I’m quite computer dumb as you can probably see by my question buuuut…manus Dei posted a thread awhile ago about removing something and someone posted a link for AdAware…well I downloaded it and was amazed at the (200+) amount of shit collected in my computer. So I regularly do scans now and I seem to collect about a small amount every two days…I’m wondering if this is normal. I seem to get the same 10 things every two days (something about a Huntbar and Tracking Cookie) and I’m getting confused. How is this stuff installing itself? When it does, how can I know, or how can I prevent it? Most importantly, can I do some MS-DOS stuff to get rid of it? That’s what I usually did, before to delete some stuff out of my computer but I guess it didn’t fully go away ( I remember going into DOS and imputing commands to get rid of Huntbar, whatever the hell it is).
Another thing that worried me when I ran Adware before was a notification of some sort of an attempted hacking. It obviously didnt work, but Im just wondering what would be the best steps to protect my computer even further.
Can anyone help me? I apologize for not knowing anything about computers, but this is where RPGC comes in (I hope)
If you’re a cheap bastard like me, your ad software to detect it and delete it manually. Every ad/spyware detector/remover program I’ve seen tells you the location. You just have to delete it. Just run the scan and look at the address and go to that folder and look for the file. Some of it may be running in the background so you’ll have to do crtl + atl + delete to get to the processes and shut it down. Then you can delete it. Sometime dlls from stuff you’ve downloaded will reinstall it if it is deleted. To delete that you’ll unfortunately have to get rid of the program if you want to get rid of it. It can take awhile, but it is possible just to delete it all manually. You can also buy one which should remove most, if not all of it (some of the things might be a little too new for it). The cookie ones, those will keep popping up no matter what you do. Most spyware you agree to install when you install something you download. It is part of the license (but whor eally reads the lciense), and that is something you can’t say no to if you want to install said program. It would help if you said what Windows you have though.
Uh, some of them are probably cookies and stuff. They don’t actually do anything to your computer, they’re just there to mark that you’ve visited this site or other at some time. Spybot just marks them as spyware, but they’re more like a very small byproduct.
Originally posted by Infonick If you’re a cheap bastard like me, your ad software to detect it and delete it manually. Every ad/spyware detector/remover program I’ve seen tells you the location. You just have to delete it. Just run the scan and look at the address and go to that folder and look for the file. Some of it may be running in the background so you’ll have to do crtl + atl + delete to get to the processes and shut it down. Then you can delete it. Sometime dlls from stuff you’ve downloaded will reinstall it if it is deleted. To delete that you’ll unfortunately have to get rid of the program if you want to get rid of it. It can take awhile, but it is possible just to delete it all manually. You can also buy one which should remove most, if not all of it (some of the things might be a little too new for it). The cookie ones, those will keep popping up no matter what you do. Most spyware you agree to install when you install something you download. It is part of the license (but whor eally reads the lciense), and that is something you can’t say no to if you want to install said program. It would help if you said what Windows you have though.
That works. Yes I could do that. I have Windows ME, sorry.
Tracking cookies are of a minor threat. Which is good, since they can be installed by just visiting certain sites (and even certain pop-up ads). They aren’t going to harm you, but they will be used to collect data on things like what people are interested in. In other words, its used to see where you go online. So delete them anyways.
Quite a few sites I visit seem to have them, so I have to clean up after visiting them.
So there ultimatly isnt a way to stop the tracking cookies unless you lock out cookies in general, which could cripple certain websites and features (like auto-logons)
Try uninstalling AdAware. But for getting rid of ads, i reccomend an ad free browser like Mozilla or Opera.