Home Search Assistant and CWS_NS3

[Puritan Sailor]

Alright PC guru's. I've been trying to get rid of this spyware now for a couple months. I have Spy Sweeper and it seems to have no trouble getting rid of other programs but this CWS_NS3, and it's other popular name Home Search Assistant, just will not go away. Any ideas? I think I will try to swith my browser to Firefox soon. But that won't take away the spyware that's already in my pc. Any help would be nice since not even the good pc sites seem to have any good ways to get rid of it. Do I simply have to reformat my hard drive and start over?

 

[fredtgreco]

Did you try Spybot Search and Destroy?
http://users.telenet.be/hestia/spybotsd13.exe

Ad Aware?
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Ad Aware Away:
http://adwareaway.com/

Spyremover:
http://itcompany.com/remover.htm

Giant AntiSpyware
http://giantcompany.com/(djria245spevw145oitewx55)/default.aspx

Spyware Doctor:
http://dl3.pctools.com/downloads/sdtrial.exe

Browser Hijack Recover:
http://www.wamasoft.com/hijack/

SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

IE Hijack remover might also do the trick. I think you can get a fully functional trial version here:
http://software-innovators.com/products.asp

The other and better thing to do instead of reformatting is to do a system restore to a time before this happened. The System restore basically reloads an older version of your system registry without the malware.

 

[daveb]

I would second trying the programs Fred suggested. Getting rid of this particular spyware might be tricky. It seems to fool some A/V and spyware removal programs (I have heard running them in safe mode might help but I cannot verify this). You might have to do a system restore if the above programs will not work.

Also you can try running this: http://tools.radiosplace.com/HijackThis.exe (right click and save)

It will report a number of things on your system but they might not all be bad but from the sounds of it some will. Look for things that are unusual in that list (not programs you actually have) by saving the log file. If you are unsure as to what might be bad post the log and I will look at it.

 

[Puritan Sailor]

Well, apparently I messed something up. I used CWShredder and it found some stuff and removed it. Then it recommended updating windows, so I tried that and the program froze. Then I updated my spysweeper but it still wasn't able to remove the spyware entirely. But to top it all off, I rebooted, and now my computer is wacky. The graphics are now at 16 bit and I have no mouse function anymore. My mouse is there when I reboot to safe mode, but not the normal mode. I'm currently reinstalling Windows ME to see if it fixes those new problems. I'm at work right now so I won't know if it's fixed or not til I get home in the morning. If I can get my computer to work again I'll try out those websites.

 

[Presbyrino]

Patrick,

Some spyware is very tricky to get rid of. Reinstalling windows will clear your registry, but it will still leave the spyware files on your machine. For some spyware that is difficult to track down and remove, the best bet (unfortunately) is to reformat and reinstall.

If you can, you should upgrade to WindowsXP. XP has a neat feature of being able to restore your computer to previous dates. For example, if you install a program that breaks something on your computer, then you can restore to a previous time from the suspect program installation. This is a very handy feature and a life saver.

Also, start using FireFox asap.

 

[daveb]

Patrick,

Sorry to hear things have gone sour. I would also recommend a format if you are able to (make sure you back up all your files though!). That would ensure that the spyware is completely removed and it could be the most painless way to go about it.

 

[Puritan Sailor]

Well, my Wndows was reinstalled, but apparently there was some quircks, because now my windows explorer keeps freezing up when I look for programs. I'll try a couple more things, but it looks like I may have to reformat...