First, you will need to download "Ad-aware 6".

Ad-aware Homepage

After installing Ad-aware to the directory of your choice, you need to click the "Check for updates button", (bottom right of the program) make sure you are connected to the Internet first before you do this.

Open Ad-aware and click "Check for updates now".

Click the "Connect" button.

Click "OK" to download the update.

Click "Finish" when the update is done downloading.

When the update is finished, downloaded and installed, you will want to check "Use Custom Scanning Options" and click on "Customize" to the right of that option.

You should see two options on the bottom of the "Customize" menu, they are red and have an 'X' through them. You'll want to check the "Scan my IE Favorites for banned URLs" and "Scan my Hosts file" and make them green.

When this is done it should like the below image:

Now click the "Proceed" button to return to the main screen. Click "Next" to start scanning.

When done scanning, the program will make a sound and it will show you how many spyware objects it found.

Select "Next" on the bottom right.

The next screen you'll see will show the spyware on your system. You should 'right-click' on the screen - at the top of the menu you will see 'Select all objects', click on that.

After doing that, click on the button on the bottom that says "Next", it will ask if you want to remove the objects, click "OK". After doing that you will be done with part one of this guide. (Note: The scan may take several minutes to complete if you have a lot of spyware or if your system is slow.)

*Ad-aware may ask you if you want to rerun it after your computer starts the next time because some spyware might not have been removed. If so, just click "OK" and restart your computer before moving on with this guide.
**Sometimes you will have to run Ad-aware in 'Safe Mode' (tap 'F8' upon boot up to enter 'Safe Mode') if you can't run it in Windows normally. This is because spyware can crash Ad-aware.

Next: Spybot S&D

 

Select 1. Introduction 2. Adaware 3. Spybot S&D (1) 4. Spybot S&D (2) 5. Spybot S&D (3) 6. Spywareblaster (1) 7. Spywareblaster (2) 8. Spywareblaster (3) 9. Closing Thoughts