Spyware-Ho!

[Optional]

I just downloaded a program off of Download.com, right. Right after I installed, I figured I'd do an Ad-Aware search - knowing how "free" software is packaged these days. After the search, it found twenty - no big deal, right?

The next thing I did was to search for lyrics for a song. I Googled it, found a site, and read the lyrics. My IE proceeded to crash - what the ****? I reload IE, which took about ten minutes. I noticed about three different new toolbars installed followed up by a few popups. I do another Ad-Aware search (Smart Scan), and it found 521 different objects.

Don't you just love Spyware?

[Synth]

Spyware and Windows ME has been the downfall in many parts of my computer's hardware.

I consider Spyware to be a criminal offense, referring to invasion of privacy, and I pray for the day the culprets are behind jail.

Then, the internet as a whole can help each other clean up the mess.

[Iyce Da Kidd]

Yeah, Spyware is a downfall to enjoying internet now-a-days. And now that theirs about 02985903285902839592358023859023 different spyware files, i doubt it'll ever come to an end.

[Navanax]

Yeah, I went through the same thing about 2 weeks ago, it SUCKS.
My advice: if it takes you more than 1 hour to get rid of the spyware, and it still isn't gone, just reinstall your OS. That'll probably take less time than trying to get rid of the spyware through scanning and sweeping.

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

I'm lucky. I once got a malicious program that generated over 16,000 spontaneous files. My computer, tough bastard that she is, toughed it out and seemed to be continuing to function almost at max capacity. But I don't get a lot of spyware so it's been pretty easy for me to route out issues and break them.

It is the lowest form of human life. I had a friend who designed spyware and he quit his job because his boss was such a complete money grubbing ******* he couldn't take it anymore; he smashed his work computer onto the floor and told his boss that he was a "disgusting, deplorable pig" and stormed out of the office. He punched their wall-mounted router on his way out the door. All this because his boss had conceived some great new way to infiltrate email accounts.

From what Keith told me about that job, it was a nightmare.

[Synth]

What's the name of this company?

[Sub]

Spyware should be illegal.

[Mr. Phonso]

Amen.

i friggen hate spyware, it friggen inturupts me everytime i wanted to do something in the past, now i use mozilla and its alot better now but theres no way to tak out POS IE!

SaiyanPrideXIX, ur friend made the right choice by leaving that company :o

[Kurt`]

Download.com/ZDNET = no longer reputable

Don't you just love Spyware?

Don't you just love the most exploited program (IE) in the history of computing?

[Mr. Phonso]

OMFG, spyware has struck again on me and i think its hopeless again, here take a look

http://img67.exs.cx/img67/5235/fyou5zr.jpg

i cant right click, select, shift delete, these ****ing ****ty icons off my desktop, ive even tried restarting, used spybot and adware but no luck. **** you spyware youve done it again....

help please

[Jesus]

i have the same problem its reeeeally annoying

[Mr. Phonso]

so does anyone know how to take these ****ty icons off? man its really bugging me...

[.Maze]

Maybe try to boot in SAVED MODE where uses less configurations and then try to seek and destroy stuff like that manually

[Mr. Phonso]

saved mode? how do i do that? i know how to boot in safe mode and when i did the ****ty icons were'nt there, then when i normally boot up the same ****ty icons come back, what a ****ing piss off

[The Cheese]

i cant right click, select, shift delete, these ****ing ****ty icons off my desktop, ive even tried restarting, used spybot and adware but no luck. **** you spyware youve done it again....

help please
AHH HAHAHA, I just spent about 4 hours cleaning up a PC at work that had a similar problem.

[Mr. Phonso]

mind helping me and almighty_gir to take off these ****ty desktop icons? =0

[Jayster]

on start up press 'F5' (think it is F5) and you should enter a menu for booting options, load up safe mode and try deleting the icons from there.

if that doesnt work, well i dont know guys, sorry :(

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

It's F8.

And for the record, dude--blame IE all you want, that desktop that was posted in this thread has at the very least thousands of dollars in downloaded software on it...and I saw a "Bit[something]" folder there too.

Like my friend once told me: "Bend over and hold your ass open in the prison shower and see if you get away without penetration." lol

EDIT: by the way, as cool as you might THINK Daemon Tools is, it carries like 6 different miserable viruses.

