I've now run Ad-aware multiple times and I still cannot seem to get rid of the effects of one particularly voracious spyware program.

Have any of you run into this "Huntbar" stuff? It's driving me insane! It is unimaginable to me that anyone in their right mind could set something like this loose on the internet. No virus I've ever gotten has caused me more frustration than this thing.

It seems to do pretty much anything it can to hijack Internet Explorer and to implant it's self and links to companies that must support it into the Favorites folder, my desktop, my start menu, my startup folder, and my IE address bar.

I have run Ad-aware several times, and it finds elements of the program, but it must not be eliminating the cause of the thing. I am not using any new programs since this thing hit my system. Before I even installed the latest version of Ad-aware, I found instructions on the internet for hwo to remove the program, and that obviously still hasn't worked.

Does anyone here have any experience with this heinous company or its programs?

ps-I'm planning on buying the first tier Ad-aware program so I can get Ad-watch. Hopefully that will give me a clue as to what I'm doing to cause the program to get reloaded.

I've now run Ad-aware multiple times

I take it this includes the new version of Ad-Aware, and that you've done the latest reference file update for it (there was a reference file update shortly after 6.0 was released)?

If so, then I'd say, let the Lavasoft people know about your problem. I'm guessing the Huntbar people know about Ad-aware and may have figured a way around it. And so the battle begins...

No virus I've ever gotten has caused me more frustration than this thing.

I've long been wishing for a program that would combine adware scanning with virus scanning, so I could do both in one step. But your statement brings up another question: Where does one draw the line between adware and virus? Clearly, this program keeps reinstalling itself when you don't want it. To me, that's a virus, and its authors should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and given a punishment equal to that given to virus authors.

I would have no problem with that whatsoever. I've now gone to their website, and sure they have isntructions for removing it (regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSIETS\msiets.dll"), but that's what I did the last time.

I say if I have hacked my registry at least 6 times, risking my computer's stability, and the program continually gets reinstalled, it is definitely a virus.

Yes, I have the latest reference file for 6.0, and it certainly keeps finding whatever is running, but there must be something else I'm using that installs the programs again and Ad-aware can't see it.

After reading this page:
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/HuntBar.html

I'm pretty sure your problem is that you added some site you regularly visit to your "trusted servers" list in IE for running ActiveX controls.

Matthew

That's probably it. Is there a way to avoid this problem in the future? I've already done the steps explained in that file, but it obviously came back.

Check internet options -> security -> trusted sites and see what you've got listed. If a site is listed, it can reinstall the toolbar every time you visit one of their web pages. I'd take everything off the list, and see what messages pop up about "wanting to add this site to your list of trusted sites".

Matthew

Hmmm, I think another problem was that there were still other problem keys in my registry. I removed several that referred to Sidesearch and Trafficsyndicate. I just wish there were a way to avoid the problem coming back.

I don't appear to have anything in that area.

Be sure "enable third party browser extensions" is unchecked in the advanced tab of the Internet Options. This is a common way of getting in (got hit by Xupiter recently, which uses that method.)

If Ad-aware is not able to get it, try Spybot. It is a pretty good spyware killer, maybe as good as Ad-aware.

Spybot does seem to know about it, based on its entry in Spybot's KB. HTH.

-Zeke

Ad-aware knows about it, it just doesn't seem to find the source of it. If it comes back again (*knocks on wood*), I'll give spybot a chance to kill it.