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Tutorials Spybot Search & Destroy
Introduction
Spybot S&D is a free antispyware scanner but it reuires more than downloading / installing and scanning to be effective. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye for example the Start up editor which stops every application under the sun from running on boot, the immunisation system which protects against known exploits and dodgy sites and the BHO (Browser Helper Object) remover which nukes all those irritating web search helpers and re-directors. This tutorial is aimed at beginners to reasonably experienced users and is a setup for the basic spybot system plus a walk through the deeper depths in order to use Spybot effectively.
1. Installation
2. Setup Spybot S&D
3. Using Spybot S&D - Malware Removal
4. Using Spybot S&D - Start up Program Control
5. Using Spybot S&D - BHOs (Browser Helper Objects)
1. Install Spybot S&D Go here and download the latest version v1.5 - v1.5 works with Windows XP and Windows Vista.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
Save it to your desktop or to a temporary folder then double click it. OK don't just click through the installation routine there is a better way to avoid the inevitable updating problems which need to be set up after not during installation as follows.
1. Select Custom Installation and untick "Download Updates Immediately" as below. Also you don't need Icons for blind users, additional languages are optional and skins are not necessary unless you want them, but I install it as below. 
2. In the next window select options as below.
3. Click "Finish"
4. This is compulsary the "advertising" industry insisted on this, its rubbish I have never found anything does not work with adware removed that I would ever want to use in the first place - just select "dont show again" and OK it
5. Next screen asks to do a registry backup, might as well for now could not hurt. When you click the button watch for the green next button below to re-activate after the registry backup is complete - it takes a few minutes.
6. Now click on the "Next" button and keep clicking on it right through, do not bother with any of the offered options skip it al, l there is a good reason for this. Do not "Download Updates" as offered or anything just click through it all with the next / skip button.
7. Finally you get to this screen - Click on the "Start using the program" button.
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2. Setup Spybot S&D
1. OK now its installed Spybot needs to be set up correctly, below is the default first screen, click the "Search for Updates" button as shown (remember I deliberately said ignore this as part of the installation routine - this is where you update it).
2. Ok when you click "Search for Updates" the following screen appears, there is a list of sites worldwide where you can update Spybot. The best option is "Safer Networking" Europe or America because Safer Networking is Spybot's home and will always have the very latest updates, the rest are all mirrors this is why I said do not update in during installation because it picks one at random and usually the busiest so it takes hours. I use Safer Networking 2 Europe, click on it and select "Continue".
3. Now you will have a list of updates, tick ALL the boxes and click on "Download" progress is shown in the window and it can take a while for the first update of Spybot.
4. Once updated the window will close, now we have to use the updates to Immunise the system, yep it does exactly what it says it Immunises your system, unless you do this step Spybot is not protecting your system properly. Click on the "Immunise" shield on the left hand side of the window.
5. OK if you look in the top right hand side of the immunise window you will see 3 figures - unprotected, protected and total. The unprotected files are the ones not built in to the last version of Spybot so you have to update these. Look at the top left of the window and click the green + Immunise button. Click it and the immunisation update will run as shown by a progress bar across the top.
6. After immunisation the numbers at the top right should show unprotected = 0. Finally click the "Search & Destroy" button top left.
Spybot S&D is now installed and set up, updates should be done about once a week and the immunisation run to install the latest exploit blocks after getting the latest updates.
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3. Using Spybot S&D - Malware Removal
Note Windows System Restore can prevent the removal of some malware and viruses to be fully effective it should be turned off during scanning and removal. See instructions here 1. To use Spybot S&D effectively you have to scan for malware, in order to do this you must have fully updated Spybot first as above. To scan start Spybot and click on "Check for Problems" this will take a fairly long time about 20 minutes. Progress is shown across the bottom of the screen. 
2. When the scan is finished it will look like the screen below, mine has only the "Microsoft Windows Security Centre Disabled" listed as a problem, I did this on purpose I hate those stupid nannying little shields "your antivirus may not be up to date" etc so I disable it. Any problems will be listed in red - on the right hand side you will see two arrows, click on the button between them and a window will slide out giving you more information about the problem. To remove the problems click on "Fix Selected Problems" then re-boot if Spybot requests a re-boot, some stuff cannot be removed when Windows is running and has to be done on a re-boot.
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4. Using Spybot S&D - Start up Control
A lot of software from almost all manufacturers will always try to get itself running at boot up, this is OK in specific cases but most of the time it is irritating, slows boot up and shut down considerably, wastes resources (you do not need a Nokia Phone Browser on start up or Quicktime etc etc) and in the worst cases automatically shares files (Peer to Peer file sharing software) and hogs your bandwidth by downloading ads (Spyware) or malicious scripts taking control of your PC for use as a botnet zombie or similar (trojans and viruses).
Things you want to run on startup are Antivirus, Firewall and other Security Software like Trojanhunter. Stuff you don't includes everything else that pops up in the tray by the clock - it does NOT need to be automatically run on startup, if its needed it will start when an application requires it. Some is useful and you may want it at startup but it is unecessary so only allow things you really need to run at startup.
Most legit software has an option somewhere to prevent run on startup (if you can find it) malicious stuff does not. Spybot allows you to control exactly what runs and what does not as follows.
1. Start Spybot S&D, update it fully as above then click "Mode" and select "Advanced Mode" - you will see a "are you sure" warning click OK.
2. Now at the bottom left more option buttons appear - click on the "tools" button.
3. On the next screen click on the "System Startup" button
4. OK that comes up with a complicated mess at first sight but actually it is quite easy. Click between the arrows on the right hand side to get descriptions and advice on the applications running on startup. Green is good and usually essential; Yellow is desirable but optional; White is optional usually not needed on start up.
5. On the left are check boxes, use the information provided to decide if you want an application to run on start up, if you do not just untick it. For example I do not need the Nokia Phone Browser running at start up so I untick it, also if you look further down Quicktime is unticked as well I don't need it unless I am using it in which case it will start automatically. You can experiment by unticking things and seeing if there is any detrimental effect then just tick them again if there is. Be sure to check the information panel on the right if not sure, some of these startup scripts are essential to run windows. Contact me if you are unsure about something - contact
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5. Using Spybot S&D - BHOs (Browser Helper Objects)
Browser Helper Objects can be desirable - like Adobe Reader, Google Toolbar etc or Malicious - like (My Way Toolbar) and its ilk, some are dangerous and silently log then send your browsing habits to 3rd parties so they can target ads and spam you to death. If you insist on using the rotten Internet Explorer browser then Spybot can get rid of the less desirable helpers.
1. You should be in advanced mode (top of screen Mode > Advanced) then click "Tools" button on the bottom left of the screen to get the screenshot below, double click BHOs.
2. The BHO screen shown will list all BHOs being used, good ones have a green tick and are OK anything else should be destroyed by highlighting it and clicking the remove button.
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