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  • Contributing Editor Scott Spanbauer offers incisive tips, tricks, and commentary on a broad range of online issues.
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Internet Tips: Download Too Much, Lose Your Broadband

Scott Spanbauer

Beat the CoolWebSearch Hijacker--For Free

You may have noticed that the amount of spam and viruses bombarding your PC has increased sharply over the last year or so. The same is true of yet another Internet plague: spyware. I've been recommending a couple of free anti-spyware tools for the last few years--Lavasoft's Ad-aware and Patrick M. Kolla's Spybot Search & Destroy. Even the combination of these two great spyware and adware cleaners can't stop some versions of an insidious and viruslike pest called CoolWebSearch. Fortunately, a Dutch student who goes by the name Merijn has written a tiny (128KB) free tool called CWShredder that removes dozens of CWS variants.

Send your questions and tips to nettips@spanbauer.com. We pay $50 for published items. Click here for more Internet Tips. Scott Spanbauer is a contributing editor for PC World.

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