# I'm at wit's end, adware took over my machine and nothing works to remove it **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2004, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648 "2004-04-29T06:58:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648/1 "2004-04-29T06:58:55Z")
I hope someone can give me a pointer to a definitive way to remove adware from this computer. I’m computer savvy but this has me stumped. I installed Spybot, I bought “Spysweeper” by webroot and ran that. I even installed SpywareBlaster which is supposed to block activeX installations and a bunch of other things. I bought McAfee antivirus and ran that as well. These applications all find something during each run through, for example, Spysweeper finds something if I run it twice in a row, makes me believe it removes the offensive item, but when I run it again, the malware is there again! (in this case, something called “ClientMan”, but there are others) I restart my computer and all this stuff is back worse than ever. What’s more, I keep getting “just in time debugger” messages - and they usually coincide with new popup windows. The most irritating thing about this whole thing, is that I installed mozilla firefox as my browser, but I still get popup windows in internet explorer even if I never touch it. How is that possible? I notice some unfamiliar programs in my msconfig startup list, and I tried disabling everything, but here they are back on again when I reboot. How do I completely remove a program from the msconfig startup list and also from “services”? I figure that might help. Then again it might not. I went to CEXX and another famous site (forgot the name) and tried their procedures. That didn’t help either. I need some systematic advice. Why can’t I get rid of this stuff? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648/2 "2004-04-29T07:21:46Z")
> [@Rusalka](#): > > I hope someone can give me a pointer to a definitive way to remove adware from this computer. I’m computer savvy but this has me stumped. I installed Spybot, I bought “Spysweeper” by webroot and ran that. I even installed SpywareBlaster which is supposed to block activeX installations and a bunch of other things. I bought McAfee antivirus and ran that as well. These applications all find something during each run through, for example, Spysweeper finds something if I run it twice in a row, makes me believe it removes the offensive item, but when I run it again, the malware is there again! (in this case, something called “ClientMan”, but there are others) > > I restart my computer and all this stuff is back worse than ever. What’s more, I keep getting “just in time debugger” messages - and they usually coincide with new popup windows. > > The most irritating thing about this whole thing, is that I installed mozilla firefox as my browser, but I still get popup windows in internet explorer even if I never touch it. How is that possible? > > I notice some unfamiliar programs in my msconfig startup list, and I tried disabling everything, but here they are back on again when I reboot. How do I completely remove a program from the msconfig startup list and also from “services”? I figure that might help. Then again it might not. > > I went to CEXX and another famous site (forgot the name) and tried their procedures. That didn’t help either. I need some systematic advice. Why can’t I get rid of this stuff? > > Thanks. If your running XP , turn off system restore and then do your scans for malware. Delete them ,then reboot. By having the system restore turned on , when its infected ,your just re-infecting yourself everytime you boot. Once your system is clean , then re engage the system restore. Declan ---
**Author:** ![jimdigritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@jimdigritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimdigritz)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648/3 "2004-04-29T08:04:33Z")
try moosofts [The Cleaner](http://www.moosoft.com/products/cleaner/download/) Disabling the rollback feature is a must, it also frees up a lot of disk space. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648/4 "2004-04-29T10:38:17Z")
[Removal instructions for Clientman](http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/ClientMan.html) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648/5 "2004-04-29T12:14:07Z")
If that doesn’t work, download and run [Hijackthis](http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/), save the log, and post it here. ---
**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648/6 "2004-04-29T13:40:30Z")
Thanks for all the advice. I’ll try those things, if anyone has anything to add, please feel free. ---
**Author:** ![bafaa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@bafaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bafaa)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-at-wits-end-adware-took-over-my-machine-and-nothing-works-to-remove-it/242648/7 "2004-04-29T14:40:44Z")
I didn’t see anyone mention [Ad-Aware](http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/) yet. It can catch stuff Spybot misses. Also try [CWShredder](http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html#cwshredder).