"home page hijacking"
most cl thread readers know about Spybot and Ad-aware. these excellent programs specialize in going after BHO's (browser helper objects) and browser hijackers.
as good as they are, they are reactionary, in that they will not prevent a browser hijacker, but will clean it if it's discovered during a scan.
SpywareBlaster, by Javacool, does it a little differently...
SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.
i'd love to know who else on this thread uses SpywareBlaster. i have been running it for at least several months, and it is a sweet program.
because SpywareBlaster prevents spyware from ever loading, i at first thought that it had to be memory-resident, i.e, always running in the background. but i was wrong.
i emailed javacool (the software developer) a couple months ago and asked if he would be kind enough to describe for me how SpywareBlaster works... how it prevents spyware from even loading in the first place, if it wasn't a memory resident application. here was what he had to say......
"Not a problem - I'd be glad to explain.
SpywareBlaster works by adding special settings to the Windows registry. These registry settings, which have been nicknamed "kill bits", can actually prevent the associated ActiveX spyware from running and also from installing through your web browser.
Since SpywareBlaster works with the registry, it does not need to be running constantly in the background.
(The System Snapshot feature doesn't require SpywareBlaster to be running in the background either, but it works a lot like Windows XP's built-in System Restore...except SpywareBlaster's System Snapshot can exclusively take care of spyware and browser hijackers.)
I hope this helps - if you need any more clarification please don't hesitate to let me know.
Best regards,
-Javacool"
have fun with SpywareBlaster, anyone who decides to try it... wilderssecurity.net |
