1. CoolWebSearch: This piece of spyware appeared in 2004. It is capable of changing the user's browser home page and showing pop-up ads to sites including pornographic ones.
2. Internet Optimizer: This spyware program redirects users, who by mistake types in a wrong URL, to a page full of advertisements.
3. Zango: Currently, this spyware program has a lot of promoters who get paid for making people install it into their systems. It collects the data regarding websites people visit, in order to display targeted ads. It also redirects users to affiliate tracking URLs to bag commissions from their purchases.
4. Popcorn.net: This piece of spyware was distributed by an online movie download service; it shows pop-up ads on user systems. It caused a lot of complaints at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Showing posts with label uninstall antispyware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uninstall antispyware. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Block Spyware Websites With Inoculate
Many spyware infections happen on particularly prepared websites. These websites might take advantage of web browser vulnerabilities or offer software and files for download that infect a computer system once they are executed on it. Web users have several protection mechanisms that they can use to protect their computer system from these spyware infections. Modern antivirus software usually comes with modules that blocks or warns a user whenever a website with questionable content is visited. Another option to protect a computer system against spyware infections is to install browser plugins like Web of Trust that classify websites and report a safety rating back to the user.
And then there are programs like Inoculate that use the hosts file of the operating system to block spyware websites from being opened by routing the address of the spyware removal to the local computer system (which means the website will not be displayed when the user tries to open it).
Inoculate is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that will add more than 14001 spyware websites to the Windows host file. These 14001 spyware websites are blocked from being accessed by users of the computer system. The software creates a backup of the current host file before it begins to add the spyware websites to it so that spyware attacks and spyware programs are automatically blocked.
It is possible to reset the Windows hosts file or restore a previously created backup. One slight disadvantage of this spyware blocking approach is that it is not possible to view the spyware websites before they are added to the hosts file. Another problem is that the program is not automatically updating the spyware list over the Internet which alternatives like Hostsman which offers four different block lists and auto updating. Hostsman on the other hand is not a portable software program.
Related Topic
Detect and Prevent Spyware Infection
And then there are programs like Inoculate that use the hosts file of the operating system to block spyware websites from being opened by routing the address of the spyware removal to the local computer system (which means the website will not be displayed when the user tries to open it).
Inoculate is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that will add more than 14001 spyware websites to the Windows host file. These 14001 spyware websites are blocked from being accessed by users of the computer system. The software creates a backup of the current host file before it begins to add the spyware websites to it so that spyware attacks and spyware programs are automatically blocked.
It is possible to reset the Windows hosts file or restore a previously created backup. One slight disadvantage of this spyware blocking approach is that it is not possible to view the spyware websites before they are added to the hosts file. Another problem is that the program is not automatically updating the spyware list over the Internet which alternatives like Hostsman which offers four different block lists and auto updating. Hostsman on the other hand is not a portable software program.
Related Topic
Detect and Prevent Spyware Infection
Monday, August 17, 2009
How To Remove Microsoft .NET Spyware Extension
Back around the end of January there was a Microsoft Windows Update (KB951466847) that installed the SpyWare (done without user consent/knowledge and can not be removed easily) Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0 extension into Firefox. Note: If you have not install Windows Update KB951847 OR not using Windows Update this extension will not be installed.
Notice how the ‘Uninstall’ button is greyed out? I learned about this from a post )Microsoft Infiltrates Firefox) at GoFirefox! However, because I am using Shirhd7etoko 3.1b3pre and the add-on was not compatible with this build it never fully installed. I was able to remove the add-on following these directions:
1. Close Firefox
2. In Windows Explorer go to this location:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Windows Presentation Foundation\DotNetAssistantExtension
3. This folder should contain 2 sub-folder and 2 files. Just in case for some odd reason you might need these files, create a zip or rar file containing these items and place it somewhere else.
4. Delete everything in this folder, but leave the folder
5. Restart Firefox and go to your add-ons list. The add-on should no longer be listed.
6. In the address bar type about:config
7. In the Filter field type general.useragent
8. Look for an entry called general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet
9. Right -click on the entry and select ‘reset’
Now, for the most part these steps worked for me. However, as I had mentioned earlier it never fully installed since it was not compatible with Shiretoko 3.1b3pre. In this case I completed Steps 1-5 but noticed the add-on was still there and still disabled. Next, I had to close Firefox again, go to my profile folder and remove the files: extensions.cache, extensions.ini and extensions.rdf. This forces Firefox to rebuild the extensions list, however when I did this step, the Night Tester Tools add-on broke. Not good, now about half my extensions that I had “forced” to work, weren’t working now. So I had to uninstall the Night Tester Tools extension, restart Firefox, re-install the extension, restart Firefox, over-ride compatibility on the currently disabled add-ons and restart Firefox once again. Since the ad-on never fully installed, I did not have an about:config entry for general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet.
Notice how the ‘Uninstall’ button is greyed out? I learned about this from a post )Microsoft Infiltrates Firefox) at GoFirefox! However, because I am using Shirhd7etoko 3.1b3pre and the add-on was not compatible with this build it never fully installed. I was able to remove the add-on following these directions:
1. Close Firefox
2. In Windows Explorer go to this location:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Windows Presentation Foundation\DotNetAssistantExtension
3. This folder should contain 2 sub-folder and 2 files. Just in case for some odd reason you might need these files, create a zip or rar file containing these items and place it somewhere else.
4. Delete everything in this folder, but leave the folder
5. Restart Firefox and go to your add-ons list. The add-on should no longer be listed.
6. In the address bar type about:config
7. In the Filter field type general.useragent
8. Look for an entry called general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet
9. Right -click on the entry and select ‘reset’
Now, for the most part these steps worked for me. However, as I had mentioned earlier it never fully installed since it was not compatible with Shiretoko 3.1b3pre. In this case I completed Steps 1-5 but noticed the add-on was still there and still disabled. Next, I had to close Firefox again, go to my profile folder and remove the files: extensions.cache, extensions.ini and extensions.rdf. This forces Firefox to rebuild the extensions list, however when I did this step, the Night Tester Tools add-on broke. Not good, now about half my extensions that I had “forced” to work, weren’t working now. So I had to uninstall the Night Tester Tools extension, restart Firefox, re-install the extension, restart Firefox, over-ride compatibility on the currently disabled add-ons and restart Firefox once again. Since the ad-on never fully installed, I did not have an about:config entry for general.useragent.extra.microsoftdotnet.
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