Another update with a lot of new things i will never recognize.

Im all for it!

Yet another piece of software that is required in anyones arsenal of fighting spyware/adware.

This software used to be owned by the same maker of HijackThis, Merijn...but he has since sold it to InterMute. I really don't mind as long as it stays free.

The whole deal with this software is that it will check known locations of a multitude of CoolWebSearch variants and remove them. CoolWebSearch is one of the worst spyware/adware out there. It most commonly will hijack your Internet Explorer default pages (start page, search page, etc.). It will integrate into the startup. It will integrate as an Internet Explorer BHO. The worst of all is that it has the ability to remain dormant and recreate itself after you "think" you cleaned it...as if it is like a dormant strain of HIV or something...terrible.

For the most part, CWS (as its commonly referred to) is efficient in removing most known variants of CoolWebSearch. When you run this software, it scans for each variant it knows and will report either "not present", indicating that the variant is not present on the system, or "removed" indicating it removed the variant.
For the most part, you will find the "not present" quite often, since the software supports detection for a lot of older variants of CoolWebSearch that arent that common nowadays, thanks to improved detection by your favorite anti-spyware/adware programs like Microsoft AntiSpyware and Webroot SpySweeper, to name a few.

Where this program falls a bit short is with the fact that CoolWebSearch is a lot like the AIDS virus....it keeps creating new strains, but this is a problem with all spyware/adware removers. But this is why InterMute bought it. InterMute probably knows this and is willing to update the software to support every new strain of CoolWebSearch discovered. I have found though that even this version, v2.13, has problems in removing one very common variant of CoolWebSearch, CWS.HiddenDLL. I encountered it on one system and it just kept coming back...and CWS kept seeing it, but it did nothing...nothing but a clean reinstall of Windows fixed it.

But this software has TONS of promise since most antispyware-antiadware programs just dont have support for removing all the variants of CoolWebSearch when CWShredder does.

Overall: great program. Highly recommended for anyone. Even if you dont think you are infected with CoolWebSearch, you just might be.

Although not the prettiest program in the world, this program does what it says. I picked up a CoolWebSearch adaware infection while LAN-ing at a friend's house without a firewall, and and when I got home, the usual spyware fighters weren't working (Ad-Aware, for example)...so I Google'd this program. It took a few seconds to check my drive out, then made me restart...but when I got back, CoolWebSearch was completely gone.

CWShredder works like a charm.