so basically any recommendations for spyware removal  programs 

any help is wanted 

1. i dont want to pay for a program 

2. compatible with windows vista

please help 

if your wounding why i need it then thats a funny story that involves opening a email and my computer crashing and all the viruses and trojans coming in, it was a fun night.

the only thing i need to do now is get rid of all the spyware (and cookies) and im having a hard time finding anything free thats good(not spyware itself).

Try Adaware and Spybot.

I use AVG and I have no viruses, so it must work. I also have this rock that keeps away tigers :P

Also, consider upgrading to either XP or windows 7. It's not free if you're a good boy, but it will do more to prevent viruses than any antivirus program ever could

haha that should clean up my pc for now

@bobobologna when i typed in adware it goes to something called adware-pro and its pretty much spyware too, if you have it you should get rid of it. but spybot runs amazingly i cant believe that its free. thank you for your help it saved me a lot of time


@scottie you know i tried to use a rock to stop those tigers but all it did was sit there, hmm i think it brook haha thanks for the reply its very much appreciated

get this, i had my doubts at first, but it truly is amazing. And get AVG free or Avast

http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage

you could try MS security essentuals.

malwarebytes anti-malware is very good. Just search for it on download.com

you won't find a better set of free tools than this

http://free.antivirus.com/clean-up-tools/

I highly recommend HijackThis for finding spyware, however, be very careful as it doesn't distinguish between what is supposed to be there and what isn't. It just finds stuff for you. From there you can either fix or break your PC Also, it isn't Vista Compatible, but it is the one I've used in the past and very good.

From the list You could try HouseCall or RUBotted, which I've never used, but it's free.

Also, CWShredder works great if you know you have CoolWebSearch installed which is by far the most annoying spyware to remove. I'm not sure if CWS infects Vista machines, and CWShredder isn't listed as Vista compatible.

EDIT: malwarebytes is good too. You can ask on their forums - http://forums.malwarebytes.org/ - and they'll help you out and make sure you solve the problem. you'll get better support there than pretty much anywhere else that I know of.

As a side note, I'm so glad I don't know any more stupid teens who get their PC's infected all the time and insist on me fixing it for them

I'm using Spyware Doctor atm, it's alright. It blocks the bad spyware but it lets some small tracking cookies through but you can easily get rid of them with a scan.