• Grokster - Installs numerous other products, including Active Delivery, CasinoOnNet, ClipGenie, CommonName, Cydoor, DelFin Media Viewer, DownloadWare, eAcceleration, eUniverse, FavoriteMan, FlashTrack, Gator, IGetNet, IGetNet/ClearSearch, IncrediFind, IPInsight, Look2Me, Lycos.SideSearch, NetworkEssentials, NetworkEssentials/SCBar, PeopleOnPage, RVP, SAHAgent, Search-EXE, SearchEnhancement, TOPicks, VX2/e, VX2/f, and Webhancer.

Wow...I was surprised to see that one app will fill your computer with that much crap. Just look at the list, its like they pulled together every kind of spyware you can possibly have.

There's an interesting article linked off of HardOCP:
http://www.computing.net/security/wwwboard/forum/9665.html

Apparently, AOL and AIM will add certain AOL sites to your "Trusted Sites" list in IE, thereby allowing them to install ActiveX controls WITHOUT any prompting.

I don't have either one installed so I can't verify it, but if it's true that's some serious sliminess...

I deal with this crap every day. As a perk for working at our company I also work on user's home machines. I have removed tons of spyware from many machines. The record was 500 pieces of spyware (100 of those were tracking cookies.)

The best defense is use SS&D's immunizzation feature, and don't run as an admin or power user which using IE.

IE in itself should have all scripting, including active x, javascript, and JVM capability, disabled to be truly secure.

the question I have to ask is, is running Windows worth all this crap? I know the answer, at least for me personally.

I can't wait for people to create Spyware extensions for Mozilla / Firefox :D

I really think that a painful crash course in how to use a computer should be mandatory for all computer users though. Especially "don't install crap" ... aargh. Oh well, as long as my own system is happy ...

Ad-aware has this nice app called Ad-watch , it watchs for any changes made to the registry, and you can allow or deny... very handy way to control... Does Spybot have something similar ?

A lot of that crap should be classified as a virus. I've seen programs that will always redirect your url no matter what you type in the address box or cause internet explorer to crash upon opening. Horrible stuff.

I have also saved computers with Ad-Aware. Spy Bot Search & Destroy is pro-active in that it monitors for new threats. Ad-Aware is more for fixing things after they've already gotten on.

I have seen computers with multiple-processes, hundreds of registry keys, and hundreds of cookies after only 1 month of use.

I've rescued several computers from near-rebuild with Ad-Aware.

Spyware's most frightening aspects are that it's hard to block and users are much less suspicous of web content than email messages.

I dig one of these out and run it on each of my Windows boxes every few months. Neither has ever found anything other than some cookies (yawn). On the other hand, a couple of my email accounts get over a hundred pieces of spam a day (the vast majority of which I never see until I go look at the logs at my ISP, fortunately). Spam is *much* worse than spyware. You have to go looking to pick up spyware, but spam finds you. Of course any given piece of spyware generally is worse than spam once you actually have it on your machine, but you have to be stupid/clueless to do that.

http://www.flexbeta.net/images/spy_vs_spy/toolbars.gif

Most revealing is the screenshot of the fully "infected" browser and deskop. Unbelievable.

That's a classic shot.

I was surprised to see Panicware's Pop-Up Stopper in the adware/spyware category. I've been using the free version for some time now and neither AdAware or Spybot S&D has flagged it as objectionable.

Well..... looking at the results tell me that running both consecutively is the way to go. Neither one aced the test. This smacks of the days of yore when antivirus programs were young and you were best served by running periodic scans from two different vendors.