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Opera, Mozilla Ready for Prime Time
© 2004, John Calder http://www.TheEzine.net Early Internet surfers, which of course means something less than a decade ago for most of us, will remember the days when Netscape was the only real browser in town. For those who don't remember, there...
Provisioning/User Management System Upgrades: Part Two – Building Awareness And Building Approval
Somewhere in the world is a person who wants to see their provisioning/user management systems get a sorely needed upgrade. But they seem to be getting nowhere.
The technical requirements are unarticulated. Key decisionmakers in the company...
The Benefits of Call Center Recruiting Software -
High-volume call centers need to hire new employees quickly. When a new call center opens up or seasonal help is needed, it is important to hire qualified call center employees fast. Call center recruiting software is vital to helping weed out...
The Saga of the Annoying Adware
When we think of adware, what comes to mind are those annoying and pesky ads that pop up out of nowhere whenever we are surfing the net. Anybody who has surfed through the net has encountered those irritating pop-up adwares advertising everything...
You're Crazy To Market Without A Mailing List
The whole reason email marketing is done: to drive clients to your web site, where you can sell your products and services to them. But in order to bring them to your site, you need to have addresses to mail those exciting messages to. You...
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Remove Rogue Desktop Icons Created By Spyware
If you have used a Windows machine for a while, whether it's Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows 98, you're sure to have noticed desktop icons appearing from out of nowhere. How can icons mysteriously emerge on your Windows desktop?
1. When you buy a computer, many vendors place icons to selected products and services on your desktop, such as links to high-speed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or add-on services vendors think you may need.
2. As you install software on your Windows machine, icons may appear, either to start the application or link to the manufacturer's website. Installing just one program could add three or more icons to your desktop!
3. It's easy to accidentally drag a Favorite, bookmark, text file, or other icon to your desktop, creating an icon.
Normally, it's easy to delete Windows desktop icons. Just place your mouse pointer on the offending icon, then right-click it and choose "Delete", clicking "Yes" to confirm if prompted.
However, what if the rogue icons are for adult websites, unfamiliar search engines, or other websites you don't recall visiting? You may try removing these icons but get an error, or after removal they still reappear again and again and again!
If so, then more than likely spyware, adware, or other malware has infected your machine. It may have been through file trading software, an inadvertent "yes" click when a popup window asked you to install software, 'freeware' that included adware, or other means. To remove the rogue icons, you need to remove the malware creating these icons.
Removing spyware and adware can be a time-consuming process, fraught with potential disaster as it is possible to accidentally remove files that render your operating system unusable. However, the following software products can help with this process as long as you read the instructions carefully, make backups, and get expert advice
if you're not completely sure about removing what they ask you to do:
* Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/
* Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/
* Pest Patrol: http://www.pestpatrol.com/
* Spybot Search and Destroy: http://safer-networking.org/
* Spy Sweeper: http://www.webroot.com/
So, how can you prevent these icons from appearing in the first place? Practice safe computing.
* Backup your machine. If it does get infected to the point of being unusable, at least you won't lose all your important files.
* Install security-related operating system updates so spyware and adware cannot enter your system through well-known exploits.
* Download or buy a virus scanner, and keep it updated! Virus scanners cannot detect all spyware, but it doesn't hurt to have one. Check online or visit your local computer software store.
* Purchase a hardware or software firewall, and keep it updated! Firewalls help protect your computer from common exploits that spyware or adware can use to infect your machine.
* Consider using a different web browser. Though it is not perfect, Mozilla Firefox at http://www.mozilla.org is currently less susceptible to spyware than Internet Explorer, mainly because it lacks certain technology (such as ActiveX) that is often exploited by malware writers. Note that depending on your web use, certain websites may not work correctly with other web browsers.
By practicing safe computing and using spyware-removal software, you can help remove rogue desktop icons from your desktop and keep others from appearing.
About the Author
Andrew Malek is the owner of the MalekTips computer and technology help site at http://www.malektips.com . Visit his anti-spyware page at http://malektips.com/spyware/ for more advice on removing adware, spyware, and other malware.
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| Tucows Downloads - Download Freeware and Shareware Software |
| Download freeware, shareware, and demos. Maintains over 45000 software titles that are tested, rated, reviewed and ready to download. |
| www.tucows.com |
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| Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com |
| Download shareware, freeware and Demo software for PC, Mac, Linux, and Handhelds categorized into categories, plus software reviews. |
| www.download.com |
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| Computer software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| This includes application software such as a word processor, which enables a ... Application software is often purchased separately from computer hardware. ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Shareware.com - Search for shareware programs and free software ... |
| Search for shareware programs from more than a dozen downloadable software directories. |
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| Jumbo: Free & Shareware MP3 files, Games, Screen Savers & Computer ... |
| Source of free and shareware computer programs and utilities for PC and Mac. Evaluate software and read product reviews. Download games and screen savers. |
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| Computer Software in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Browse categories featuring sites devoted to computer software, including shareware and freeware download sites, operating systems, desktop customization, ... |
| dir.yahoo.com |
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| IEEE Software |
| IEEE Computer Society's magazine covering all aspects of software, including software engineering. |
| www.computer.org |
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| Free Downloads on ZDNet | Shareware, Trialware, Evaluation Software |
| ZDNet's Software Directory is the Web's largest library of software downloads. Covering software for Windows, Mac, and Mobile systems, ZDNet's Software ... |
| downloads.zdnet.com |
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| FSF - The Free Software Foundation |
| Free software is a matter of liberty not price. Think of "free" as in "free speech". |
| www.fsf.org |
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| Apple - Software |
| Software products for your digital life. ... The perfect addition for professional review. QuickTime Broadcaster. Encoding software for live events. ... |
| www.apple.com |
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| Open Directory - Computers: Software |
| In Partnership with AOL Search. about dmoz | report abuse/spam | help. the entire directory, only in Computers/Software. Top: Computers: Software (38471) ... |
| dmoz.org |
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| freshmeat.net: Welcome to freshmeat.net |
| About: The Web browser is probably the most frequently used software today, ... Web professionals can use the software for functional testing and regression ... |
| freshmeat.net |
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| Software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF) |
| Listing of the GNU software packages. |
| www.gnu.org |
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| Sun Software |
| Get enterprise-class software--Solaris 10 OS, the Java Enterprise System, ... Sun Java StorageTek Software reduces cost and complexity with a single, ... |
| www.sun.com |
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| Internet Real Estate.com -- owns and operates a portfolio of the ... |
| SOFTWARE.COM · SWEEPSTAKES.COM · PHONE.COM PODCAST.COM ... Software.com | Sweepstakes.com | Phone.com | Podcast.com | Shop.com | Safety.com ... |
| www.internetrealestate.com |
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| Joel on Software |
| A weblog by Joel Spolsky, a programmer working in New York City, about software and software companies. |
| www.joelonsoftware.com |
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| Amazon.com Software: Computer & video games, business, accounting ... |
| Online shopping for computer & video games, business & office productivity software, software from Microsoft, Apple, Adobe & more; accounting, antivirus, ... |
| www.amazon.com |
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| IBM Software - Home Page |
| IBM home page for all of its software products, including Lotus and Tivoli, with keyword search, category browse and AZ product names. |
| www.ibm.com |
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| Opera web browser: Homepage |
| Copyright © 2006 Opera Software ASA. All rights reserved. Skip navigation. Opera Software ... Copyright Opera Software ASA . All rights reserved. ... |
| www.opera.com |
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| Google Directory - Computers > Software |
| Search only in Software Search the Web ... Software Categorized by Letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ... |
| www.google.com |
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