Many of you are running Anti-Spyware Programs in the background to try and prevent Spyware from being installed on your systems. However, when you run more than one of these programs at a time, it can have negative consequences. The programs can end up preventing each other from removing negative changes. So instead of preventing an infection you can become infected.

And then when we try to advise you on the Forums, these same programs prevent you from making the changes which actually do clean up your systems.

The general rule is during a cleanup, please disable all Anti Spyware Scanners until finished.
And only run one at a time in the background.

What are these programs?
Examples are:

Pest Patrol
Microsoft Anti Spyware Beta
AdWatch


What do they do?

They try to prevent new Spyware from installing and making changes to your system. And when you run a full scan, they try to detect and remove these nasties.


We will have more in the coming days. Many of the Experts, Moderators and Administrators have valuable information to add. Tips on how to stop these programs from running will be added and more.


**** Let's keep this Topic as information only. This way it will be easier to read. It will be kept closed to anyone but Staff.


However, this subject merits a good and lively discussion. I have started a discussion in one of the other forums.

Here is the link to it.
http://forum.gladiator-antivirus.com/index...T&f=147&t=25513


Please do ask questions, share observations, tell us your experiences. As we get more information, this topic will grow. So will the discussion, we hope.



Mosaic1

These instructions to disable some of the popular Anti Spyware Scanners are courtesy of various forums and were provided by Expert Member
Autodad

* * * *
We need to disable your Microsoft AntiSpyware Real-time Protection as it may interfere with the fixes that we need to make. It can be enabled when your clean.

Open Microsoft AntiSpyware.
Click on Tools, Settings.
In the left pane, click on Real-time Protection.
Under Startup Options uncheck Enable the Microsoft AntiSpyware Security Agents on startup (recommended).
Under Real-time spyware threat protection uncheck Enable real-time spyware threat protection (recommended).
After you uncheck these, click on the Save button and close Microsoft AntiSpyware.
Right click on the Microsoft AntiSpyware icon on the taskbar and select Shutdown Microsoft AntiSpyware.
_ _ _ _

Please disable SpybotSD TeaTimer, as it may hinder the removal of the infection. You can enable it after you're clean.
To disable SpybotSD TeaTimer:

Open Spybot and click on Mode and check Advanced Mode
Check yes to next window.
Click on Tools in bottom left hand corner.
Click on System Startup icon.
Uncheck Teatimer box.
Click Allow Change box.

You can follow this link if you need help: http://russelltexas.com/malware/teatimer.htm
_ _ _ _

Please disable SpywareGuard, as it may hinder the removal of some entries. You can re-enable it after you're clean.
To disable SpywareGuard:

Right click the running icon of Spywareguard, it will open the program.
Then go to Menu, file, exit.
Then confirm the program is closed.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Please disable AdWatch, as it may hinder the removal of some entries.
To disable AdWatch:

Open AdAware SE.
Go to AdWatch User Interface.
Go to Tools and Preferences.
At the bottom of the screen you will see 2 options Active and Automatic.
Active: This will turn Ad-Watch On\Off without closing it.
Automatic: Suspicious activity will be blocked automatically.
Uncheck both options. You can enable these after resolving your problem.
_ _ _ _ _ _

Please disable SpySweeper, as it may hinder the removal of some entries. You can re-enable it after you're clean.
To disable SpySweeper:

Open it click >Options over to the left then >program options >Uncheck "load at windows startup".
Over to the left click "shields" and uncheck all there.
Uncheck "home page shield".
Uncheck "automatically restore default without notification".


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This excellent a information on Lavasoft's Ad-Watch was provided by Gladiator Moderator Corrine


Please disable Ad-Watch, as it may hinder the removal of some entries.

To disable Ad-Watch:

Right click on the Ad-Watch icon in the system tray.
At the bottom of the screen you will see 2 options, "Active" and "Automatic".

Active: This will turn Ad-Watch On\Off without closing it.
Automatic: Suspicious activity will be blocked automatically.

Uncheck both options as shown in the accompanying sample. (You can enable the options after resolving your problem).