Help!! Can't remove DyFuCA, sidefind, and istbar programs

[phaseolus]

...that some damn website installed on my computer. AdAware (with the July 24 reference file) finds the stuff and quarantines all the files and registry keys it finds, but upon rebooting & running AdAware again the stuff comes back. I've found a couple procedures for pokin' around the registry to remove DyFuCA but the registry keys in question are gone already...

So has anyone had any luck getting rid of these once & for all?? Any suggestions? Should I start saving up for a Mac??

thanks in advance...

[kerryin2004]

1. stay away from those sites

http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/library/dyfuca/index.phtml

http://www.antivirusworld.com/articles/dyfuca.php

If you place in the names in google you can find a wealth of information:)

[liberalpress]

2. Try This

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

[Peachhead22]

3. Spybot and HijackThis

Like the link the previous poster mentioned, Spybot S&D is a great little program. Use it along with Ad-Aware. Each program will catch what the other didn't.

However, I've had situations where I knew I had something, but neither Spybot S&D and AdAware caught and removed it.

I suggest you first try Spybot S&D, but if you still think you've got something the try HijackThis. It's at http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/. But after you've ran HijackThis you need to post the results to the Tom Coyote forums (registration required unfortunately)-or another similar forum- and get their help. If you just start checking off stuff that HijackThis finds you can do damage unless you're sure what you're doing. HijackThis list everything, good and bad, then you have to manually remove the bad.

[bucknaked]

4. Time for a PC enema.

I had to give up a bunch of MP3 files, personal pics of my ex ;) , and all kinds of stuff when my computer became so laden with spyware. Now, I just upload pertinent stuff to my website (same can be done with a cd writer), and shove the recovery disk in as soon as I find that crap.

BTW, carefully read the install prompts that come up on those sites, they'll trick you by saying something like "do you NOT want us to install this garbage on your PC, by clicking NO, you agree to..."

[Deja Q]

5. Why buy a Mac when Linux costs much less and isn't terribly difficult to

use?

There ARE differences (namely in the form of security permissions), but they're generally better than Windows' flaws.