posted on September 2, 2001 01:43:51 PM new
I was helping out the new neighbors on their computer last week and I noticed something that appeared one day that hadn't been there the previous day: an eBay icon on the desktop. I checked it out and it was a URL embedded within the icon that takes a viewer to the eBay home page. I didn't think anything about it as I was over there the day before and showed them eBay. Maybe they put an icon on their desktop for it somehow, because they can hadly move the mouse around they are so new to using a computer.
That night, I was on my computer at home and my wife asked me about an icon on her desktop. She wanted to know if I had been on her computer and had put it there (she asks because I am always doing a project with our computers and she wants to know what to watch out for). I turned around and looked and guess what I saw? The same eBay icon was on her desktop as well - and she had no idea where it came from!
Well, I sure know where and how it came to be on those two computers.
Microsoft.
The neighbors used Internet Explorer as their Internet browser. My wife uses Netscape like any professional does. However, both are running Windows 98 - I'm running Windows 2000 and I never received an icon. All of us have IE version 5.5. My wife and I use ZoneAlarm firewall, but my neighbor does not. So the only way over my wife's and my firewall is through the hole Microsoft has into the desktop on our operating systems (your Windows too!)
LAWYERS: what is the law when someone unknown to you penetrates your computer without your knowledge and alters your system without your express permission? The slang name for the law is called HACKING and it is a Federal Felony!
Now a new development. I was over at the neighbors the day before yesterday to explain file achieve and compression programs a.k.a. WinZip and the wife wanted to show me a cool web site that she had been on. When she opened up the IE Favorites menu and the menu pulled down, there were a half-dozen links to porno web sites. Not unusual and none of my business clearly, but she was flabbergast and embarrassed and her husband looked at them and stated that he had not put those links on there and knew nothing about them. I remembered Microsoft hacking people's computers to put advertising on everyone's desktops and I asked if he had been to a porno web site. He replied that he had, but did not bookmark any of them.
So … now Microsoft will use the cookies generated from your web visits and then - without your knowledge or consent, HACK your computer and put links into your Favorites that you did not want or ask for!
The neighbors are very upset because their young kids get onto the Internet (albeit supervised). I personally am outraged at Microsoft's blatant "Above The Law" attitude when it comes to people's personal property and privacy rights!
If we allow this sort of nonsense to continue, won't it be fun to start up your computer each day and have to spend time deleting unwanted advertising icons on your desktop and having to go weed out your IE Favorites all the time? How far will this go before we can have a Congress that is Consumer-friendly and will stop this sort of harassment?
posted on September 2, 2001 01:55:57 PM new
If you right click and choose "create shortcut" and press enter a desktop icon will be created. It's possible to do it by accident.
posted on September 2, 2001 02:28:12 PM new
I don't know about eBay, but whenever I visit a website that uses something called "Comet Curser" it automatically installs a program on my computer, creates all sorts of shortcuts, and doesn't give me the option to cancel the installation. There's an installation screen, but the only button says "Finish".
Really pisses me off....
Barry
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The opinions expressed above are for comparison purposes only. Your mileage may vary....
posted on September 2, 2001 04:37:37 PM new
James, if you right-click, highlight New and then highlight Shortcut and then press Return [ENTER], it puts generic icon shortcut entitled new Shortcut on your desktop, but it also brings up the Create Shortcut Wizard. This was a specialized eBay icon and it had the URL for eBay with in. Therefore, the icon file had to placed without the user's knowledge or permission on their operating system and then remotely altered the computer code to install the icon with the correct URL. That's HACKING!
If *YOU* entered my computer without my knowledge or permission for any reason -- even to look around, that's HACKING and a federal offence! If you altered my operating system for even something as trivial as putting an icon on my desktop without my knowledge or permission, you'd be arrested by the FBI for HACKING. But since it's Microsoft -- well, that's A-OK because Bill Gates is Rich and Powerful and Microsoft is a MONOPOLY and they do not have to follow the same laws and suffer the same consequences that you would? Is that how you want things to become everywhere? Do you enjoy having your personal, private medical records being bought and sold as a commodity and you are not allowed to have any legal right to stop it?
posted on September 2, 2001 06:01:11 PM new
Comet Cursor is an annoying piece of garbage. You can uninstall it from Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. You should get a choice to NOT install it when you hit a web site that uses it. Gator and Download Companion are two others that will show up if you click YES without paying attention on some downloads such as Audio Galaxy.
posted on September 2, 2001 10:57:59 PM new
Well, I'm not a professional so I use IE 5.5 and I have Win 98 and I didn't get an eBay icon! I checked my favorites too and there is nothing there I didn't add. I feel left out.... maybe Microsoft doesn't think me worthy of a snoop!?
posted on September 2, 2001 11:10:32 PM new
Sulyn, that's why I've posted this thread -- to see how many others may have gotten things like this and what we have in common that would explain it. All I can think of right now is that the two have in common is Windows 98 and IE 5.5.
posted on September 3, 2001 05:59:58 AM new
I just saw the posts about the porn sites being put in your favorites. We had the same thing happen to us, (well, my husband and son did). While doing a legitimate search for something (not port), they clicked what looked like a hit for their search. They ended up on one of those porn sites, and each time they tried to close the window or back out of it, a new window would cascade open.
