# Most Spyware EVER!! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 18, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500 "2003-07-18T23:33:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/21 "2003-07-21T21:25:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElwoodCuse \* > Yeah, **rjung** , because there aren’t enough Mac users out there for companies to bother writing Spyware for them. Then I’ll kindly ask you to remember that the next time your PC is slowing down and crashing from being overloaded with spyware, while us Mac users are merrily chuggin’ along. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/22 "2003-07-21T22:03:05Z")
I downloaded SpyCop a while back and found … 1. That’s right, zero. Hmmm, guess I’m managing OK. Of course, I have my PC seriously locked down. Still, I think I’ll try Adaware since previous posters note it sometimes finds things SpyCop has missed. ---
**Author:** ![Ally424](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/82dd89/32.png) [@Ally424](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ally424)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/23 "2003-07-21T22:05:56Z")
I just got Ad Aware 6 yesterday. I scanned and it said that I had something like 370 “suspicious programs”. All deleted now, thank god, my computer is slow enough without spyware on it too ! ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/24 "2003-07-22T02:17:09Z")
Just a reminder, guys & gals – don’t forget to get the updates before running an AdAware scan. It’s simple, quick and the update list changes frequently. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/25 "2003-07-22T06:25:22Z")
Hey guys, I hope you don’t mind me hijacking my own thread 😉 but – does Adaware scan for NETSCAPE cookies?? I don’t use IE anymore and I’m getting a little suspicious that I’ve got some “spyware” cookies that Adaware isn’t finding. (Just scanned and found _zero_ suspicious items.) ---
**Author:** ![windchsr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/839c29/32.png) [@windchsr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/windchsr)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/26 "2003-07-22T07:45:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KGS \* > \*\*Hey guys, I hope you don’t mind me hijacking my own thread 😉 but – does Adaware scan for NETSCAPE cookies?? I don’t use IE anymore and I’m getting a little suspicious that I’ve got some “spyware” cookies that Adaware isn’t finding. (Just scanned and found _zero_ suspicious items.) \*\* Nope, it doesn’t. Nor any other browser’s cookies except Internet Explorer. (To be fair, there’s some good technical reason for this. IE stores each cookie as a single file that can be deleted with little harm. Netscape stores all its cookies as one text file that it doesn’t really like other programs messing with. The up side to Netscape’s tactic is that it takes far less hard drive space.) ---
**Author:** ![Swagman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Swagman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swagman)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/27 "2003-07-22T09:33:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Toddly \* > \*\*Right click on one of the boxes, there should be a Select All option under that dialog box. The new free version that is out now is way faster than the original AdAware 6. I use the free version by the way. \*\* Thanks Toddly, never thought to try that. Doh! Worth doing even with the usual 10 or so data mining culprits I find on every scan. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/28 "2003-07-22T11:45:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by windchsr \* > **Nope, it doesn’t. Nor any other browser’s cookies except Internet Explorer.** Aw, crap. Well…the advantages of Netscrape 7.0 over Internet Exploder are so vast, that I guess it’s worth a few tiny ants crawling all over my cookies. I generally delete all my cookies _en masse_ every few months anyway, since the file does grow too large eventually. Just hope I can remember all my passwords! ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/29 "2003-07-22T19:33:32Z")
I limit the cookies that can be saved on my computer when using IE. It seems to be okay except that I still have some spyware lurking in my computer since I get an annoying popup every once in a while. The particular option (in case some of you are wondering) that I used for the cookie management is under Tools \> Internet Options \> Privacy \> Advanced and I checked the “Override automatic cookie handling” so that every time I visit a site that requests a cookie, I can actively enable or disable their cookie storage. This gets to be a hassle at first but after a while of visiting the same sites, I don’t have to go through that mess as much. ---
**Author:** ![modro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@modro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/modro)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500/30 "2003-07-22T19:34:42Z")
I just recently ran Adaware on a few of my PC using friends computers (I am one of those sad little virus-and-spyware-free Mac using people 😃 ) and on their comp’s I netted: First, a 271, then on another computer, 704, and, finally, a 1024. Needless to say, Not many of my friends were actually aware of the fact spyware exists. Kazaa, Gator, and a few other programs are notorious for including spyware as a part of their installation, and in the case of Kazaa, removing the spyware will render the program dead. This can be sidestepped by downloading Kazaa Lite. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-spyware-ever/189500.md?page=1)