Anyone familiar with the hijacking spyware known as Coolwebsearch?

[Zenithian Legend]

Thanks to Dell I know have some sort of wonderous hijacking device on my computer. I've dealt with it's sort before, but this is a good one. I blame Dell for this because:
1. Last tuesday (week ago) my hard drive died
2. This of course erased my whole computer
3. Dell didn't include all the necessary drivers to get my computer back to normal
4. I went on a downloading frenzy trying to restore everything
5. I finally found a way to install the last missing video driver to get my screen back to normal

And as soon as that had happened *WHAM* homepage keeps changing and I've got some coolwebsearch problems.

I've tried ad-aware, norton anti-virus, spybot, and manually cleaning the registry but alas coolweb is in stealth mode and will not be deleted.

So, now I turn to all of you, maybe stealthyseal can help me out, he's an expert on stealth I'm sure.

[dafoomie]

Have you updated adaware and spybot? My brother had that on his computer and it took it right off.

Also, adaware has scanning options, have it scan all files+folders instead of a smart scan.

[Michaellvortega]

It sounds like your fault. But have you tried the programs, Adaware,Hikackthis,spybot,Windows washer,I'd reformat after putting the drivers on CD's, and redo the system right.

[Ledhed]

Have you updated adaware and spybot? My brother had that on his computer and it took it right off.

Also, adaware has scanning options, have it scan all files+folders instead of a smart scan.

I was just about to say it. Click 'custom' instead of smart scan and do a deep scan of all your files. It may take a while, but it works.

[daphatty]

:roll: I hate spyware...

Where to begin.

I wrote a lengthy how to remove spyware thread months ago so I won't go into to much detail. Two short suggestions. Make sure you run those Spyware programs IN SAFE MODE. If you don't then spyware stays behind. Otherwise, use system restore.

[SpookyD]

I think there are specific programs made to deal with the nasty nasty versions of cws, google for it as I have no clue what it is. There are versions of cws that disable spybot and adaware from working at all (mabye i'm thinking of somthing else though...).

[The_Continental]

I used a utility once called cws shredder that got rid of it pretty well - now I can't find a link to that utility ..hmmm..

[Cornfedwb]

First off, CWshredder is the best way to go (its a program made especially to combat CoolWebSearch, something adaware and spybot wont get rid off). But here's the problem.. the guy who made CWShredder (as well as Hijack This and the site www.merjin.org) got pissed off at spyware and quit. So his site is offline, so far I haven't found another source for CWShredder.

I have the lastest edition on my computer here and can email it if you'd like it. But if you have the newest version of CoolWebSearch, you're fucked. It's what made the guy quit, he just couldn't beat it.

[doraemonkerpal]

argh, i hate coolwebsearch. that spyware fucked my computer over for 4 months straight! i would do what dafoomie and bignick suggested. this seemed to get rid of it for me. best of luck :P

[Zenithian Legend]

coolwebsearch.com actually has a download for CWShredder, but unfortunately it says my security settings won't allow me to download it. I'm gonna try the updates, a restart and then use "safe mode". Appreciate the advice, as always. Worst case scenario I do another reformat, won't be so bad though now that I know where to go to get the right drivers.

[Cornfedwb]

coolwebsearch.com actually has a download for CWShredder, but unfortunately it says my security settings won't allow me to download it. I'm gonna try the updates, a restart and then use "safe mode". Appreciate the advice, as always. Worst case scenario I do another reformat, won't be so bad though now that I know where to go to get the right drivers.

Personally I wouldn't trust the download off of their site.. that just doesn't seem like an ingenious idea to me. I did however find a site I'd tend to trust to download it off of, and 1.59 is the final version, so if anything will clean you this will... and trust me, just download it and run it, it will do a much better job than adaware and spybot run 75 times each.

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/

[Xevious]

Here is a stupid question but I have to ask it anyways. I have Norton Systemworks on my computer. Isn't that enough to prevent spyware programs being installed on my computer?

Or am I being naive? If not, does Norton make any Spyware removal programs?

[beerguy961]

PC Mag (which I got free off this site) says that only CWShredder has a chance of eliminating it. Download it off www.spywareinfo.com

[Moxio]

Run HijackThis! It's always saved me when my browser's been hijacked. It works great.

[Doylerulez]

They had an article on abcnews.com about cool web search being associated with kruegerware as a hard to remove spyware that adaware, spybot and other detection software can't completely remove. They give some pointers but pretty much what's already been said.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/SciTech/US/nightmare_spyware_040818-1.html

[big_squirtle]

Norton Doesn't do shit for spyware. They say they have detection sttings on the new version of norton, but its bullkaka.

Your best bet at eliminating it is going to cnet and downloading a program called BAZOOKA. It will detect the spyware and then tell you step by step how to remove it. It wont remove it for you.
The reason it wont remove it for you is because CoolWeb attaches it self to your registry. If you delete the wrong extension you could be shaq-fued. Dont be discouraged though, Bazooka is pretty good at explaining how to get rid of the problem, provided you pay close attention.

[msdmoney]

I would try everything people have already mentioned ad-aware, spybot, cwshredder and hijackthis. If you still can't get rid of it do a google search and maybe even a google newsgroup search of coolwebsearch to see what other people have done to get rid of it.