I happened to be standing here when it happened to my husband...the only thing he could do to stop them was to Ctrl-Alt-Del and restart the system. When he opened the browser, not only had it placed about 5 sites in the Favorites list, it had also taken over our Start Page.
While it may be the way this Microsoft product works that allows this, it was the Porn sites that generated the cascading windows, the sites placed in the Favorites and the hijacked start page.
We just talked a friend through getting rid of the same damage on his system. He was doing a search for info on Tiger Woods, clicked a link for Celebrity Photos, and the EXACT same thing happened to him. You have to delete ALL Cookie files, manually go the page you want for your Start page and reset it and then look through Add/Remove programs, because most likely there is stuff there that was installed when it happened, Comet Cursor, Gator, Download Companion, and others like them.
Take a look at your Task List and the list of programs in Add/Remove Programs. You'll be surprised what is there that you didn't know about.
posted on September 3, 2001 09:14:32 AM new
Every time you install Logitech mouse drivers (From Logitech) it places an eBay shortcut on your desktop. I had no idea where it came from the first couple of times.
posted on September 4, 2001 10:52:42 AM new
I never did get anything either... I do use Win98, and I.E 5.5...Maybe my "AdSubtract" is preventing this from happening?
******** Gosh Shosh! My "About Me" Page
posted on September 5, 2001 06:25:30 PM new
YOU AINT SEEN NOTHIN' YET. Wait until Windows XP. Microsoft then has unlimited control over your computer. It will REQUIRE an Internet connection and Microsoft WILL have ins to your system. I guess so they can keep tabs on you. Buy a new computer....you will HAVE to buy a new copy of Windows XP as your previously legally purchased copy will not operate on the new computer. And your old computer will not operate anywhere else so the person buying it will have to purchase a new copy. And what's to say when a newer version comes out Microsoft delivers a little code to your computer, shutting down the operating system, making you HAVE to buy the upgrade.
Where are the those low-brained mouth-breathing morons NOW who said it doesn't matter if Microsoft was a monopoly?
[ edited by mark090 on Sep 5, 2001 06:27 PM ]
posted on September 5, 2001 06:33:33 PM new
That's why I am going to get a copy of linux and see how hard it is to install on one of the older machines I have sitting here. I think I will be ready to part from MS soon.
posted on September 6, 2001 06:17:26 PM new
Thanks for the help. I run CNC so I know how to follow instructions closely. It is like writting hypertext - if you have one character wrong it can render the whole page a useless. I will do a dedicated machine the first time. I have two sitting beside the desk unused and one behind me that is dos only.
I think now that MS is NOT going to be broken up they will be embolded to treat us even worse!
posted on September 7, 2001 09:46:28 AM new
I just got a new computer (Compaq Presario) a few months back and it runs on Windows ME. I also ended up with an ebay icon thing on my computer and haven't the foggiest idea how it got there. My husband knows all about computers and fixes them for a living. Although he has modified/customized stuff, he has his own computer and doesn't mess with mine unless I am having a problem with it and need his help. I don't know how to do much of anything on the computer and I rarely use the right button on my mouse for any reason. That icon just appeared for no apparent reason. Although I use favorites to store the URLs for sites I visit, I don't create shortcut links for anything (I wouldn't know how anyway). After the ebay thing appeared, I tried clicking on it. It got me onto the internet as through I clicked the browser (I use Explorer) but it took me to my home page (MSN.com) and did not go to the ebay site. I never use the icon so I'll have to have my hubby take it off my computer. I wonder if it will suddenly reappear in the future?
Antelope67
posted on September 8, 2001 09:59:06 AM new
Well this was interesting..... I didn't find a icon for E-Bay on the loaner computer I am borrowing... but I did find a icon from my IPC server tenical support. LOL I clicked on it and found it to be useful to me. LOL Now when I get my computer back from the repair service I hope the same icon shows up on it.
posted on September 8, 2001 01:29:12 PM new
I have XP in my system and I love it. I have no hackers (I use a modified firewall, Norton 2002 and a few other goodies), and no one can get into my system. When I installed XP, no icons came up. I am not a big fan of MS (Me was killing my system), but I have had XP for 3 weeks now and it works fine. Easier to get into your system, cool pinball game (kids love it), and my office XP works great with it. The only problem I had with it was I had to uninstall Norton2001 because it wasn't compatible. Oh Well, thats a deep subject.
posted on September 8, 2001 03:31:32 PM new
mastiff1
And don't think for a minute Microsoft doesn't know it. Have tried upgrading your computer lately or adding memory, larger hard drive. XP no longer works until you convince Microsoft that you are not a low-life coniving little thief trying to do a second installation on a second computer. And remember, it is much more profitable to them if they do not believe you, because then you have to purchase a fresh copy.....
maybe Microsoft doesn't think me worthy of a snoop!?
)