources of trouble), visiting one or more of the sites listed in Table 7-2 regularly or occasionally may make a nice enhancement to your personal PC security regimen. If you use a product from one vendor, it's probably smart to try a scan from a different vendor to bring multiple sets of scanning tools (and signatures) to bear on your PC. It's also important to recognize that these tools (like many other forms of active content) work only inside Internet Explorer (likewise for Windows Update, which is why even those who use alternative browsers may have trouble doing away with IE completely).

Table 7-2 Online Spyware/Adware Scanners

Name Type URL
Spy Audit .EXE
PestScan ActiveX control
X-Cleaner ActiveX control

Likewise, you can use more than one spyware/adware scanner to check your PC, as long as you run them in sequence. (It's not a good idea to run them in parallel.) To that end, even if you have a favorite tool, you might want to consider adding one or more of these freeware programs to your collection of PC security software as well. In particular, I've seen numerous reports from people who claim that the combination of Ad-Aware and Spybot-Search & Destroy beats anything else around when used in tandem. For pointers to some highly rated freeware programs that run on your PC and you can use to back up your primary tool, see Table 7-3.

Table 7-3 Freeware Spyware/Adware Scanners

Name URL
Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner
Spybot-Search & Destroy

Seldom, if ever, is it necessary to remove adware or spyware manually because no tool exists to do the job. For example, though I tried aggressively and persistently to create problems or cause infestations on my test PC that spyware removers couldn't fix, I wasn't able to force a situation where manual cleanup was the only viable repair option. That said, some vendors or organizations may be quicker than others to release removal tools as new infestations are discovered and analyzed, and remedies and removal tools proffered. If your primary supplier for such software can't detect or remove something, it may be because it's new enough to not yet be covered. Don't let that stop you from seeking other remedies, or from checking back later for a fix if one isn't available immediately. In the unlikely event that manual cleanup is required for some reason or another, please check back into Chapter 4 for its observations and advice on such activities.