I seem to have a very ill pc, a spyware scan reveals other earlier spyware progs as being high risk. Aer they the cause or the cure?
Seems like a good way to make money, pay 24$ a year for something that says other competitve products are in fact bogus spyware programs. Fact is, I keep getting irritating popups and the firefox popup blocker does nto stop them, it opens up windows internet explorer instead and its driving me mad.
Ant recommendations on good, kosher adware blockers/spyware stuff (needn't be free)?
Cheers!

Clean up your system as much as you can (if you still can't remove much, then a fresh OS reinstall is always the best)... then reinstall Firefox, all your extensions etc... but then go grab Adblock for Firefox. I use it, and it is GREAT. It uses largescale filters from some blacklisting groups, and it is quite good.

Never had any spyware for probably 1 1/2 years now.

It is the most popular extension for Firefox -- Adblock Plus

These are the tools I use for scanning:
Search & Destroy
Adaware
TrendMicro Spyware/Virus scan

I recommend Adblock Plus myself - been using it ever since I jumped to Firefox (2 years ago) and never had problems with pop ups since then.

Make sure you use the filters too (you can subscribe or just load premade filters) - they are pretty darn good!

I see there's a new Windows Defender version out:
http://download.microsoft.com/ ... 3b800/WindowsDefender.msi

You could also try the latest Ad-Aware beta. It works for 4 days in evaluation mode, but that's plenty of time for running a scan and remove found pests.
http://beta2007.download.lavas ... 007beta/2/aaw2007beta.msi

Also I quite like the Spyware Terminator, it's free and have resident protection.
http://www.spywareterminator.com/

A-Squared Free
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

[from wikipedia]
Malicious programmers have released a large number of fake anti-spyware programs, and widely distributed Web banner ads now spuriously warn users that their computers have been infected with spyware, directing them to purchase programs which do not actually remove spyware — or worse, may add more spyware of their own.[40][41]
The recent proliferation of fake or spoofed antivirus products has occasioned some concern. Such products often bill themselves as antispyware, antivirus, or registry cleaners, and sometimes feature popups prompting users to install them. They are called rogue software.
Known offenders include:

• errorsafe
  
• Pest Trap
  
• SpyAxe
  
• AntiVirus Gold
  
• SpywareStrike
  
• Spyware Quake
  
• WorldAntiSpy

• Spy Sheriff
  
• Spy Wiper
  
• PAL Spyware Remover
  
• PSGuard
  
• Malware
  
• WinAntiVirus Pro 2006
  
• WinFixer

The adverts pop up a display with notifications to convince the user that something may be amiss with the computer, or run a fake diagnostic. The program repeatedly prompts the user to purchase a licensed copy of the program.

Due to these problems, WinFixer and its sister applications are generally considered scareware spyware. Indeed, their misleading popups and forced downloads mirror the infection strategies of many spyware programs. Computers infected with this trojan also exhibit sluggish performance.

I'm pretty sure thats at the root of all my recent pc problems

only use ad-aware , crap cleaner , and spybot , firefox with adblock (fliterset.g auto updater) never have/had a problem.
All free

Judging by those names Al, those are obvious giveaway that they are rogue spam software

It is best to get programs by names you can trust. Though SOME that aren't by companies are hard to find, and they can still be good. You just need to goto popular download places (like CNET's Download.com) and find the most popular and best rated software for spyware. Just to get the gist of some quality programs.

I use an app called Hitman Pro.

It runs Spybot, Adaware, Spywareblaster, and its own scan all one after each other, as well as doing a couple of windows tweaks to close vulnerabilities. You can also choose to do a Trend virus scan, but it takes bloody ages so I only do it every so often.

I've never had any issues with malware of any type
*Touches Wood*

Edit: There is Windows Defender, but you need a 'Genuine Windows' install

Quote from Tweaker :

Judging by those names Al, those are obvious giveaway that they are rogue spam software

How do you come to that conclusion? To me, I would have no idea that these are rogue

its just something you "know" as sounding dodgy, partially because "WinFixer Pro" is just an odd sort of name, but also because you've never heard of it before as a used anti-virus solution

Spybot and Adaware SE for free spyware removers, I would trust them more than Norton. I think that you probably have a virus (or a few). If you arn't running a trusted antivirus that is known to barely ever have problems, I would recommend using a free one to atleast scan. Antivir, AVG, and Avast! I would trust to never make the situation worse, and I have used all of them atleast once to get rid of viruses that have crippled Norton on a few computers.

Good Luck with trying to remove the spyware/viruses. If all else fails, backup anything you really need and do a clean install of your OS.