Reading through the original posting I instantly recognised www.coolsearch.

That is not its real name. Basically it is a very comprehensive suite of small programs. All together it is one hell of a spyware program that hijacks internet explorer among other things. To date I have found nothing that will remove it. That and other problems have, made me decide to get the hard drive wiped clean at the next opportunity. This is really the only sure way. This piece of spyware has "spread tendrils" through Explorer to make it very hard to remove. It also changes and adds some files to the system32 folder which, I have found out, is something that you can not mess with. What I have also found is that if you do not get rid of it completely, it will send Explorer back to the website to reinfect your machine.

This spyware has utilised weaknesses in Internet Explorer that are only now being addressed by Microsoft. For safer surfing in the future use Opera. It is a no frills browser that has become very popular where I am working (Mexico). It seems to be immune to the spyware problem and most of my work colleagues use it exclusively.

Now to the other name I recognised, or rather the URL. I refer to vn-msie. This is a real piece of evil marketing in motion. The spyware that has lodged in your computer is designed to slow it down without making apparent what is happening. This (and other problems the spyware causes), is meant to lead you to this guys pop-up advertising for the removal of spyware. The cheek of it. He has crippled your machine and then wants you to take his software to remove his spyware. Anyone read the words "protection racket" in this scenario.

For one more bit of bare faced cheek look at the URL (vn-msie). For msie read MicroSoft Internet Explorer. Now he is trying to catch the gulible. No matter how tempted you are do not go to his website to rid yourself of this problem. Word has it that the programme you download has more pestware in it that will kick in at a later date, and of course, guide you to his website for more software to remove this latest problem. Getting the picture yet.

I have a brother inlaw who is the original computer geek and makes his living setting up computer networks. He has had a go at removing this but gave up after a determined struggle. He is an expert in his field and his advice for the future was as follows -

1. By the virtue of the game the pestware writers are always one step ahead of the antivirus writers (include spyware in that description). So donīt expect immunity no matter how much protection you have and how much it cost.

2. Always keep your files (spreadsheets,pictures,movies, etc) safe on an external hard drive and scan it regularily for viruses. I do that already.

3. While browsing the internet have the external hard drive unplugged. There is no current reason behind this but he thinks this is where the next stage of "the war" will take place.

4. At the moment, viruses and spyware do their dirty work on your C drive. Always be in a position to say to hell and format if things get bad. Nothing has been written yet the beats C:/ Format.