The nice people at Prevx, makers of the software which (you may recall) was the only darn thing that saved me from adware purgatory, have a malware database which you can search by filename. This won't help with crapware that generates genuinely randomly named files, but a lot of crapware doesn't do that.
I found Prevx by doing a plain old Google search for the name of an unwelcome DLL, but you can also search it more directly:
The jotti.org scanner lets you actually upload a file for analysis by multiple antivirus programs, while the Prevx scanner just works by filename. But neither of them cost anything, and the Prevx database is better than that of any combination of "antivirus" programs I've seen.
Full disclosure: Prevx don't have an affiliate program, but they've said they'll tip me a buck or two if I send them lots of traffic (and, thereby, generate some sales of the full Prevx1 application. Prevx1 has a fully functional trial period, though, so it can get you out of your current jam for free).
They've also given me a Prevx1 license for free.
I'll try not to spend that all in one place.
NOTE: Prevx have now changed their software so that, like various other commercial spyware killers, it finds infections and then refuses to fix them until you pay up. (And my old license key doesn't even work any more.)
1 December 2006 at 4:43 am
Ugh, I hate to "license" my software...but that's more or less what everyone's going to nowadays. At least, if it's useful, it would be worth it. I will bookmark Prefix1 for the next time I have an infection I need to clean out (my own, or someone else's)