good advice bobboy....I've never had to fully deal with this problem as I build all my machines...the use of HiJackThis would also pull up a lot of hits I'm sure, but use of that program is not for the beginner as it takes knowledge of what is supposed to be on your machine to fully decipher...

Pre-built Vs Home built
 

Peerless

When you build your own PC you are your own quality control manager and are completely aware of all the software and hardware that goes into your machine, which requires a certain amount of knowledge and time.

Unfortunately, most people do not have the knowledge and/or the time to to build their own PCs and so are at the mercy of the manufacturers (& computer store sales staff).

And lack of time is why I bought my PC and ended up having to clean off pre-installed spyware.

This "pre-installed spyware" does not show up in Control Panel's "Add or Remove Programs" or, as mentioned before, can be detected by Ad Aware or Spybot.

As for HJT detection, I'm not so sure, I believe, this spyware is possibly seen as either legitimate applications or part of the O/S.

The only way to know for sure if HJT will clean pre-installed spyware is by running it on a new store bought PC. But as said, people who buy PCs from stores do not have the knowledge or experience to run HJT or even realise that there is spyware on their machines.


UK Bob

well, there would only be one way to find out, and that's try it..

every time I've run HJT I see a LOT of stuff that is pulled up, which makes me think it would work for ridding a new computer of its burdens...

I had some weird stuff going on once and tried out HJT and found my browser had been compromised (luckily I was awake and noticed the weirdness)...HJT cleaned it right up...