Infected with adware.mywebsearch

I am aob and I am an idiot.
I downloaded Smilies and received a host of adware/spyware. Ran spybot S&D and found 153 infections. Removed Smilies. Removed most of the infections with Spybot S&D. Cannot get rid of one infection, called adware.mywebsearch. Each time I run Spybot, it identifies this one infection and says that it cannot be removed. It is active in memory, or some such. Did a file name search and could not find it. BitDefender says that it has blocked this adware.

Is there anything I can do to get rid of this infection?
(Do not lecture me about downloading free stuff.)

aob--I suggest you use this procedure (even though it is free)
http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=167915
But if you are do-it-your-selfer, this is what Google offers.
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...%2Emywebsearch
I suggest you do not use any program that offers to get rid of adware.mywebsearch for a fee.

welshjim:
I think I finally got rid of it. Just in case others refer to this posting, this is what I did.
When to the free set of instructions from P3-450. I was confused. Did not know whether the first set of instructions would suffice or whether I would have to do everything. Downloaded and ran AVG Anti-spyware, which did not show Adware as being there, even though I was still getting pop-up notices from BitDefender. It turns out that BitDefender had quarantined Adware. (Have no idea why I was still getting reminders from BitDefender, if Adware had been quarantined.) I opened the quarantined files and deleted Adware from there. Ran BitDefender again. Found one Adware infection. Quarantined it and then deleted it from quarantine. Ran BitDefender again and Adware was no longer there.

So, I think I am free and clean.

I don't know if there is an answer to this, but I will ask anyway: Is there anyway of determining whether or what spyware is a part of a free download, before downloading?

I'd recommend running hijackthis and letting us have a look at the logfile just to be sure it's been removed completely. Sometimes an a/v won't get all parts of a virus and it will reinfect the computer.


http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=167915

aob--Glad to hear the good news. Do follow fink's advice.
"Is there anyway of determining whether or what spyware is a part of a free download, before downloading?"
Hmmmm. Maybe.
I use a search engine to determine if a program is reported to contain spyware.
And there is a site that helps you determine if an app is a "rogue".
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm though I confess to not having found it too useful, except for really blatant cases.
I also use a HOSTS file to avoid sites that are known (or at least suspected) to deposit baddies.
http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/
And, of course, I have antispyware, antivirus apps installed.
Most importantly, After downloading any executable, I scan it with my antivirus program before installing.

P.S, Your info about BitDefender and the adware is helpful. Though I would not keep the adware in quarantine, rather I would just delete it.

Welshjim:
Does that really work? Are you telling me that I could have scanned the Smilies exe file before executing and saved myself 5-6 hours of frustration?

If it does work, why didn't you guys tell me this years ago?

p.s.
I am going to follow-up on fink's suggestion.

aob--There is no guarantee that your antivirus will find all the baddies in a downloaded file, but the major programs usually will.
To be extra cautious you can also run an unknown executable file though either of these two sites.
http://www.virustotal.com/en/indexx.html or
http://virusscan.jotti.org/ (the latter is down at the moment. I do not know if it is terminal.)
These sites basically scan the unknown file using 10 or more virus/trojan detection programs.