Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

What do I do if my spyware scanner hangs?

I tried to run Spybot, got 3/4 done and then it hung up on file
called WhenU.SaveNow. It will not go farther and I cannot get out by closing
the window or by task manager. It shows an error and wants to know if I want to
send it to microsoft. Anyway, I have to shut the computer off. Sometimes even
that doesn’t work and I have to unplug it.

Dang, spyware’s been getting nasty. Spyware scanners sometimes hang or fail to detect everything. This is just another case. Here are the
steps I’d take:

Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!

  • I’d start by grabbing a copy of AdAware and try
    scanning with that as well. Both Spybot and AdAware are good, maybe AdAware can
    get past that spot and clean it up.

  • It might even be necessary to run additional
    spyware scanners
    .

  • Update the databases for the spyware tools, as well as the virus
    scanner I’m sure you’re running.

  • Run a virus scan as well.

  • And to be safe, I’d run the System File
    Checker
    to repair any residual damage.

The bottom line is that spyware is probably the internet’s greatest growing
threat. Make sure you’re doing all you can to protect yourself.

Do this

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

I'll see you there!

2 comments on “What do I do if my spyware scanner hangs?”

  1. Try booting in safe mode and running spybot in safe mode .Then Shutdown and reboot normal, then re-running spybot again. Then run ad-aware after that. I had several computers do that and running spyware cleaners in safe mode fixes that problem.

    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.