spyware protection

[Mortis]

greetings. i receive many zipped files from friends like the frog in the blender, hamster in the microwave, elf bowling... i laughed at my viewing pleasure... but the laughs were also on me. i now know that many of these are vessel programs for spyware... i went to lavasoft.de and downloaded ad-aware (freeware) and detected 2 spyware programs... i run norton pro and zonealarm, so nothing was given out about my comp (nothing sensitive on it anyway- just like privacy), but it frustrated me to find this out. i am sure that many here are already knowlegeable about this, but for those who arent, i would strongly recommend visiting the site and downloading the program, then run it- you may be surprised. Thanks.

M

[tw1112]

I ran the program and found that I have a couple adware progs on my comp too. If I clean these out, the programs aren't going to work anymore right?? That really sucks because I use some of the programs...

[PickledOnion]

I have found that when I get some spyware on my system that if I delete the files recommended for deletion then I generally have no problems.

With bigger problems like Gozilla and Real Player, I simply don't use them any more.

There are always alternative progs and apps that don't have spyware.

Just my experience, I think someone else will have a technical explanation?

PO

[Mortis]

Hello TW.. adware has the utility to deinstall the spyware... i am not sure whether you will be able to run the program after this process or not. I would be interested to hear if you can, please let me know. In my frustration, i not only used adware to kill the programs, but i also deleted all associated apps after. Be curious to know...

[sharder8]

I run AdAware on a regular basis and delete anything and everything it finds. The only one that keeps showing up is in Eudora (I'm running the paid version). I still delete it!!!! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif Eudora still works, but ref. still shows up. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

Some other programs that had spyware that I cleaned and are still working after removing are: Getright, Opera (no longer has), WinOptimizer 2000 (no longer has), and I know there are more, but I can't remember them all.

RealPlayer, Haven't used it since I found out and deleted it, same with Real Download Demon. I don't even miss them!!! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Harder