I would like to find out more about the architecture of windows95 and
98. Norton and other books published on the subject are too
complicated for me to understand. Does anybody know how I can find out
the locations on the disk in DOS of the directories of the various
applications listed in the "add/remove program" accessible by
Start-settings-control panel- add/remove? With this knowledge I could
remove items such as "intersitial ad delivery by 180 search assistant"
or "DAD Lookups by 180 search Assistant" which I have not installed,
and suspect AOL has installed maybe as revenge for cancelling AOL. I
suspect these programs are messing me up with constant popups, and I
cannot remove them neither with the add\remove facility nor with the
"Win-ultra-cleaner" cd-rom both of which require that I be connected
to the internet , which I am prevented to do because of the constant
popups.
If I knew the location and names of the directories I could use debug
to substitute hexadecimal E5 for the first letter of the directory and
the rest of the Garbage will become lost files which I hope to be able
to delete.
Any other information on windows architecture or how Norton utilities
could be used to do such kind of jobs, explained in layman's terms,
would be highly appreciated.

Hi again vaac,

You have picked up some spyware and trackware along the way but they
shouldn't be too difficult to get rid of (if you've heard of an
uninstaller, please do not use it).

You can read about the adware you have here:
Adware.Ncase:
http://sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/adware.ncase.html

Please download and scan with Adaware (update before running):
http://www.spychecker.com/program/adaware.html

It wouldn't hurt to scan for viruses as well, using an online virus scan.
HouseCall:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

For your information -

Dealing with Unwanted Spyware and Parasites:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

Inside Spyware:
http://www.intranetjournal.com/spyware/

Spyware Removal Software:
http://www.intranetjournal.com/spyware/removal.html#scansoft

Spyware Prevention Software:
http://www.intranetjournal.com/spyware/preventsoft.html

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions before
closing/rating my answer and I'll be happy to respond.

Thank you - good luck,
hummer

Search Strategy:
180 search Assistant

---

Request for Answer Clarification by vaac-ga on 11 May 2004 21:44 PDT

I downloaded ...spychecker... but do not understand what you mean by
"(update before running)"

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 12 May 2004 05:02 PDT

Hi vaac,

This sort of software works in the same way as your virus scan, it
needs to be updated with the latest data in order to be able to find
the newest spyware which may be on your computer.

Go online.
Click on the Ad-aware 6.0 icon that is on your desktop.
Click the "Check for Update Now" link, which is directly above the "Start" button.
After it updates itself, click "Start".
Tick "Perform Smart System Scan"
Click "Next" and it will start scanning your system.

hummer

---

Request for Answer Clarification by vaac-ga on 12 May 2004 11:00 PDT

I have downloaded adware and
I have visited http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
but cannot figure out from there how to purchase
and/or download "Housecall"
Also do I need the other files at:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 12 May 2004 11:53 PDT

Hi vaac. Ok, you are doing fine. 

1) HouseCall its an *online* virus scan - there is nothing to download
except maybe a setup program.
Go to: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Click: "Scan Now. It's Free!"
Choose your country.
You will probably be told that you need to download a setup program -
go ahead and download it.
Finally you will see a java screen -  just click on Scan Now (I'm not
sure of the exact words) and it will scan your computer online.
Both steps usually take quite a while as it is a very thorough scan.

2) Ad-aware: did you run it after you updated it as I explained in my
previous clarification?

3) I just gave you the link at,
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm , for your your information -
you shouldn't need it if all goes well with Ad-aware. Just run your
Ad-aware and do a HouseCall scan and see how they go. Hopefully they
will be all that you need.

Good luck -
hummer

---

Request for Answer Clarification by vaac-ga on 12 May 2004 20:15 PDT

Clicking on Ad-aware gives"a required DDL file Ws2_32DDL"was not found

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 13 May 2004 03:53 PDT

1) Do you have Windows 95? If so, download this file:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUNetworking/dunwinsky2k/Default.asp

2) Did you run the HouseCall scan yet? If not, do that also.

hummer

---

Request for Answer Clarification by vaac-ga on 07 Jun 2004 12:24 PDT

I have spent many hours trying to follow your advice and claifications
with no results. Adware took a long time to list all the spyware  but
it was there next time I started the computer. Only after doing this
several times I became aware that I need to download or purchase
something to REMOVE the listed spyware. I was unable to do this. House
clean calls for downloading a setup program ,which I tried but after
over an hour "downloading" with no results I gave up.

Thus I have decided not to throw more good time after bad, have
purcased a small disk and windows98, will try to backup the infected
data, reformat the infected disk and install win95 again on it.

I do not think that this question was answered to the extent a rating is required.

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 07 Jun 2004 13:35 PDT

Hi vaac, I'm sorry to hear you've been having so much trouble, but
that is what the "Request for Clarification" is there for - to ask
questions and work things through to the end.

In regards to HouseCall, it *does* take a fair bit of time to download
the setup program if you have an older computer, but it is worth it.
What OS were you using? Perhaps Internet Explorer would work better
than Netscape.

In regards to Ad-aware, you don't have to buy anything to remove the
spyware that it finds - it is free to use. Did you look at the log
when it was finished scanning? Once the scan is finished, to continue
cleaning your system, click "next".

Again, I'm sorry - I can only say that I wish you had gotten in touch
sooner. Good luck with your reformatting.

Sincerely,
hummer

Unfortunately the list that you see in Add/Remove Programs is just a
list of the programs that Windows thinks *should* be on your computer,
so purely removing those entries from that list will not make Windows
behave any differently. You can find this list by clicking Start, Run,
typing REGEDIT and pressing OK. Then in the tree that appears,
navigate your way down to My
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
Under that you will see a lot of entries that look similar to
{31E2413D-8AA1-43EC-8B8D.....} but with different digits. When you
click on each one you will see in the right hand pane it will show a
list of entries. What you're looking for are the DisplayName and
UninstallString. The DisplayName is what you see in the Add/Remove
Programs window, while the UninstallString is the program that gets
run when you click the "remove" button. Hopefully that UninstallString
will have a directory in it that might give you a hint of where to
find the rogue programs.

Regarding the popups it does sound like your computer has gotten
invested with spyware, and perhaps you should try downloading (or
getting from a magazine CDROM if you can't get online) some software
to remove it (such as Ad-Aware).