# Need Help Getting Rid of Unwanted Spyware!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-getting-rid-of-unwanted-spyware/230930>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 24, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-getting-rid-of-unwanted-spyware/230930 "2004-02-24T17:30:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DirtyKash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@DirtyKash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirtyKash)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-getting-rid-of-unwanted-spyware/230930/1 "2004-02-24T17:30:37Z")

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At least, I think it is spyware.

Someone else was using the computer (I believe it was one of my family members.)

Anyways, now, everytime I start up Internet Explorer, instead of going to my homepage (Yahoo!), it goes to some website named [prosearching.com](http://prosearching.com). Also, there is an extra toolbar that just doesn’t want to go away. Even if I disable the toolbar and change the homepage back, when I start IE back up again, the same thing reverts back to [prosearching.com](http://prosearching.com)

It’s really bothering me!

How do I get rid of this? Thank you in advance.

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**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:** [February 24, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-getting-rid-of-unwanted-spyware/230930/2 "2004-02-24T18:11:19Z")

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Get yourself a free copy of [AdAware](http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/) and [Spybot Search & Destroy](http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=download), and clean all the spyware off your computer. Before scanning, don’t forget to have each program check for updates. You should scan with both programs, as they complement each other, and find things the other misses. Then use [SpywareBlaster](http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html) to block over 1100 different flavors of spyware.

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**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-getting-rid-of-unwanted-spyware/230930/3 "2004-02-24T19:13:19Z")

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Also, check out [this recent thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=241177) for links to other anti-spyware software.

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**Author:** ![Qburn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/bc79bd/32.png) [@Qburn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qburn)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-getting-rid-of-unwanted-spyware/230930/4 "2004-02-24T19:43:33Z")

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Norton has added spyware blocking. If you are using it for your firewall/virus scan, upgrading to Internet Security 2004 is worth it IMHO. We had the exact same problem.

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**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-help-getting-rid-of-unwanted-spyware/230930/5 "2004-02-24T19:47:07Z")

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You can get rid of the “Spy Wiper” spyware by deleting all your cookies and going to [google.com](http://google.com) and clicking “set google your homepage.”