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View Full Version : Stomping out spies & snoops :D

SoBeiT
09-01-2003, 06:39 PM
This has probably been posted 10 or more times....

I would like something to clear out all the "spy & snoop" stuff from my computer before I install ZoneAlarm again.

I would like it to be FREE most of all..hehe.


I like ZA and just need to clean this stuff out before installing it again.


Thanks for your time :)
Paladin
09-01-2003, 06:50 PM
I run Ad-Aware at work. Seems to work pretty good.

At home, I use Pop-Up Stopper. That seems to keep them at bay. I haven't had one sneak on in the 6 months since I started running it.
SoBeiT
09-01-2003, 07:05 PM
"You should fully read the included Ad-aware documentation before removing any files!"

Before I d/l do they give a list of things to remove and what to keep for known good programs?
Orion
09-01-2003, 09:10 PM
adaware is something I also use at work. truth be told, you could probably just run it with all the defaults and end up just fine deleting what it deems as bad. I've used it on well over 300 machines, with about 50 different OS and configs. I'll give just running it and doing what it says my stamp of aproval.
well, not 50 different OS, just NT 4.0, win2k, win98 and XP. I meant to say 50 different configs.
Orion
09-01-2003, 09:15 PM
Oh, if you dont like adaware, a co-worker of mine swears by spybot S&D. (search and destroy)
I've not used it myself.
SoBeiT
09-01-2003, 11:32 PM
Cool here goes my Stomp & destroy!

Thanks guys :)

<edit> only found 2 items from Ad-aware: Alexa & a tracking cookie.

SpyBot S&D found traces of a quarentined Alexa and a hotkey "something".


Since I have an almost empty computer I didn't think it would hurt to have both :D
Paladin
09-02-2003, 08:10 AM
A number of people at work had installed "hotbar", a program that lets you reskin the Internet Explorer toolbars and added a bunch of search tools. It also has it's own built-in advertising engine and generates pop-up ads whether the web site you are browsing uses them or not.

Two of the machines at work, both running hotbar, had over 60 spyware/adware programs on them.

Comet Cursor (it ought to be spelled Curser) is another bad one for the masses. Like hotbar, it lets them customize their PC (in this case with animated mouse cursors). It's also adware. I tend to think, based on the number of other junk programs running on hotbar or CC machines, that they automatically accept/download other programs without user interaction.