Revolutions of Spyware: The Art of Spyware
Sit back get a cup of coffee it's time for another tale of technology
by Jimmy Freligh Jr | June 15th, 2004
The ads, the pop ups, the Spyware, the spam, the headache, will it ever end? Sadly probably not but, there are ways of getting rid of this junk but, sadly it will be back it's just a matter of time. Doesn't matter what anybody says Spyware is here to stay. It started with pop-ups then went to spam and from spam it went to Spyware. Spyware is like a bad legal virus, it first installs it's self fifty different ways making sure you don't know where it is really located. Some even install tons and tons of strings to the registry making it impossible to find or should I say most. The worse case is when you try to delete it and restarts it's self coming back in a more powerful form while making your home page there advertisement, when you didn't ask it to, while taking up 100% of your CPU usage as a bonus. Normally you get this from low profile porn sites, sites that are not well known or even downloads of files/games that you think are cool but, there just another type of Spyware ready to advertise the hell out of your personal computer. Free MP3 sites, crack sites, warez sites all these sites normally carry Spyware "now". Sad thing is, some seem to install themselves when you least expect it or didn't ask for it. Ever wake up from a good nights rest and see ad pop-ups, ads that display lawn mowers, free vacation cruises and even to free Viagra pills, your whole PC fulfilled with annoying pop-ups.
Then you go to check your email and you have 400 new messages. Ever get tired of all that junk and garbage day in and day out. I go to my house pop ups, spam and Spyware I go to my work pop-ups, spam and Spyware will it ever end? No but, lets fix this and put this headache this nightmare to rest, well at least for awhile. People talk about tons of different removal tools that work but, sad thing is some are Spyware themselves making the situation even worse. Myself and a lot of people would agree with me the best pieces of Spyware removers are Spybot being completely free and AdAware.
You can get these programs normally on Download.com or even just type the names into Google and Spybot and/or AdAware should come into play. These programs are made by people who hated Spyware so much they created a free complex program that actually works. Finally the nightmare is about to be over but, beware when browsing back to the "non-popular" sites guess what, Spyware will come back. Just a note always update Spyware/AdAware more then you update Windows seriously. You can manually get rid of Spyware, in some cases it might benefit you. If your familiar with the task manager look in the processes tab and you can pretty much tell what is Spyware and what is not. Do yourself a favor go to Start/Run/ type 'msconfig' if your on Windows 2000 you need to download msconfig.exe you can grab a copy of it at www.fiberops.net/tools.htm once you get a copy of msconfig.exe drop it in the C:\WINNT\system32 and/or C:\WINNT if you have a 'WINDOWS' folder drop it in there as an alternative; and/or %SYSTEM%\. Once you have opened msconfig.exe go to the StartUp tab and look at all the garbage you didn't install or don't remember installing. Now see the programs that look fishy? It's quite obvious now what your mission is, see if that program is in the processes tab if so before you can kill it go to 'Start/Search/For Files or Folders' you need to stop it from ever running again in the task manager select End Task! Once you do that then do a search for the program. Once you have found that program delete it then un-check the startup box in msconfig. Seems to me most of the time msconfig.exe updates it's self and cleans all that garbage out making the startup tab in msconfig strings go away (sometimes) it really doesn't matter as long as it's unchecked.
There is so much more I would like to add and discuss, I am just giving out the basics I am giving you what is on my mind about Spyware I'm sure there are a lot more programs that other people use and like better then Spyware/AdAware but, I am giving you the advice of the average person on the average Spyware problem a quick fix you can say. I played with others I feel nothing compares to these beautiful well written pieces of software. I can write a book on Spyware but, sometimes I forget this is just an article not a book, hopefully this will help the average user. Spyware is annoying you can make it go away but, being careful of what web sites you go to is the key, be-careful of all the site types posted above. Clicking "Yes" on a Web Site dialog pop-up is what causing the Spyware to come back alive in a stronger way. Beware, be smart and please be-careful what you click on in today's world.
"Spyware is an Art not a crime"
April 2004, Jimmy Freligh Jr
Jimmy Freligh Jr
Chief Information Officer (CIO) @ FiberOps | Winnetka City Councilman
Network Manager @ Lincoln Systems Inc. | Canoga Park City Councilman
