Virus Protection questionFollow

(Yes, I know we have a tech forum. It's slow and I'm antsy).

Ever since I got my new computer last year I've been too cheap to buy new virus protection. Instead I've been relying on a bunch of free programs and have never had an issue until tonight.

I think I have a keylogger. PC Tools' Spyware Doctor is finding a trojan.adh in my system, but none of my other scanners is finding it (which makes removal a bit tough). I could shell out $30 for the removal capabilities of this program, but reading reviews online gives it a mixed bag (CNET rates it around 3.5/5). So my other option is try and edit it out in regedit, or find a different spyware remover. So far I've failed to find it with:

Spy Dig
Emsisoft's Anti-Malware
Simply Super Software's Trojan Remover (highly recommended on CNET, free for 30 days, nothing found... sigh).

Anyone have any other recommendations for free programs, or can they vouch for Spyware Doctor's full version? I hate blowing money on stuff I know I can find for free. I had a version of Mcafee on my old computer, but alas the University only allows one copy to be bought per person, so I couldn't get it on my new computer.

Edited, Jun 4th 2011 12:12am by LockeColeMA

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and suggest that if only one program is reporting it and you can't find detailed manual removal instructions on the net, it might either be a false positive or scareware. If the program reporting it is directly advertising the suggested removal tool, I'd almost bet money on the scareware side of things. Don't waste your money until you can confirm the existence / effectiveness / danger of the report.

And as always, if have even a remote cause to believe you're infected with a keylogger, avoid typing in any passwords or personal information until you're certain. Generally speaking, a format / reinstall is the most effective (even if not the quickest) way to deal with these things.

Next time put a condom on your computer before looking at ****.

I'm not in the comupter building or fixing area anymore like I used to be. I do however,
still have friends that still do repairs and I've been helping people with their problems
for a while now. I use the same free Anti-virus and Anti Malware programs that they use at
the repair shop. Malwarebytes is what I also use and its a good gree program. I had used
Lavasofts program previously but they are not up to snuff thses days. For Anti-Virus I use
AGV now.

I use smitfraudfix, spybot s&d, malewarebytes, and ad aware a lot all you can get from the cnet download page except for smitfraudfix. I have friends that don't like their computers much. I also have a program called rskill (got it off of bleepingcomputer.com) that stops the process of most every thing so the adware can't stop these prgrams from running or installing if it gets bad enough.

I have been able to clean most systems with these alone, and buying AVG was prolly the best thing I have done every infection I have got on my computers since then have been entirely my fault for thinking I knew better than AVG.

I thought this was going to be a thread about varus' insurance company.