[Jayster]

could it be 'BitTorrent'?
i doubt it could be that but thats the only word i know that is on the net starting with "Bit"

have you tried 'SpyBot v1.3' i use that and find it very useful, it finds and gets ride of any form of spyware on your comp

click Here! (http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10289035.html?tag=lst-0-1) for the Spybot link

[Pain]

OMFG, spyware has struck again on me and i think its hopeless again, here take a look

http://img67.exs.cx/img67/5235/fyou5zr.jpg

i cant right click, select, shift delete, these ****ing ****ty icons off my desktop, ive even tried restarting, used spybot and adware but no luck. **** you spyware youve done it again....

help please


Well to quote someone in this thread.
"OMFG IT WAS IE!!!1!one!1eleven"

Oh wait, he uses Firefox. So I guess it is possible to get spyware without IE then huh?

Sorry but if you get a virus or spyware it's your own damn fault. Blaming IE is just ignorant. Granted it sucks when you do get one, but if you're looking for a reason why, it's probably because you pressed 'yes' or 'accept' to one of those little security warnings. Either that or you're security wasn't high enough, or off. Any reason why leads to user error, not program fault.

Optional told us he willingly downloaded something and ran it. He took a risk with something. It sucks but it's his own fault. At least he didn't try to pass it off as a fault of IE.

DarkSniper... You just started up one day and there they were? Can't use the IE excuse though so it obviously is your own fault. What did you download. By the looks of it, could be some sort of free gaming site.

As for a solution for DarkSniper, since Optional already fixed his problem it would seem.
If adware and virus sweeps aren't working, look at your currently running processes. Do a Google search for whatever you don't recognize. You should find some type of security site telling you if it's malicious or just a standard program. It will also give you information on how to completley remove it from your system.
If that doesn't work, look in your Program files folder and look for any folders you don't recognize. Delete them, and if you can't, startup in safemode and delete them. A Google search on the folder name in question would also be helpfull. Chances are you are going to have to edit some registry settings to fix whatever your specific spyware/virus has altered to keep itself there.

Man that Firefox is so safe huh? ;)

[Sub]

Sorry but if you get a virus or spyware it's your own damn fault. Blaming IE is just ignorant. Granted it sucks when you do get one, but if you're looking for a reason why, it's probably because you pressed 'yes' or 'accept' to one of those little security warnings. Either that or you're security wasn't high enough, or off. Any reason why leads to user error, not program fault.

I don't know much about computers pain, but I know that if you press no to one of those popups, its still possible for it to install on its own.

edit: And firefox is a hell of a lot safer then IE, thats a fact you just can't argue with. Try it out for yourself. Go to sites that you know are infested with spyware on IE, then run an spyware sweep. Then do the same with FireFox. See which one gets more.

[Pain]

I have never heard of that happening. If it does that really blows, but it goes back to the security levels issue.

*edit*
Well I don't keep spyware riddled sites on hand, but when I have stumbled across them with IE I've never had a problem. Goes back to user error. Not to say I've never had spyware, but it's hardly what everyone loyal to Firefox makes it out to be.

That being said, both browsers have holes, any program under the sun will have holes, only Firefox isn't as popular. It may never be, but if it does get big, it is going to be a big target. Once that happens it's not going to be as safe as you claim.

I'd prefer to stick with something that I know what to expect. Overconfidence breeds carelessness.

Anyway I didn't mean to turn this into another Firefox vs IE thread, but when people pop into every spyware/virus thread and immediately say "OMFG IT WAS IE!" it annoys me.

[SoulStriker]

I have never heard of that happening. If it does that really blows, but it goes back to the security levels issue.

Simply put, they can have the way the agreement is worded so that if you click on no, you are really agreeing to it. Then again, Firefox usually shoots these down before you even see them, so its not usually a problem.

To be flat out honest, Pain is right. If you get Spyware, its always always always ALWAYS YOUR fault. Be it by being packaged with another program, or from clicking yes to something, its always the users fault if something lands on the machine.

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

I don't know much about computers pain, but I know that if you press no to one of those popups, its still possible for it to install on its own.

edit: And firefox is a hell of a lot safer then IE, thats a fact you just can't argue with. Try it out for yourself. Go to sites that you know are infested with spyware on IE, then run an spyware sweep. Then do the same with FireFox. See which one gets more.
Yeah buit having Firefox and using BitTornado and whatever other grabass progs are out there is like saying..."Wtf, I got raped in the prison shower and never even bent over, all I did was hand out lube and tell everyone to nail me like Bob Villa! Wtf!"

Look at that desktop. There are literally dozens of stolen files and progs there. Any number of spywares could've come from any one of those. I've heard of movie files even downloading spywares in the background disguised as codecs, sometimes.

Like I said...IE is only as secure as you want it to be. You can tell it to not allow any activeX or java...and you'd never have that problem again. Plus, with other browsers...well let's just say, just because it doesn't show you popups or such doesn't mean they aren't there at all, which also subsequently means there are clearly going to be "blocked" popups that can run their backdoor scripts without much of a problem.

