Hello All.
Today I reverted my system back to the stahe it was at when purchased due to some problems I'd been having. The first thing I did was check that my webmail was working then I downloaded Ad-aware and scanned my PC. To my dismay, considering the PC was back to being 'new out of the box', Ad-aware found 5 critical entries. How? Are these things present when we buy our PCs?
Update: I've just run Spybot and it's found DSO Exploit. This is the latest version of Spybot and I'm running an up to date XP SP2.

The DSO exploit is not spyware, and it was patched by Microsoft a long time ago. If you are running XP SP2, you almost certainly have the patch. You can ignore the DSO exploit entry in spybot, or you can follow the instructions in the _long_ DSO exploit thread to remove it from the list.

:)

~psi42

Hi,
Reverting your system does not always mean every single file is reverted! Some of these Spyware files can rebuild others.
The DSO Exploit is a function of IE security flaws; which another volunteer has addressed.
Here is a link to get rid of it... different for different versions of windows:

http://www.pchell.com/support/dsoexploit.shtml

Also, if you are not using Spyware Blaster, free, it is a great program. I have not had one single spyware file or program in my computer since using it now for about 3 weeks! And, here are suggestions for running AdAware and SpyBot:

Both the above programs run better and much faster when run in SafeMode.
It's best to run the AdAware scan first; 3 times; then re-boot.
Then, run the AdAware scan again 3 times; then run the SpyBot.
Re- Boot.
Reason for running so many times:
Some of these trojans' files can be deleted the first time; leaving some others; but on re-boot, they re-write the files that were deleted.
Running multiple times deletes most of it the first
Time.

Great, free, program that STOPS spyware, trojans, home page hijacks, etc, BEFORE they get into your computer. Check it out at CNET at link:

http://www.download.com/SpywareBlast...ml?tag=lst-0-2

Happy New Year, and lotsa luck without spyware,
fredg