Who do you use, I need to get some software to remove the spyware on my machine, any names/links would be great guys

I only have 7 spyware and 21 cookies at the moment as I am paranoid about sercurity and have all blocks in place but with a 14 year old lad looking around the website too I need to be !!

Search & Destroy

Pest Patrol

Ad-Aware

The first one is free. The last two have 30 day free trials

Also if you've not got a firewall installed already then download Zonealarm one of the best free firewalls available which will not only prevent hackers from accessing and controlling your p.c, but will also prevent the spyware from accessing the internet if you happen to get infected.

I have NAV Personal firewall but was thinking of getting another, a sort of to be sure to be sure thing.

Oh and the biggest piece of Spyware Around is Windows XP and Media Player v7.0 and above. it's no secret that XP "phones home" and tells Uncle Bill about your shopping habits, browsing habits etc so advertising can be targeted at you!., and the file(s) you view with media player. You should be especially concerned if you are using any "borrowed" software (i.e software which you have not bought and don't have your own licence key) running under XP especially windows based products since XP will grass on you if it finds the same software key on more than 1 machine

XP downloads this info to Microsoft towers under the pretence of checking for upgrades, so if you value your privacy then make sure that you cancel any automatic upgrade option within XP.

This information was gathered from several different reliable sources around the net, but whether there is truth in the rumours or not is debateable!. However I just thought that I would mention it, since it was helpful to me in deciding whether to upgrade to XP or not. On the whole i'm glad that I didn't since XP still has several vulnerabilities and security issues, and the recent worm problem was limited to users of the newer Microsoft products and targetted XP in particular.

A colleague if mine was equally shocked when he came to sell his pc to find business and sensitive credit card details still on his P.C, that he thought he had deleted years ago!. It seems that XP makes a mirror back up of everything that happens on your p.c in case of problems. So if you buy or bank online then it is a good idea to format the HD and re-install the operating system before you sell the laptop or pc on. Otherwise you may find your credit card details and passwords being sold on as well!.

Some Sources of Info:-

ZD Net Story

Disabling Microsoft "Smart Tags"

Web Pro News article on Bill Gates Monitoring consumer habits via XP

It's all so confusing, does anyone use Linex, as most hackers will go for Mr Gates and not other platforms, I know not as many applications will work but it will only be on a business laptop, as long as some tax application works, like Sage etc. not my usual and definately not on my gig laptops.

I'm still using Windows 98SE with Opera Browser along with Hardware and Software Based Firewalls and NAV.

So 98SE is old fashioned by todays game playing youth but what the hell...it runs MSN, I can browse the net, watch video in media player, build and run a forum and several websites, run microsoft office 2000 etc etc. What more do you need??. And the majority of vulnerabilities have been found and the hackers have moved on to newer MS products

Trouble is every new machine has new OS, and it seems funny taking that off to put a 5 year old system on.
In fact I have 5 machines, 3 run XP, 1 runs ME and the other 98SE.

Trouble is the main 3 are the ones running XP !!

try a google search for spybot, I use this AND ad-aware together, so what one does not get the other does