Besides, guys. I don't care what you say. Downloading illegitimate materials through IE and then complaining it's IE's fault one gets assrammed is a little retarded to me. I have my security high and have to click no to dozens of activex controls all the time--it's annoying but as a result I've been almost 100% spyware free for years.

[Jayster]

you guys do know that most adware and spyware etc comes from pr0n and things related on that topic right?

[SoulStriker]

you guys do know that most adware and spyware etc comes from pr0n and things related on that topic right?

I have found that the only spyware I have recieved (without my immediate knowledge) has been bundled with a "free" program, and I didn't realize it. Ive also had the crap that "comes from IE" (for example, you "agree" to something (or think your disagreeing but really agreeing)). The reason most people 'blame IE' for the spyware is the fact that when you use Firefox with its default settings, you will never see this kind of thing, but with IE you will. You have to crank your security settings and tweak a bit to get IE to be even remotely safe. Firefox comes this way.

[SaiyanPrideXIX]

Yeah, but there's never been much talk about what happens under the hood of Firefox. Does it just not ask? Obviously not using IE doesn't solve the problem because that desktop up there is plenty proof of that. I have always maintained the theory that grabass downloading programs rape computers and so far it's proven to be pretty accurate.

[|Overlord|]

i got adds like that when i didn't unclick install support progam on the msn plus installer , but easily fixed that is (just remove the support program or uninstall/reinstall it &/or msn)

iv'e yet to try out ms anti-spyware beta to see if's it useful or useless

[Hash]

I could never understand how people get so much spyware sometimes. I have never had major amounts of spyware on my computer. Sure, I get some once every blue moon, but it rarely ever happens, and It's literally 2 or 3 little cookie tracking programs or something.

All of this, and I don't take any special care in making sure I don't get spyware. I use firefox mostly, but sometimes I use IE. And when I do, I have the security setting at the very lowest. I use p2p programs like kazaa, and bittorrent. And despite all that, I rarely ever get spyware, and when I do, it's the tiniest most least annoying ones you can get.

Bottom line, just don't be an idiot. As long as you just pay attention to what your doing, your never gonna get spyware.

[super2456]

hey this is what have and i hardly get spyware. spy bot that is the best ever and download.com :laff: also


this is what Hash said

Bottom line, just don't be an idiot. As long as you just pay attention to what your doing, your never gonna get spyware


you are wrong cuz the first time i got a spyware program i did a scan and i got 28,528 spyware what a ****** that was. so what im trying to say is you need to HAVE spyware blockers

[super2456]

Pain is right firefox is a pian sometimes ie has too many spyware but fire fox has problems also. sometime you try to go on a site and it say it cant find it then i use ie and go tm the site do what ever i want and it works. that is the only problem i have with firefox

[VivaLaPineapple]

i always use firefox. even after i reformatted i set the homepage on IE to be firefox so i could quickly get it, and hope that my comp didnt get infected by like a random blaster worm or other crap that IE had to patch for

[Kurt`]

You CAN use IE safely,... if you disable ActiveX (which is unnecessary and pointless for everything except Windows update and certain intranet programs for businesses) and change some of the default security settings.

I prefer [insert another other standards-compliant browser here], since the Internet is in pretty poor shape right now because of Microsoft. Netscape laid all the ground work for the browsable Internet, then Microsoft comes along and illegally integrated their non-standards-compliant browser into their operating system (also violating a 1995 anti-trust agreement).

Not to mention, without competition, you have no reason to upgrade in a closed-source system. How long did IE sit stagnant at 6.0 (with major bugs) until Firefox stole a large percentage of IE's marketshare?

I also do not like the fact that Microsoft offered the US government bug fixes ONE MONTH before the general public gets them. 1 month? They're holding out on their paying customers that long? Their bug fix/patch distrobution system needs an overhaul I think.

Most other browsers are open-source (Mozilla, Firefox, Konqueror, etc.) or fixed IMMEDIATELY when a serious problem arises.

Microsoft has very little respect left when it comes to security, but hopefully with IE 7 not integrated into the operating system, and better default security settings (since all of you nubs run on admin accounts 24/7), they will get some of it back.

[Optimus Prime]

i got adds like that when i didn't unclick install support progam on the msn plus installer , but easily fixed that is (just remove the support program or uninstall/reinstall it &/or msn)

iv'e yet to try out ms anti-spyware beta to see if's it useful or useless
Don't revive dead threads.

- Closed.