What software to scan key loggers and such?

What softwares you guys use to scan key loggers and spyware?

There are 3 I recommend. All are considered among the best, and are free for personal use.

AdAware: www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware
Spybot: www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
Microsoft Defender: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

Update and scan with each of them at least once a week. If it finds either Aurora or Cool Web Search, you may want to think about reloading the system. Those are very nasty, and almost impossible to remove. CWS has been linked to a group of Russian hackers, and keyloggers are known to be embedded.

A nice tip if you cant remove somethign from your system, start your computer in safe mode. Most programs wont start up and it makes it posible to remove otherwise stubborn spyware/virus/trojans.

Oh, and be very careful if you check other "Spyware" software. This segment of the industry is rampant with fraud and scams. Some of them are even spyware themselves, and charge you money if you want to remove them.

One of the worst in recent months is the (in)famous "StopSign", by E-Acceleration. They have a history of installing spyware, requireing payment for fale positive reports, and disabling the software of other companies. Most companies report it as spyware itself, and if you remove it without going through them, it screws up your computer. Avoid at all costs.

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_...re.htm#ss_note

www.spywarewarrior.com is a good site to go to if you want to find out of the antispyware company is legitimate before you install their software.

There's an Anti-Malware Package and directions at Lunarsoft.net to help with the whole process.

Hitman Pro. Enough said =]

Cool Web Search can be easily removed with a program called CW shedder
Hi Jack This is also very powerful.

I always run anti sypware in safe mode, usually Lavasoft, reboot, into safe mode then ewido, reboot into standard start up

Even the author of CW SHredder admits that his program is only good for reducing the amount of CWS files on the system, not removing the program itself.

CWS is a very sophisticated program, what is updated daily. The minute you log onto the internet, it updates itself with the newer version automatically. The group that makes it has registered over 1,000 URLs, which they use to spread the code.

CW Shredder used to update 3 times a week, but it got to the point where a new version would come out on Monday morning, and by Noon CWS had already been upgraded to get around it. So they stopped claiming that CW Shredder was a total removal tool, and only update it every few months. In fact, some of the newer variants of CWS target CW Shredder itself.

I still use CW Shredder, but only as a CWS detection tool. The minute I detect CWS, I recommend a reload. That is the only way to get all of it out.

http://www.scumware.com/apps/scumwar...-Applications/

http://cwshredder.net/cwshredder/cwschronicles.html

To give an idea how they have quit, I am currently running CW Shredder 2.19, which I downloaded on 18 April 2006. And there have been no updates since then. No security program that is over 4 months old can ever claim to be of much use other then as detection. CWS simply mutates to fast to make freeware (or even commercial) tools usefull for removal. So unless you are a serious Registry Artist with about 10 hours of free time on your hands, it is generally not worth it.