Evil Secret Software Installed on your computer?

[BigNorm]

every week i go to my add/remove programs feature and discover at least 5 different "programs" which i didn't install, no click "yes to install mysterious program"

i just checked now, and certain keywords found in any text on my computer, i.e. car, cofeetable, duct tape, would instead be double underlined and turned into a link to an ad page. now i'm so peeved about having programs installed behind my back, it's just sickening.

problem is i can't use a firewall since i play alot of online games. anyone have similar problems?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Firewalls can be used with online games. All you need to do is configure them properly. The key is that, after you install the firewall, fire up your online games, and wait for the firewall to alert you to the fact that a program (The game) is trying to access the internet. There should be an option to allow the program to access the internet and a check mark that says something along the lines of "Remember this decision." Alternatively, there will be an option to always allow the program access on all ports of something similar. Unless you mean online games like Flash Games hosted on web sites, and not software on your computer, in which case a firewall will again not interfere.

Get one, you need it.

 

[Merman]

Hey BigNorm,

You can use a firewall with online games. It works fine for me. Try ZoneAlarm, the basic version is a free download. Once you get it running, boot up your game and it'll do just like H.D.S. said above. It'll tell you that program is trying to access the net. Just hit the "remember this setting" box and click "allow". Should work no problem.

 

[Duke Diablo]

Bignorm, I think you should listen to what your mom... I mean HDS and Merman said.

Also get yourself a good spyware remover and a good antivirus, and never again suffer such sh... troubles.

 

[Cbarton]

Pest Patrol and Zone Alarm make a great tandem on mine, BigNorm. Get Zone Alarm soon. I got hit by those and lost some important files when my HD crashed from one of them. Is worth the price!

 

[MistressValerie1]

Big Norm, you have spyware 🙁 I highly recommend that you download the free Ad-Aware and Spybot programs, check for signature updates, and run each of them, preferably more than once.

 

[BigNorm]

thanks sooo much. yall helped alot. musta found like 500 programs of adware and spyware, lol.