When I start up my PC I usually CRTL-ALT-Delete to the Close program window to kill all non-esential programs. I have noticed the last two times I booted my computer that Microsoft Money Express is running in the background. I have done nothing recently to the software to prompt this have never seen it before last week.
Is it possible that someone hacked my PC via internet and told the PC to run MS Money Express so they could check back when I log on to see if there are any credit card or bank account numbers in the app-log files? I am using a modem on Earthlink.
I have never used the program so am not concern about information loss but wonder if this is what is happening and if I should re-load the harddrive. I am using a modem on Earthlink.
While I have no idea if you were hacked or not, I do know that some shareware people unscrupiously put secret programs on your computer to monitor your usage, etc.
The above link is for ad aware. Ad aware is free utility that will check your windows registry to see if any spyware has been put on your computer. Let’s hope that lavasoft doesn’t put any secret programs on your hard drive!
billy Although I’m a programmer-type, and not a hacker, changing the operation of MS Money is about the last thing that would occur to me if I was going to hack you.
I understand what you’re doing with CTRL + ALT + DEL, but that’s really a “closing the barn door after the horse is gone” approach. What you really want is to find out why these programs are starting in the first place, because it implies they’ve somehow gotten into your computer’s booting process. (I removed Norton Utilities for just this reason, it was so intrusive, I was having difficulty understanding what it was affecting.)
The first thing is to remove ALL programs from your Start-Up folder. The kind of user you are, you probably don’t want any of them. The next thing is to get access to the boot files (the method depends on OS) and remove references to programs you don’t think have any business being there.
Enright3’s recommendation about “Ad Aware” is good. But that’s exclusively to remove common Internet invasive cookies, and the like. Wouldn’t help if somebody had hacked MS Money.
In Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, the Security section, make sure “Do Not Save Encrypted Pages to Disk” is selected. This really dumb default of IE saves your confidential files to disk, as I understand it, in UNencrypted format.
Microsoft Money has a small process that starts up at boot time that stays in memory and will pop up reminders when bills are due, etc. Check your money config to see if it is enabled.
It seems highly unlikely that somebody has broken (not “hacked”) into your computer just to run MS Money. However, if you stay online for any length of time, I highly recommend you to get a firewall. ZoneAlarm is a good one.