Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Spyware can change Desktop

SpyWare comes in all forms. A recent one I ran into on a friend's PC was new to me and quite annoying to him. The SpyWare had changed his Desktop to a Web view -- shortcuts had links. And it made the background look like a window alert to SpyWare, with a link added to go to a site to allegedly fix this problem.

This is a reminder never to trust the truthfulness of such announcements, emails, or pop-up windows. In many cases it's a ploy to get you to buy some (often substandard) software. In other cases, it could be a trap to install malicious software or capture personal data.

Install AntiSpyware and keep it updated. One suggestion -- install Windows Defender, use Microsoft Update installed (not Windows Update), and keep the Windows Defender checking your system in real time in addition to periodic scans of your hard disk.

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