On 23 Mar 2005 at 13:38, Phil Daley wrote:

> My daughter brought me two computers to upgrade.
> 
> Hers was fine, although I had never seen so many "spyware/adware" on
> one system before, over 500.

What does this number mean?

Is this the number that programs like AdAware give for the count of 
registry keys, files, etc., that it finds? If so, then it's a 
ridiculously stupid number, as it includes things like Doubleclick 
cookies, including the "opt-out" cookie (which is on my PC).

Every spyware-infested computer I've ever cleaned up has had 5-15 
different spyware programs installed. There may very well be 100s of 
different bits and pieces in different places, but the actual full 
spyware programs is substantially smaller than that.

I'm not meaning to minimize the problem -- it's a ridiculous problem, 
one that's caused and enabled by bad business practices throughout 
the industry (a situation created by MS's bad software designs). But 
the methods of estimating the extent of an individual PC's 
infestation seem grossly blown out of proportion.

-- 
David W. Fenton                        http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
David Fenton Associates                http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

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