It seems to me a lot of people are using P2P programs on these boards...Unfortunately some of these come, or used to come, with spyware. For an explanation of what spyeare is go HERE (http://www.spychecker.com/) ...This site also let's u check if the software you're about install contains any spyware...

Just a li'l helpfull link I hope some of you can use :)

That's a good site. A good program for checking your system for existing spyware is Ad-Aware (http://tomcoyote.com/lsindex.html).

I know first hand what spyware does to your computer!:mad:

Thanks for posting that ad-ware thingie Shakey...never knew about all the crap that was actually floating around on my system all this time :eek::eek:

You would be surprised all the things running in the background. The Windows task manager does NOT show everything.

I've had many programs try to access the internet without me knowing, but zonealarm stopped them.

Spyware doesn't hurt your machine at all. Supposedly someone can monitor where you go, but think about it...when you have THOUSANDS, or possibly MILLIONS of people surfing, do you really think they can monitor all of you? Even if the monitoring is automated, someone still has to read it.

That's why I don't worry about it.

Another thing that kills me... Windows 95/98 when you use the Windows update, this is such B.S. to me. Windows goes to Microsoft and it pops up a window saying they are customizing the updates to your computer, but this is done without sending ANY information Microsoft.

Now just how in the hell is that possible? How can they tell me what I have and don't have and customize the updates for *my computer* when they get no feedback from my computer??? They say there is an updated media player available, as I have an old version, but wait... the last window just said that no information is being sent...hmmm

One word: LIE.

They ARE sending information. They are lying about it. Microsoft lies about a LOT of things.

Spyware caused me to get error messages whenever I did a search. I was unable to do any searches.

So, In a way, it did hurt my computer. ;) It took me forever and many steps, that had to be done in the exact order, to get rid of spyware. :)

Originally posted by TopCat
Spyware caused me to get error messages whenever I did a search. I was unable to do any searches.

So, In a way, it did hurt my computer. ;) It took me forever and many steps, that had to be done in the exact order, to get rid of spyware. :)

Hmmm....that's news to me. I've never seen nor heard of that happening. Well...until now.

Windows errors never surprise me. It has more bugs than the Amazon rain forest.

My favorite GPF: windows has encountered an error in module: <unknown>....great, so not even windows has a clue what the hell is wrong... beautiful.

Originally posted by aaronw
They ARE sending information. They are lying about it. Microsoft lies about a LOT of things.

No kidding.
Just recently it was revealed that Media Player would keep track of which DVDs you watch, and send the information to Microsoft. Of course, users we're not aware of this, since it wasen't in the private policy.

Just like when a program crashes on XP, and a prompt asks you if you want to send an error report to Microsoft, which suposedly doesn't send any personal info. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Polar Bear Jeff


No kidding.
Just recently it was revealed that Media Player would keep track of which DVDs you watch, and send the information to Microsoft. Of course, users we're not aware of this, since it wasen't in the private policy.

Just like when a program crashes on XP, and a prompt asks you if you want to send an error report to Microsoft, which suposedly doesn't send any personal info. :rolleyes:

Well, technically it says they will *treat it* as anonymous and confidential.

Sure they will, and pigs can fly backwards underwater.

The first time I saw that pop up when a program crashed, I started laughing! :lol:

Originally posted by aaronw
I've had many programs try to access the internet without me knowing, but zonealarm stopped them.

Yup! And it addresses an issue a lot of people don't think about. Firewalls are good for not only blocking what is coming in, but also what is going out.

Originally posted by aaronw
Hmmm....that's news to me. I've never seen nor heard of that happening. Well...until now.

Sure enough. It was new.net and it all but trashed her system.

Originally posted by Polar Bear Jeff
Just recently it was revealed that Media Player would keep track of which DVDs you watch

Yeah, that really bothered me too. There is a program you can get though that will help to curb XP's appetite for phoning home. It is called XPAntiSpy (http://www.megagames.com/news/html/tweaks/xpantispy.shtml).

Don't even get me started on the whole Microsoft crap!:mad:
I'm here to tell you first hand that they are receiving ALL kinds of information and they DO have access to YOUR personal files!
You may think that because you have virus programs,hacker security software or a firewall installed your safe:rolleyes:
Do not kid yourselves. First of all who do you think manufactures these things?When the information came out about the Pentium III having a chip that could keep tabs on the users on line what happened to the Pentium II s that did not have this? They were pulled from Gateway,Circuit City,Best Buy,Comp USA all the big distributors almost immediately! I know this because I was shopping for a computer at the time. I couldn't find a Pentium II if my life depended on it! They yanked the 500 -750 MHz processors forcing you to buy the Pentium III 900MHZ + processors way much more power than the average person needs. Why? Was it trying to give the consumer better deal?Hell no! This was done on purpose. If they were really concerned about giving consumers good deals they would have offered the Pentium II 500-750MHZ series PCs at a reasonable price for $400-600 after all they now had a surplus of them ! But no !You couldn't touch a computer with out dropping $1000 or More!
When Microsoft was under "investigation " by the government concerning it being a monopoly
I tried to tell people this would never amount to anything.What happened ? Microsoft got a slap on the wrist ,subsidized a few of their larger company branches into smaller ones(Yeah! That really hurt em!:rolleyes: )Why do you think that's all the government did?It's pretty damn simple really the United States government is heavily into Microsoft! They use it for everything!
What's the next logical reasoning then?? Everybody say it with me now...MICROSOFT IS THE GOVERNMENT! There that wasn't too hard a realization was it?You don't really think the government is going to let certain individuals achieve the staggering amount of income this company is generating do you?If you try to look into this you won't get far before hitting a brick wall!
Getting back to the invasion of your personal files. I have a friend who loaned an expensive art software program( prices are still ridiculously high they haven't gone down at all in all these years Why? Microsoft monopoly! But their software monopoly is another story for another time:mad: )Anyway, he loaned it to another artist. Things were fine then a few months later the artist got an official letter from Microsoft saying that he was going to be fined $250.000 and face a possible 5 years in jail because he was using a previously registered software program.Now,here's the scary part! He did not try to register this software he simply loaded it onto his hard drive and was using it. He was not using it while he was online.What does this mean?Microsoft was able to penetrate his firewall,security...etc. and detect that this program was in his computer and it was previously registered!!!Two things remember when I asked who makes these "Security"software programs,remember the hidden detection chip on the Pentium IIIs? Is it all starting to sink in now?The artist dumped it completely from his hard drive and I mean COMPLETELY! Microsoft didn't bother him anymore.How did they know it was gone?The same way they knew it was there to begin with!
If you want to live in a fantasy world were everything is safe and there is no corruption or conspiracy that's fine. But, when the sh*t hits the fan or your little fantasy world comes crashing in on you..There's going to be people like me to say I told you so!

COOL BREEZE

adware gets rid of most of the spyware but not all of it
doubleclick is one which is harder to get rid of....the way to do it is to go to their web site and do a search for opt-out, which will remove it from your system

Originally posted by aaronw
The first time I saw that pop up when a program crashed, I started laughing! :lol:

So did I. :D
I read the private policy, and thought to myself, "yeah right."
Didn't hesitate to click on don't send .

I was getting slammed with a ton of pop-up ads while here at the xchange and in dreamchat. What's the deal with that? :confused:

I haven't been getting hit by a lot of popup's, but I have noticed one opening whenever I go to the front page. It's okay with me though. If that is what it is gonna take to pay for this place, then I can live with it.