I got real bad Adware whats the best option ?

[Wolf11]

Friend asked if I could fix her laptop, whenever you go online with it you get bombarded by ads and also pop ups saying you your PC has been infected by viruses, and once this happens you can barely get the browser to close out.

I've tried the free versions of these programs I got off of download.cnet and it does seem to catch some of them but when I go online same problem.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Ad-Aware Free Antivirus +
Spybot - Search & Destroy

These were the three most downloaded ones I got.

I told her that she may have to buy a package that has the more robust features. I'm not sure what do. It's almost impossible to go on the internet with her laptop and try to download these to try them. So should I go to the store and get a Norton or McAfee so it will be on the disc, I told her it's totally not safe to use her laptop to buy stuff with her credit card.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Boot to safe mode, then run that software

 

[BobbyBubblehead]

https://www.malwarebytes.org/antirootkit/

run malwarebytes anti rootkit in safe mode too.

sounds like a lovely rootkitted machine with the floodgates open.

meanwhile think happy thoughts while you look for a windows install disk

 

[EarthDog]

If the above doesn't work, reformat. Hopefully they have backups.

 

[RGone]

Wolf11...

...it is sad to hear of that laptop owner's plight.


CNET and malware?

There are links out of that thread from Oct 2013 that go to other discussions of and about the same general idea. There are very few free rides anymore. Nada. Zip. Zero. Freeware is becoming further and further from reality.

I had an aging father (deceased a few months now) that could not or would not keep his fingers from going for freeware. His computer stayed a mess. He would just click on the installer and then whatever was in the install as bloating-ware...well he got it and while not in the older true sense it might not have been a virus or trojan, it sure as heck made his computer nearly un-usable.

I personally have been hit on my wife's computer when trying to find her clothes on the net. In some respects traveling in some areas of the net is like walking thru a mine field of possible pop-up city.

I have at the rate of about 98% of the time been able to use the advice of those that deal with such every day at Bleeping Computer to rid myself of most of the offensive junk that can infest a computer when very stict internet use is not adhered to.

You can re-install windows and if the practices of the computer owner are not modified, within a few months or even less depending on what computer owner likes to visit, the problem will again be rampant. I know this because my brother, sister and myself could return my deceased father's computer to a usable state and within months and finally near his end, within weeks he was nearly unable to use his computer again and Antivirus programs do not stop adaware, much malware and bloating installations of software.

And yes that link above with discussion from Oct 2013 is getting dated since I have now seen much more software with 3rd party bloatware within the so-called freeware programs. Hardly any free rides any longer and to find free stuff takes a very extended search by the one downloading in order not to windup seeing pop-up after pop-up wishing to "help" you get something from the net.

This post if mostly aimed at the OP who is being asked by a friend to help with a bloated computer with little real use available now when still hooked to the net. It will be a thankless task unless the actual computer owner does not adjust theirself to the pitfalls of the modern net.

RGone...