A recent download of mine apparently included a file/program named
winactive and another called huntbar both of which are loading my
favorites files and other parts of the computer with unwanted
directories, programs, cookies, etc. How can I get rid of them and
their offspring?  Thank you.

Hi, 

First we?ll deal with Winactive:

More information about Winactive can be found here:

?Pest Patrol.com?
http://www.pestpatrol.com/PestInfo/l/lop_com.asp

There are two way to remove Winactive from your computer :
1. Follow the instructions on the above mentioned site to manually
remove Winactive. Note: this is quite a complicated and time consuming
proces.
2. Run Pestpatrol. Pestpatrol is a program which can detect and remove
a lot of spyware and torjan programs for you.
You can simply download the program and run it from your harddrive, or
you can go through an online scan. Both options are free and can be
found here: http://www.pestpatrol.com/Downloads/Eval/DownloadHomeEvalNew.asp

Pestpatrol will be able to remove Winactive.

Now we get on to Huntbar:

Huntbar is a more dangerous program than Winactive because it has more
privacy and security issues.
More information about Huntbar can be found here:

?Pest Patrol.com?
http://www.pestpatrol.com/PestInfo/H/HuntBar.asp

Again there are two ways to remove Huntbar:
1. Follow the instructions on the above mentioned site to manually
remove Winactive. Note: this is quite a complicated and time consuming
proces.
2. Run Pestpatrol. Pestpatrol is a program which can detect and remove
a lot of spyware and torjan programs for you.
You can simply download the program and run it from your harddrive, or
you can go through an online scan. Both options are free and can be
found here: http://www.pestpatrol.com/Downloads/Eval/DownloadHomeEvalNew.asp

Pestpatrol will be able to remove Huntbar.


Search strategy:
Google: ?huntbar?
Google: ?winactive?

I hope this solves your problem. If you have any more questions,
please ask for a clarification as I am sure I can solve this for you!

Thank you,
paul_b_18