[Daveskater]

This guide is going to show you how to install Spybot Search & Destroy 1.5, and set it up on the first run of the program.

Step 1: Download the installer package
You can download the latest version of Spybot Search & Destroy from here (1.5.2 at time of writing), or you can get the 1.5.1 Beta 2 version, which works faster than 1.5.1, from here. For this guide I am using the Beta 2 version. Save it to your desktop or wherever you prefer to save installer packages to.

Step 2: Install the program
Run the installation package from wherever you saved it to, and choose your preferred language from the list.

Follow the on-screen instructions, but when you get to this screen:

You may wish to uncheck Create a quick launch icon (as I have done), and the TeaTimer option. If you leave the TeaTimer box checked, then the Teatimer.exe file will run at startup, and ask for confirmation each time a registry entry is about to be changed.
Important: If you are installing this program from an instruction in the Malware Removal forum, uncheck the TeaTimer option, otherwise it may come up whilst cleaning your computer, and if you press the wrong button, will prevent your computer from being cleaned.

Continue following the instructions, and then the installer will download extra files, and install them to your hard drive.

You will now be asked to restart your computer. If you're in the middle of something else, say reading this, then click no and restart manually, or close your other programs then press Finish.

Step 3: First run
Once you have restarted your computer, run Spybot either from the start menu, or from the desktop.

When the program has loaded, a prompt will come up with the button "Create registry backup" on it. Click this button and wait for Spybot to complete a backup of the registry. This may take a minute or two.

Once this has finished, click Next. Now it will prompt you to check for updates. Choose the mirror that is closest to you, and select all the available updates to download. If in doubt about which mirror to choose, use the one at the top of the list, marked (Global).

Once this has finished, close the update window and go back to the Spybot window and click Next. You will now be asked to immunize your system. The immunization process only takes a few seconds so once this has finished, click Next again and then click the button marked "Start using the program". This will take you to Spybot's normal window, and you will not have to go through the prompts again.

Step 4: Scanning
To run a scan, click Search & Destroy on the left hand side and then click "Check for problems". When the scan has finished, a list of infected items will appear, if there are any. To clean the items, simply click "Fix selected items". All items are selected by default.

If you want to know more about a scan result, click on it so that it is highlighted and expand the yellow bar by clicking the grey box with triangles pointing to the left on it. If you have downloaded the latest "Definition updates", then this should show a description of the entry. In my experience, though, there have been one or two that don't have a description, even after a couple of updates, but they're never major infections anyway.

That's it! I hope this has been an informative guide and you enjoy having such a good program in your arsenal.

[viseeu]

Nice to see this post. Forgot I had Spybot, ergo had not used it lately
so, did updates and ran.

I do use AVG antivirus and spyware, plus Ad-Aware Professional and ad-watch, but Spybot usually picks up things missed by others.

thanks

[Daveskater]

Thanks for your feedback, viseeu. Spybot is a good program and I had to do a guide to installing it for part of my malware removal training, so made it a bit bigger and posted it here, taking screen shots along the way.

I'm going to close this thread now as it is intended for information and reference only. If anybody else has any more feedback on this thread, feel free to PM me.