Protecting your Privacy in Windows (freeware)

Spybot Search and Destroy scans and cleans your system of spyware, adware that often comes installed in some so called free apps and many p2p file-sharing apps. .Plus it cleans cookies, flash cookies, url type-down history, MRUs in registry. Netscape, Mozilla, Opera history, cookies, etc.

Click here....to see if your infected with any popular spyware. (Only works with Internet Explorer on Windows).

Spyware Blaster
Same thing as Immunize in SpyBot (prevents spyware from being installed) but has more extensive list.


MRU Blaster
Cleans tons of MRU (Most recently used) items in the registry. Has option to silently scan at clean at each boot. Built-in plugins are Cookie Blaster and IE Temporary Internet Files remover. Doesn't remove history though. Therefore I still recommend my privacy.cmd batch file below to clean on boot.

Google Toolbar Blocks pop-ups in Internet Explorer. I suggest installing it Without Advanced Features as no information will be sent to Google.

StartupList shows a list of programs in notepad executed at boot-up time
HijackThis
advanced users only ...can disable BHOs, etc.

FlashONoff.zip two registry entries, double click to enable or disable flash in Internet Explorer. Flash Ads suck.

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Web Banner Ad Blocking/Hosts
Use a host file to block ads/banners or block them with Mozilla.
Block BANNERS with hosts from pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/ or List of Lists unzip to:

Windows 95/98/ME ---- c:\windows
Windows NT 4.0/2000 --- c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc
Windows XP --- c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
Linux --- /etc/hosts

Note: Windows 2000/XP when using large hosts file do the following:
Right click My Computer | Manage | Services and Applications | Services
Double click DNS Client and Stop the service. Startup Type change to Disabled
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INDEX.DAT and HISTORY on Windows 2000 and XP
Internet Explorer 6 makes it pretty much impossible to delete history just like index.dat because when your logged into an account they are "in use". Only way to combat that is to logout and login to another account that has administrator privliges to wipe out history, index.dat, etc. files.

Download privacy-cmd.zip or copy and paste and create your own.
You still must right click on privacy.cmd | Edit | Change YOURUSERNAME

Creating a new user account with Administrator privileges.
Right click on My Computer | Manage | Local Users and Groups | Users
Right click white space on right pane and choose New User | choose a Password | Create | Close
Double-click account you just created | Member Of | Add | Choose Administrators | Add

rem Windows 2000/XP delete cookies, history, index.dat, TIF, temp files
rem Name it privacy.cmd and put in
rem C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
rem to clean index.dat files login under ANOTHER administrative account
rem Do NOT forget to change YOURUSERNAME
@echo on
c:
cd \
rd /s/q winnt\temp
md winnt\temp
cd docume~1\YOURUSERNAME
rd /s/q locals~1\tempor~1
rd /s/q locals~1\history
rd /s/q locals~1\temp
md locals~1\temp
rd /s/q recent
md recent
rd /s/q cookies
pause


Shows what it'll look like when executing the above privacy cmd batch file.


Clears cookies, history, etc. but not your index.dat files because logged in as mrbass.

dir docume~1\mrbass\locals~1\tempor~1\content.ie5
This shows an index.dat that has grown to 49,152 bytes.


Now I logged into an account with administrator and it clear out the index.dat files.
After you start Internet Explorer for the first time and new index.dat file will be create.
The new index.dat file is 32,768 bytes

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Download url_recent-reg.zip or copy and paste and create your own
Note: You must place in startup folder of the user who wish to clean, NOT administrator or any other one.
If you have Spybot autostart and clean File set Usage tracks set only then you DO NOT need this url_recent.reg

REGEDIT4
;save to text named url_recent.reg works for 98, ME, 2000 and XP
; cleans IE URL drop down list typed urls and recent docs, etc. Suggest placing in startup folder of current user
;when rebooting just hit ENTER key twice to execute
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StreamMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Map Network Drive MRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComputerDescriptions]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Search Assistant\ACMru]

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Win98 and WinME INDEX.DAT

autoexec.bat add the following to it to clean your system on every boot

deltree /y c:\windows\temp
mkdir c:\windows\temp
deltree /y c:\windows\cookies
deltree /y c:\windows\history
deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5
deltree /y c:\windows\recent
deltree /y c:\temp
deltree /y c:\windows\applog
erase c:\windows\desktop\*.tmp
#erase c:\windows\win386.swp

These files are deleted by the above batch file put in autoexec.bat
Unfortunately these are impossible to delete while in windows so it'll clean them when it reboots.
C:\WINDOWS\Cookies\index.dat
C:\WINDOWS\History\History.IE5\index.dat
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat
You may wish to delete your win386.swp file everynow and then and then defrag by uncommenting #.

DOS commands in WinME
This should allow you to run all those cleanup commands from the autoexec.bat under WindowsME.
1) Make a file init.bat that contains the commands you want to run at startup, such as:
DELTREE /y c:\window\history\*.* >nul, etc.
2) Save it in c:\
3) In Windows Explorer, select init.bat, right click to get the menu, choose "Properties", "Program", then make sure "Close on exit" is selected"
4) Using Regedit, under
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
add a new string value, name it "init" and set its value to "c:\init.bat".
When you start up, WindowsME will open a DOS box and run the commands in the batch file, then close the DOS box.


Netgear Router with "Block Sites"
I put these in my router and it works wonders blocking tons of ads.

ad.
ad1.
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adlog
ads.
ads1.
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adserver
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advertising
affiliate
banner
bfast
cash.
click
clix
counter
linksynergy
mediaplex
oas
pointroll
popup
qksrv
sex
sitemeter
sponsor


block yahoo email ads
us.a1.yimg.com
block yahoo japan email ads
us.a1.yimg.com
n.yimg.jp


Updated May 4, 2004


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