spyware in windows xp

[John Veteran]

ok, i'm SICK of hearing about the supposed spyware that microsoft includes with windows xp. i am now a paranoid user (sarcasm). someone please show me the light. tell me where it is, what it does, and how i can stop it. please, i want to know. someone tell me exactly what spyware is included in xp.

Edited January 23, 2004 by gameguy

[SimplyPotatoes]

uhh tons! microsoft monitors the porn you download how many times you hit ctrl-alt-del man you should not use computers anymore

[cyclingplatypus]

The only thing I ever heard of was in SP1 it was an ALEXA...run spybot it picks it up and removes it. There are quite a few non-essential programs, error reporting, windows messenger, etc. You may use these though...

check out: http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

to see what processes you're running.

[Spyder Veteran]

ah man.. i never thought i'd see gameguy making a thread like this

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

My personal feeling is that WindowsXP CAN report a lot back to MS if you want it to. It kinda asks you first though. I don't think there is much suspicious going on.

[John Veteran]

ah man.. i never thought i'd see gameguy making a thread like this

:rofl: it's just that people keep talking about it and i know they're talking nonsense. i am quite knowledgable about windows (edit: at least xp, i forget a lot about win9x :blush:), and to my knowledge, there is NO spyware in xp. however, some things can be interpreted as spyware (sending hardware/network info with bug reports, etc) but those things are either anonymous or there's another explanation for that particular thing.

[dougkinzinger]

ah man.. i never thought i'd see gameguy making a thread like this

Me either! I though you knew better, GG! :woot: I thought you knew XP like the back of dougkinzinger's hand! :D

[John Veteran]

read my post above your's.

[markwolfe Veteran]

There are bits it does send. Most of which don't ID you or your PC. Sometimes it will ask, but usually not (most are set to send by default).

All in all, nothing to worry about, but when I had XP, I disabled all of them out of habit. :)

Now I am a Linux user, and my data goes to Linus Torvalds! :pinch: lol

[Slugbait]

There are bits it does send. Most of which don't ID you or your PC. Sometimes it will ask, but usually not (most are set to send by default).

All in all, nothing to worry about, but when I had XP, I disabled all of them out of habit. :)

Now I am a Linux user, and my data goes to Linus Torvalds! :pinch: lol

This is an excellent example of someone asking for specific answers to the question "what spyware, where is it, tell me exactly", and some idiot spews forth the same old crap "oh, it's there dude..."

Congradulations, thanks for taking a dump in the thread.

Now...would someone be so kind as to answer the question?

[Banzai]

I guess it depends what you define as spy ware, if you class bug reports and program crash?s sent to Microsoft as spy ware then most os's do this take linux bug-zilla, that sends bug reports but it doesn?t contain your name or anything like that.

At the end of the day we don?t really know what ms and other company?s really know about us. And you could go mad thinking about it, so look at it this way is it really a problem, granted I don?t like to think that a company such as ms would know so much about me but lets face it people like to think there?s a conspiracy behind things 99% of the time there isn?t.

My view is there?s no real spy ware in xp there might be error reporting tools but nothing that would send anything incriminating.

I hope my post is ok njlouch as I remember last time you posted it wasn?t well thought out, sorry about that im 15 and grated not very bright I did get an E in English on my mocks, so sorry if it doesn?t meet your standards.

Dan

[markwolfe Veteran]

This is an excellent example of someone asking for specific answers to the question "what spyware, where is it, tell me exactly", and some idiot spews forth the same old crap "oh, it's there dude..."

Congradulations, thanks for taking a dump in the thread.

Now...would someone be so kind as to answer the question?

Excuse me, but I was confirming that although WindowsXP does send out some information, it can all be disabled. Some of it is enabled by default, and none of the data personally identifies you or your PC.

The last comment was a simple joke (as it was ridiculously juxtapositioning Linus Torvalds into Bill Gates' position). I think you took it a bit more seriously than you should have.

[kaptain chump]

reiterates juxtapositioning......yeah

hums the tune: Tool - Schism

[John Veteran]

so... there's only been one example? :huh:

alexa is just doing it's job. for it to be activated, the user must click the "related links" button in IE, which for some reason, i can't find right now :blink: anyway, YOU have to start it, and it's just doing it's job. it looks at the page you're viewing and searches for similar/related websites. if you don't want this functionality, just don't click related links and remove the button. some people use it.

[dougkinzinger]

True, but honestly man, I wouldn't worry about it ;)

[Spyder Veteran]

all the components of windows going out to the net scare me. microsoft hates me and wants to eat my future children. I ph34r teh MS!!11

[John Veteran]

True, but honestly man, I wouldn't worry about it ;)

i'm not worrying about it :p i'm trying to dispell all these false beliefs about xp. people who keep spreading them sound so ignorant...

edit: :rofl: spyder

[dougkinzinger]

There you go. Now we're on the same page. I hate that too...XP isn't friggin spyware, and it ticks me off when people say it is. Sure, it checks for updates, activates itself if needed, etc., but it doesn't track you or anything.

[John Veteran]

is that all? alexa is the only thing in xp that is supposedly software? no more examples? someone, please give me some more :D

[freakyfriday]

there is another major spyware in Windows XP, its in WMP9

[Veedems Veteran]

there is another major spyware in Windows XP, its in WMP9

and your evidence? you guys are insane. I know wxactly why gameguy started this thread and I don't blame him.

[markwolfe Veteran]

It looks like everyone agrees that there really isn't any true "spying" going on with Windows XP. The bits of data are relatively trivial (unless you specifically give permission to, as in when prompted to send your configuration information along with error data).

The only ones who believe differently are the fringe radicals (who, unfortunately, tend to scream the loudest and most repeatedly).

[stezo2k]

there is another major spyware in Windows XP, its in WMP9

i have also heard that too. apparently, it connects to the net and sends the information of the media to ms.

also, there was an article on ntfs/neowin, i cant remember, it was about sending all your copy/paste information to them.

We don't know if there is spyware or not in xp without the source so either opinion may be correct

[markwolfe Veteran]

I think that WMP just sends track data out for cddb lookup... maybe. Not like Microsoft would find out that I listen to They Might be Giants very interesting. Now, Vanilla Ice would be a different matter... :blush:

As for saying that you can't tell without the source, that isn't true. A packet sniffer just listens to all traffic, and you can 'tune in' to the ones going to Redmond, if you wanted to. I think that they even make packet sniffer programs that can run in Windows (it requires a different driver that talks to the NIC on a more fundamental and direct level).

[Veedems Veteran]

WMP is not spyware. Why not look at this tab a little more often?