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I recently
hit, by mistake, what I thought was a Microsoft IE upgrade option and
what I received for that mistake was a Microsoft spyware download.
The pop-up which appeared to be legitimate turned out to be not. It
uploaded a product called Intelligent Explorer on my machine. What a
nightmare!
This
microsoft spyware download nightmare forced me to do some
research on the web and found messages like this one from a BullGuard
Antivirus Forum,
"PLEASE
HELP!!! I HAVE A SPYWARE, TROJAN AND HIJACKER ON MY COMPUTER. I HAVE
RUN BULLGUARD, CWSHREDDER AND AD-AWARE. ALL HAVE PICKED UP THE VIRUSES
AND SAID THAT THEY HAVE BEEN MOVED/REMOVED BUT WHEN I LOG ONTO THE
INTERNET THAT DAMN INTELLIGENT EXPLORER TOOLBAR IS SHOWING"
Another
message from spywareinfo Forum goes something like this:
"Hey I'm
having issues with something called Internet explorer toolbar -
Intelligent explorer. I can’t find a way to remove it from my comp and I
really don’t want to reinstall windows. I've used spybot, ad-ware, and cw
shredder but nothing seems to work."
It appears
that Intelligent Explorer allows other software to be downloaded to your
machine and this is where the problem occurs. What is even more
remarkable is that by downloading Intelligent Explorer, their license
grants them the right to install software add-ins on your computer at
their will. Take a look at what the software license for Intelligent
Explore says (go to http://www.ieplugin.com/terms.html to read it all):
"You grant
to us the right, exercisable by us until you uninstall the Software or
this agreement is otherwise terminated, to provide to you the Service of
downloading and causing to be displayed advertising material on your
computer, through ‘pop-up’ or other display while you use your browser.
You acknowledge and agree that installation of the Software may
automatically modify toolbars and other settings of your browser. By
installing the Software you agree to such modifications."
The
company, IBC incorporated, is incorporated in Belize. I really can't
believe this license.
One end
user found highly objectionable pop-up advertisements generated by this
software bundled with Intelligent Explorer in the form of extreme
pornography.
I have yet
to break this.
Intelligent
Explorer is a plug-in, which can create a new home page, as well as start
up and endless loop of pop-ups. You can remove the view bar, but then
starting up Internet Explorer will cause it to reappear. I asked some
friends to help, and no one could tell me what to do.
This is
what I did:
I bought a
copy of a program called XoftSpy and it removed the software. It took two
scans and a reboot to do it. This is not an advertisement for this
product. They advertised it was free, which it was to run, but then I
had to buy it to actually fix anything. It cost me $40 and I am sure that
there are freeware products out there as well, but that is what ended the
nightmare for me. Other spyware products I have seen out there include
spybot, NoAdware, Spyware Eliminator, Pal Spyware Remover,
AdwareSpy.com
and Spyware
C.O.P.
Simply doing a search on
google.com
will also reveal other
software that can be of help.
If you
really want to avoid this scenario of microsoft spyware download then
always remember, "Let the
buyer beware!"
Related links:
What are
Intrusion Detection Systems?
ZoneAlarm Internet
Security Suite 6
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