[Zenithian Legend]

Wow... I deleted half my registry, reinstalled windows xp... AGAIN... and guess what's still here... stuff like this makes me want to kill people

[coolsteel]

Funny, I ran into this problem yesterday.Ad Aware took it off fine .

[doraemonkerpal]

try this free virus scanner. doesn't always find anything, but it doesn't hurt to try :P it takes about 10 minutes. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

[Zenithian Legend]

Ugh... nothing iw working, this is getting so frustrating. I've never had a problem like this killing off spyware.

How can I get into safe mode and use ad-aware still? My brain is fried from all the stress this past week has given me and I can't figure much of anything out anymore.

[Zenithian Legend]

The best part is how it just keeps slapping me in the face by giving me pop-ups to buy spyware removing software.

[defender]

I got a way for you to fix it forever and NEVER get spyware again..

DONT USE IE.

[bignick]

Is this one of those spyware packages that you have to click yes to download it?

safe mode.

while booting up, keep hitting f8.

[b0bx13]

you should be able to find a cure-all somewhere on this site: www.mozilla.org

[BITADE]

try this
A small utility for removing CoolWebSearch (aka CoolWwwSearch, YouFindAll, White-Pages.ws and a dozen other names). Spybot S&D and Ad-aware tend to forget essential parts of the hijack, so until they update, you can use this to completely remove the hijack. This program is updated to remove the new variants once they come out.

http://www.download.com/CWShredder/3000-8022-10301586.html?tag=list

[Zenithian Legend]

argh, I've tried using shredder, and now safe mode (thanks nick, despite the fact that i really hate that name, or rather hated... let's not go into it) actually thank you everyone... although I'm not sure how I can avoid internet explorer... actually wait that might be the best idea ever, a friend of mine back home uses something else besides internet explorer and he never gets pop ups... the horse is drunk and the wheels are turning, wish him luck!

[BITADE]

Try http://www.mozilla.org/
This is great

[Valkryst]

Why don't you just reformat and dl your drivers from reliable sites.

[Zenithian Legend]

The fact that you guys are seriously trying to help me out for no reason other than to help a fellow CAG nearly chokes me up and brings me to tears after the ultra-shitty week I've been having... thanks, your (all of you) continued assistance to essentially a total stranger, makes me smile in my time of need.

[Zenithian Legend]

Why don't you just reformat and dl your drivers from reliable sites.

Because to be honest with you I'm dumb, drained and not sure how to without leaving certain things still on the computer. I normally know how to do anything/slash/ have the desire too, but this past week with hard drives dying and relationships ending has just been killer on me. Fortunately the next academic year is starting up soon and I only have class on tuesday and thursday so hopefully I can just find a rebound to fuck with and get my mind off my now ex girlfriend.

Anyway how exactly can I go about reformating my wonderous 2400 Dell featuring that awesome product known as Windows XP and make sure I clear out the entire memory.

[Zenithian Legend]

I got a way for you to fix it forever and NEVER get spyware again..

DONT USE IE.

Seriously WSB... I do not know why

Try http://www.mozilla.org/
This is great

You two are my holy saviors, I'm pretty sure if there were a modern day version of the three kings you'd both comprise two of them. Anyway I've switched to mozilla which is hella faster than IE anyway and hopefully this just goes around the whole problem alltogether.

[daphatty]

VOTE DAPHATTY!

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27517&postdays=0&postorder=asc&sta rt=0

[kaw]

This happened to me once. I used HijackThis and it fixed me up good as new: http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_hijackthis.html

After that happened I now strictly use Mozilla Firefox for my browser of choice.

[hutno]

The exact ame thing happened to me I downloaded just about every anti virus/spyware program there was and ran it and something finally did the trick, not sure which one tho

[Zenithian Legend]

Well nothing has worked yet, so I just switched to firefox, which (as I said earlier) turns out to be a lot better browser than IE anyway. So thanks for the advice Mr. Defender and Bitade for the link. I have a friend who is a "tech-guy" for CMU, so hopefully I can get him to come by and clean up IE just to prevent any potential future problems.

[pimp_daddy_smurf]

CWShredder will work for you, i had this problem and CWShredder got rid of it nooooo problemoo

[pinballwiz2004d]

I think the best solution is to just Use another browser (eg. Mozilla, FireFox, etc...)
Microsoft should be forced to fix everyones problems free with their IE browser problems.....what a piece of junk, since I have been seeing a ton of people experiencing this browser hijack problem in the past few months. Sometimes the browser is hijacked in the Search window...and then you experience invasive popups. Hijackthis will work for this problem for a day, and then it just comes back.
...the only reason we are all using IE browser is because all of our computers come with IE installed with the Windows OS.

Just use another browser! 8) :x 8)

[rvdrock]

Zen...I have your solution, its called Bazooka Spyware Scanner. This program finds all kinds of things that Spybot/Ad-Aware miss. It shows you how to delete it from your system manually with easy to follow instructions. I have used it on my and my roommates computer to get rid of all spyware/hijacking software. Hope that helps!

[doraemonkerpal]

hey z legend, i found this for ya:

http://www.fatwallet.com/t/22/304181/

hope it helps.

[Zenithian Legend]

Thanks I bookmarked that, I've pretty much given up on IE though, and I use firefox instead now. I might still have my friend that works as a tech guy for the college, come by and take a look at it, but right now it really doesn't matter because firefox works great.