Toolbar HiJacker
 

picked up a HiJacker called crwroastqus. It is very similar to Xupiter. Xupiter you could get rid of by running Spy Bot, this thing I think has disabled my Spy Bot. I ran AdAware, which acknowledge that I had a program called Scratch Ticket which is a companion program. But after running it, I still have the toolbar. Any suggestions.

Start in safe mode. You may be able to run spybot in safe mode, or just do a search for files named crwroastqus and remove them.

ewwwww.. good luck!

For future reference you should also download the Spybot's sister program SpywareBlaster. It drastically cuts down on the spyware. This stuff reaches the heights of pain-in-the-assness. I feel for you man.

I remember coming across some instructions on manually removing xupiter and one of the things that was mentioned is to go into the downloaded program files directory (%systemroot%/downloaded program files) and then deleting anything that you can't identify in there (one common thing to see is the shockwave flash object).

Example:
go into c:\winnt\downloaded program files\ and then delete anything that looks like {0123145-0123-468138-0af123456}, you may get some warnings that it can't be uninstalled properly but you can ignore that.

If any of those objects are needed by websites you visit, you should be prompted to reinstall it the next time you visit the site.
I have found that this helps get rid of some of the annoying spyware when you don't have the time to install/run adaware or spybot.

Thanks for your help, still can't get rid of it, guess i will have to use Netscape or Avant Browser.

not sure what I did, but it is gone
 

I ran Adaware a few times, deleted some stuff from my start up menu. but it is gone for now, knock on wood. thanks again for the help.
:p

I have used Linux to scratch stuff off a windows drive that windows won't let me remove (assuming you can find the offending files). If you have broadband you could download the Knoppix distribution (runs Linux off a CD without needing to repartition), burn onto a CD, reboot and you're in. Several linux GUI filemanagers are very similar in behaviour to Win Explorer, I forget which one(s) knoppix offers. Can't do it if you're using NTFS though.

Get Knoppix here if you're interested:
http://www.linuxiso.org/