Hi Alice,
Delores never used the word "spyware" but somehow most assumed
that's what she meant. I was thinking she meant spy programs such as
"back orifice", but the responses mentioning firewalls would have
addressed that and other "phone-home" spy programs.

If someone has physical access to your computer, they can install spy
programs such as PC Spy. Some of these types of programs can phone-home,
but they can also be used off-line only, so firewalls and AdAware are of
no use. These programs usually aren't revealed by ctrl-alt-delete but
there are ways to discover them.
These suggestions assume the computer uses Windows 9x.

1. Start-Programs... anything there you didn't install?
2. Start-Programs-StartUp...   "    "     "    "
3. Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs... anything look
   suspicious? (Beware; TweakUI can remove stuff from Add/Remove Programs).
4. Start-Run, type "msconfig", <enter>-StartUp tab... look here for spies
   with names like KeyRunner, etc.

If your computer has administration policies installed, there may be no way
of revealing the spy program without admin access. If the computer is on a
network, the administrator can install and hide such programs, remotely.
If the computer is your boss's and you try to disable spy programs, you
might get fired!

I've read about programs such as EndItAll which are designed to reveal all
programs running so you can shut them off to do scandisk and defrag.
I believe Microsoft has a utility called TaskMon which will show what's
running.

I'm using UltraSoft's KeyInterceptor to monitor my kid's activities. It
works! I caught him using a stolen earthlink login to go online and
chat and view pornography. I created a txt file from the program showing
what he did and showed it to him. He doesn't do that anymore knowing
I can somehow intercept everything he types. If he followed my steps above,
he'd eventually find it, and maybe eventually figure out how to disable it,
and then I'd have to learn how to implement admin policies, and/or install
win2000 with its better security... or I could lock him in the basement
until he's 18. <g>

Larry Hooper

alice wrote:
> I've followed the posted responses to a request about spyware and appreciate
> all the feedback on the Ad-Aware free download.  However, I have not seen
> what I believe to be an answer to the actual question posted which I would
> like to have as well.  In re-reading Dolores asked if there is any way of
> detecting a program running in the background on a computer, like PC Spy,
> etc. This software runs in the background continually taking snapshots of
> the screen and tracking key strokes. This type of software is different from
> the "spyware" planted by web sites.

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                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>