I have Windows XP with SP2 and broadband. I regularly update and/or run Zone Alarm, AVG, Pest Patrol, Windows Defender, Ad-aware and Spybot. Today when scanning Spybot in Search and Destroy it stopped halfway and showed in the bottom line "CoolWWWSearch". Should be grateful for suggestions as to how to overcome this.

TRy running Spybot and adaware in safe mode, this will clear it out.

Also try the CWShredder tool:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4086.html

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Originally Posted by Curlyben

TRy running Spybot and adaware in safe mode, this will clear it out.

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Did as Curlyben suggested but it had no effect. Should be glad of further suggestions

I did of course assume that both apps where fully updated before you ran the scans.
Oh well, have you tried Stu's advice ?

Check out this Spybot article:
The home of Spybot-Ugly new CoolWWWSearch variant

There you'll find a link to a remover for CoolWWWSearch.

I did as Stumeg suggested but CW Shredder found nothing suspicious. I uninstalled and reinstalled Spybot but the screen froze when it found CWS I could not even log it. Will now do as rickj suggests but doubt they will have useful advice or they would have altered their programme to delete the bug. Further suggestions would be welcome

Spybot suggested a programme "CWS Smart Search (v1/v2) mini removal" but I was unable to unzip it or something certainly it would not run.

Still got this horrible Coolwebsearch. Have carried out all the suggestions so far including running spybot in safe mode. The article that Rickj suggested led me to a programme that would not unzip as I said previously. Would appreciate any further help

For the latest verson of CWShredder go here: http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract..._download.html

Have just downloaded and run CWShredder as NeedKarma suggested. A long list of CWS variants but al showed "not present". Just ran spybot again but it froze at CoolWWWSearch as usual

During my tech support days (a year ago) we sometimes had to format and rebuild Windows machines that were so infected with CWS that we couldn't rid the PC of it. Might want to start archiving out your precious data. :(

Howdy:

Do yourself a big favor and head over to www.cybertechhelp.com and post your question in the Cyber safety Forum there.. They have people that are actually trained in malware removal rather than people that are full of good intentions but don't have the expertise needed for most malware problems..

I am not slighting this site, simply telling you where to go to get the appropriate help!

Murray

When normal programs do not work to remove nasty spyware and you are infected with new varients of spyware you would need to get your hijackthis log looked over by a leading spyware forum like bleepingcomputers or spywareinfo or subratam. Please read

Preparation Guide For Use Before Posting A Hijackthis Log, Instructions for receiving help in cleaning your computer

And then post the log into the HijackThis Logs and Analysis forum

Also, try the ewido anti-malware scanner. I put spyfalcon on to a computer at work where I was doing tech support for Cox Communications' security suite. Our software couldn't touch it, Microsoft defender struggled, but ewido pulled it right off. I believe it can do the same for your cwwsearch.
http://www.ewido.net