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http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=spyware& tg=dl-2001

I would personally recommend Lavasoft Ad-Aware from Lavasoft.de. "Ad-aware is a free multi spyware removal utility that scans your memory, registry and hard drives for known spyware and scumware components and lets you remove them safely. It is updated frequently. If you are new to Ad-aware, we recommend you read the getting started tutorial."

Don't forget to download the Reference file Updater v2.01 for Ad-aware.

I wouldn't be surprised. In this case it's probably easier to quantify the damage done in terms of dollars and cents. In this respect, it's quite different than spyware which steals privacy and bandwidth, but not (directly) money.

I hope that the people at Lavasoft get Ad-aware to clean this up quickly.

It would have been much faster to resintall and point the installer to the same directory. You would not have lost your configurations. Furthermore, in Win2k you can mount a directory to a drive letter as well. Also I beliebe Lavasoft has an 'advanced' registry editor freeware prog called 'reghance.' I have not used it but that could help you.

"I really despise Windows. At least with UNIX, all the time I spend fighting it is time spent actually learning something. With Windows, time spent fighting it is just time wasted."

I've just taken a 5 minute break from fighting all morning with the MSFT SQL Jet Engine in access 97. It wants refuses to run a query because the string in my HAVING statement is not in an aggregate function as well. I feel your pain.

Have the customer install Lavasoft's wonderful Ad-aware. This freely available program should remove any spyware that is installed.

Have the customer install Lavasoft's wonderful Ad-aware. This freely available program should remove any spyware that is installed.

"Today, the multimedia program was no longer available from CNET. According to a copy of the download page cached by the Google search engine, over 750,000 copies of RadLight had been downloaded from CNET as of February 2002."

I feel bad for those who downloaded this program. They obviously don't know about WinAMP. Also, why not check the DivX website for players that support DivX and not spyware .

"Radlight software indeed checks for the default Ad-aware installation path, and then removes all files that are not currently in use, upon its first execution."

It seems that it checks only once, so reinstalling Ad-Aware wouldn't be much of a problem. OR you could just install into a different directory than the default.

"Newsbytes has confirmed that installing RadLight version 3.03 deletes Lavasoft's Ad-Aware program, as promised in a warning in the software's 1,100-word license agreement."

Not too many people I know read EULA's unless they are looking for something specific, especially when it's 1100 words.

Download the acclaimed Ad Aware program here. It searches your registry and all your drives for running and installed spyware programs. It works great.

I found kazaa lite a few weeks ago while looking around for a new p2p program, and have been using it exclusively.. it's good stuff! If you use ad-aware, you'll see that it really is what it says it is.

I think the general concensus amonst us all is that spyware is bad, yet the only reliable (and free) solution seems to of been delegated to our friends at Lavasoft, while they are doing a *great* job, their project is unfortunatly closed source and therefore people/programmers cannot really contribute to its success (other than donate cash which is reccomended but not convienent to everyone)

if people feel so strongly on this issue why hasen't anyone started an open source solution to this scurge so the talented programmers amongs us can improve the scanning and detection techniques ?

at the moment the spyware companies only really have to make their product beat lavasofts Adaware and they are in business (at least til/if Adaware picks it up)

sure spyware seems to be only targeted to Windows users but as other operating systems become more widespread it is only a matter of time before they spread to these alternative platforms too

while closed source could be argued as a good thing (stop spycompanies seeing how it works) could they beat 100's of programmers all working to make the scanning engine more robust and secure, this obviously works in regards to computer security on *nix platforms as viruses are not more prominent than closed source platforms
so would beating spyware benefit from these same techniques ?

While i agree that these spyware programs should be regarded as viruses/trojans i think once you bring a commercial element into the equation you open yourselves up to attacks of perpetuating the products life/success (ie: rumours that virus detection companies create viruses)

so would an open source spyware detection solution work ?

1. While installing software, don't bother with reading the EULA (unless that gives you kicks, or you're required to), but run the installation as you normally would, making sure that whenever you have the option to *not* install adware or spyware, take it.
   
