By Lou Dolinar
Last in a series
Updated Feb. 14, 2006

There comes a day in the life of every computer when you have to ask: Is it time to start over?

You've tried the basic prescriptions we've given you over the last few weeks. But the PC is still slow and crash prone, or Internet Explorer loads the wrong home page or other web pages you don't want. Ad-Aware, Spybot and virus scanners haven't helped. You've even cleaned out unnecessary files and programs and stripped down your Startup items and Toolbar. What gives?

One possibility: You have an exotic form of spyware or trojan horse that standard programs can't detect or remove. This kind of problem is growing, because spyware authors, unlike the guys who write viruses, aren't necessarily interested in spreading their crud as widely as possible. In some cases—for example, if stealing financial information, or turning your PC into a mailer for spam-- they'd rather operate under the radar on a few hundred machines without attracting attention, than risk detection by spreading too widely. So the screening companies and the tools they create haven't caught up with them yet.

You can remove this kind of exotic spyware by hand (more on that later), but in a lot of cases, it is going to be easier to start over. You back up your data then use the system restore disk that came with your PC to overwrite the old copy of Windows with a new one, then reinstall all your software, obliterating any and all problems in one fell swoop. This also clears up creeping decrepitude that results from the errors that may accumulate over months and years when you repeatedly install and delete program and drivers.

The downside to a full reinstall is that it can take hours, particularly if you have to update Windows on line. Then there's always the fear that you'll miss some important data in the backup you run (We like Replicator, from www.karenware.com, because you can easily spot-check the content of individual files you've backed up; alternately, you can use the File and Settings Transfer Wizard built into XP to move your data to disk or to another networked computer).

(As an aside here, you might want to check your computer for overheating, which can produce virus and spyware like symptoms.)
After you've run all the recommended spyware scanners, and before you take this kind of drastic step, it is worth one last shot with a free program called Hijack This!

The program was written by brilliant and dedicated dutch student, Merijn Bellekom, to deal with a particularly nasty browser hijacker called “Cool Web Search.” Variants of this spyware proliferated faster than he could write hunter-killer software, so he came up with a general purpose tool that looked all the different settings on PCs, including startup items, registry settings, and Internet settings that spyware typically attacks, and enabled him to selectively test and disable the items.

Given this history, you can see why it takes a patient and/or knowledgeable person to use Hijack This! Most of the hundred or more entries the program detects belong on your computer, referring to programs, hardware, or Internet destinations you've added since a fresh version of Windows was installed. Delete any of these, and you'll disable some of your computer's functions. On the other hand, you can compare the list to known problem entries, and often pick up pieces of malware that your scanners have missed. There will also be entries that you can't identify. As a last resort, you can publish you logs on line at various forums, where experts are more than willing to dissect problematic entries.

A lot of trouble? Absolutely. Still, if you're interested in how computers work, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Start at www.spywareinfo.com, probably the top clearing house for anti-spyware software, hardware, and how-tos and download a copy of Hijack This! (Owner Mike Healan also hosts Bellekom's site as well.). Then take the time to read Healan's FAQ on how to use the program. Pay particular attention to etiquette—the volunteer spyware swatter don't take kindly to folks who waste their time by not following directions.

I was relieved after spending a couple of hours playing with Hijack This! By the time I had finished my usual computer cleanup, I was familiar enough with the guts of the PC to identify 90 percents of the items listed in its database. As for the rest, well, that's what Google's for...