Whenever running Windows AntiSpyware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Ad-Aware, the following two items reappear, even after being removed during a previous scan: EGroup.IEAccess.C and MagicControl Agent. I am also running Vet Antivirus, which is also up-to-date. How can I permanently get rid of these items? The computer is running Windows 98.

There is a strong possibility something remains behind after attempting remove these two pieces of malware, which causes them to be recreated. This could be due to something running in the Windows background, which cannot be removed during the scans because the process is in-use. Therefore, you should first try running the scan through Windows Safe Mode. This special diagnostic mode of Windows will only load the essential components to get Windows running, so hopefully it will not load the background malware, allowing it to be completely removed.

To start in Safe Mode, restart the computer and after the power-on self-test (POST), but before the Windows splash screen appears, start tapping the F8 key. The Windows boot menu should appear. Select ‘Safe Mode’ and press ENTER. Once Windows has finished loading, run the antispyware utilities: Windows AntiSpyware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Ad-Aware. After the utilities have been run and you have removed any detected threats, restart Windows to boot back into Normal mode. Then, run the utilities again to check whether the two pieces of spyware are still present, or have been removed completely.

In most situations, this solution should work. If not, please contact me again and I may have to provide further instructions on how to remove the malware manually.