The Old Cleaning Tools: Adaware, Spybot, Ewido, Spyware Doctor

[MikeLierman]

Anyone here been a tech long enough to remember these? Not to mention GIANTAntiSpyware and Sunbelt's CounterSpy. Just a little blast from the past, no other purpose to this thread.

I guess you could say I'm old (lol but not that old). Miss these tools. Sure, some of them are still around, but they've died, business practices have changed, they aren't spending as much time researching and adding definitions, etc. They all fell around 2007-2008 era. Most of them getting swooped up into other companies and then dying there.

At the end of the first era, rose SuperAntiSpyware which died in 2011 due to the acquisition by Support dot com. Along side that rose MalwareBytes and Emsisoft. Both of which I use in my cleaning procedures and processes today.

And then we have the whole SpyHunter bullcrap. They've never made a good product, and I'm pretty sure the owner of the company is nuts. Remember when they were listed as rogue/suspect? http://www.spywarewarrior.com/de-listed.htm#sh_note Then they got de-listed, still sucked, rose a bit, and then fell and is now trying to sue Bleeping Computer. If you want a good example of how not to run a business, this should be it right here. Simply don't go crazy.

 

[Porthos]

GIANTAntiSpyware

Now Windows Defender.

 

[stro]

Yep, used them all. Getting rid of hotbar, and the ebates mo money maker back in the day.

 

[MikeLierman]

Yep, used them all. Getting rid of hotbar, and the ebates mo money maker back in the day.

Don't forget MyWebSearch and LOP!

 

[Porthos]

Gator

 

[lan101]

superantispyware was awesome for a while then just went to nothing lol

 

[GTP]

Sad thing is that some of these tools were ok until they became no better than the malware they claimed to remove! (Read Spybot S&D)

 

[MichaelEC]

I still find Spybot useful. I thought Adaware was malware...

 

[GTP]

Unless they've changed recent versions, have you ever tried to remove Spybot S&D completely? Good luck with that!

 

[mr m]

Spybot made our jobs a lot easier back then. Before that I was manually scrutinizing the registry. The Tea Timer was a great function. I liked it warning me every time the registry was modified.

I remember when viruses were rare and malware was non-existant. Today, there are millions of sigs.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah I remember the earlier days of malware...back when Lavasoft AdAware was a commonly used program to clean rigs, and the old days of Spybot S&D.
And a bit later on....yup...GIANT AntiSpyware...with that big orange bullseye target. Microsoft bought them up...that orange bullseye target logo was still present in the early days of Microsofts antivirus.

 

[cypress]

Ahh don't forget Ad Aware. I use to run that right after or before Spybot.

 

[NETWizz]

Yes, and I really liked HiJackThis ... it was one of my favorite utilities from the same era. I also remember using the CWS Shredder for tough infections of a specific type that were prevalent back in the days before the notorious cryptlocker like problems we face today.


I also fixed a few computers with something called WinSockFix when the good old Winsock would become corrupt, which became uncommon by around XP SP2

 

[JoeTech]

I get the occasional pc that still has limewire on it and get a good laugh from that. I didn't think that still existed or even works these days.

 

[Porthos]

I still get the occasional pc that still has limewire on it and get a good laugh from that. I didn't think that still existed or even works these days.

Same here. Always in for some type of malware.

 

[GTP]

Yes, and I really liked HiJackThis--CWS Shredder

I still use both these at times!

 

[TechPJC]

Legendary software mentioned, here.

HiJackThis, CWS Shredder, Lavasoft AdAware, GIANT AntiSpyware, Spybot S&D, Sunbelt CounterSpy etc.

Good memories...

 

[Metanis]

Dial-A-Fix!

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

How about that browser protection plugin, spywareblaster!

 

[HCHTech]

I get the occasional pc that still has limewire on it

I saw an ancient rig recently that had bearshare - haha. Good times, man, good times.