Adware

Post by **Daedelus** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 3:54 am

OK, so starting with the newly-released Daemon Tools v4.0, they now include a feature they call the "DAEMON Tools Searchbar". Apparently this program is provided by the lovely folks over at WhenU, an advertising company. If you look at the release post for DT4 you'll see that they link to two separate pages about how private WhenU is. This of course ignores the fact that both pages are on WhenU's own website. It's like having Enron audit themselves with no oversight.

So I figured I'd check out the DT forums to see what users were saying, expecting to see a huge flood of WTF-style posts. Instead, I found this:

RyanIsCool wrote:How do i get the search bar??????
When i installed daemon tools i never got the search bar

I didn't know if I should scream loudly or just cry a small death.

So I have a question for you all here. What do you think of Adware? Would you welcome banner ads in say, Adobe Photoshop, if Adobe cranked the cost down into the double digits?

Spyware of course, is a different story. That's something that's placed on your system without you knowing... spying on you. This would of course assume you knew the program to be 100% free and have a solid privacy pact.

Also, do any of you recommend AdAware? I've seen many people recommend that program but I can't understand why. It's a poorly made program and not to mention the fact that a couple years ago Lavasoft (people who make AdAware) accepted payment from a spyware company to not detect their product as a dangerous program!

Post by **Eldo** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:23 am

Hm, yes, when I installed Daemon Tools, the search bar was annoying as hell. It had an option in installation about not installing it but I guess that missed it the first time around. I did lol'd at that dumb bastard who asked about the search bar. I guess he didn't know it was bundled with Adware but if he did we seriously need to clean the gene pool a bit.

I personally prefer to use Spybot over Adaware, and it's not surprising that anti-spy/adware company accepts payment from spyware companies.

Anyway, I'm not so paranoid about viruses or spyware on my computer anymore - mostly because I have nothing of value on this computer. Once I get a new uber computer, I'm saw my innate paranoa will kick in and I'll run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs 3 times a day.

Post by **Quest** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:36 am

i am using the 1.05 build of adaware. i have stopped upgrading to newer versions but i still download the latest definitions.

i think the performance and functionality of most software follows a quasi bell curve. at the start it keeps getting better, then it hits a peak and starts to go downhill. later versions are worse than the previous but still better than the 1st.
so the trick is to identify the peak and stick to it. but its tricky!
=P

Post by **Daedelus** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:51 am

Quest, that would work however, how do you know that AdAware isn't removing spy/adware from being detected from those new definitions? I do agree however that the older (1.05) version of the program was leaps and bounds better. The new one is bloatware, no question.

Post by **Quest** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:00 am

Daedelus wrote:Quest, that would work however, how do you know that AdAware isn't removing spy/adware from being detected from those new definitions? I do agree however that the older (1.05) version of the program was leaps and bounds better. The new one is bloatware, no question.

i dont. its a tradeoff. i dont want to spend more time verifying the effectiveness. so i pay for it in ignorance.
as long as my computer is not acting strange or giving problems, then i can take it that the treshold has not been breached.
until it does, then i will not be compelled to look for better alternatives.

Post by **Daedelus** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:03 am

I'm sure I'll take heat for this, but I've been advocating the use of Microsoft AntiSpyware/Defender. Pretty easy to use, especially nice for when I have to whip a relative's computer into shape over the phone or e-mail.

Also to the tune of helping others with their PC, I'm a big fan of http://safety.live.com. Does a great job of some basic tuneup stuff. Used it on two comptuers over the phone so far and has pretty much cleaned them up!

I suppose this outs me as a MS fanboy. Sorry Psi.

Post by **Quest** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:28 am

i will check out MS antispyware/defender.

http://safety.live.com only runs in IE.
here is another firefox problem that will be solved by IE Viewer extention.
=P

Post by **Eldo** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:10 am

psi mentioned eons ago that Windows' Spyware detector was actually pretty damned good, he performed a spyware detecting test or whatever and it rated pretty high marks.

Most people like myself don't really know the specifics of it, but are lured under the false security that detectors keep us safe from spyware. We all know that's not completely true. Adaware usually detects all my cookies and deletes whereas spybot actually finds some spyware. For some reason, I had to use Spybot to get the WhenU adware out, Adaware didn't work for me. Hmph.

The mac users will tell you to get a mac so you don't have to deal with this.

Post by **Daedelus** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:36 pm

When I used to run spy/adware detection, it was always both AdAware and Spybot S&D. Right now though, I don't run anything. I am sane enough to where I don't worry about that sort of thing. Once every couple months I might run safety.live.com for kicks.