2. Scan your system with Ad-aware or other comparable software. Note: I don't work for Lavasoft.
   
3. If the previously installed software still works, Great! If not, uninstall it.
   

AdAware (USA Link)

AdAware (.de)

actually googles toolbar is classified as spyware by the latest Adaware

why ? probably because its doing one thing while telling you its doing something else

YOU are the product

Well, not a virus, but I'd certainly call it a trojan. So did Trend and McAfee when they came across the 'dlder' spyware that crept into many P2P apps last year, since it wasn't mentioned in the licence agreement, and some of the apps' companies claimed to have been unaware of it.

In the end, they backed down. McAfee still detects it, but only if you ask it to look for 'other programs' as well as viruses/trojans. There are a few other parasites in this category. But mostly, it's a case of "if it isn't used by 'hackers', it's not a proper trojan".

Luckily, there are others working on anti-spyware software. Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D are the most popular. more info + online check...

Some programs though, refuse to run if thier spyware is missing.

I'm actually pretty sloppy about privacy. But a lot of spyware -- including Gator's -- hooks into Explorer and other shell programs at a very basic level. Results range from an irritating loss of response to maddening crashes and lockups.

AdAware is quite good. But you also need Ref-Update (to keep your AdAware signature file current) and Ad-Search (to help avoid downloading spyware in the first place). All three available here.

Kaaaazaaaa simply won't run if you delete certain of its bundled adware. This is what makes it particularly annoying (though I hear this has been cracked for some versions). With most of the other P2P apps you can use Ad-Aware to get rid of the adware and not affect the function of the program.

Now I dont know if it's a joke or not, but still after installing Kazaa and most other p2p programs, warning lights in Ad-Aware(2) from Lavasoft lights up like a xmas tree.
Bearshare is the only one I can manage to install and get rid of all the snooping, I think.

adaware picks up the toolbar as spyware

nice to be treated as a product and not a person huh ?

Download the acclaimed Ad Aware program here. It searches your registry and all your drives for running and installed spyware programs. It works great.

I would suggest a visit to the Gibson Research Center This is a great site and has all sorts of information conveyed in a way most everyone can understand it. The free Ad-Aware software found spyware on my systems I had no idea where there. Enjoy

If you're getting popups without Javascipt, chances are that you've got some adware on your computer. Download Ad-Aware to get rid of it.

I personally run Ad Aware to get rid of all other Spyware except what KaZaA needs. If you delete KaZaA's spyware, it will stop running. I guess it's a trade-off of privacy versus convenience. But I don't blame KaZaA, except for not letting people know they are being tracked. They have provided FREE software which is really good. I just wish they'd make money some other way.

Happy downloadin'

Download the acclaimed Ad Aware program (link provided) here. It searches your registry and all your drives for running and installed spyware programs. It works great.

Mayhaps you should use the offical link then...

Just a thought.

Check out Ad Aware at:
http://www.lavasoft.de/aaw/

Check out Ad Aware at:
http://www.lavasoft.de/aaw/

Get adaware. It'll get rid of that stuff. (the spyware and gatorware not windows)

Thanks to Savenow, I became suspicious and discovered a piece of software called Adaware (Windoze only) that searches for spyware and deletes it. I really recommend it as it found other spyware too. It is available at http://www.lavasoft.de.

If you are too lazy to do even then get ad-aware as it removes this kind of crap...

I'm not sure if this advertisement-concept is known to the Linux people out there, but a lot of win32 software that is advertisement supported ships with spyware, profided by advertisement agencies as Radiate.com. This spyware is installed on the win32 machine together with the ad-supported software and it collects data of the user and transmits this data to a radiate server.

This spyware even sits on your computer when you've already deinstalled the sponsored program. You have to use software like Ad-Aware to remove al kinds of installed spyware and registry modifications done by his spyware.

It's not clear to me what kind of data this spyware collects, but it's both a privacy and security violation that a piece of software is able to sit on your machine to collect private data.

As long as it's not clear what kind of ad-software Opera uses for their version 5 browser, I would be very careful. Ad-supported software is more than just a banner on a web page.

For more information on spyware, have a look at: Spychecker or ZDNet.

Arleo