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, 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.
________________________________________________________________________
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
________________________________________________________________________
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
________________________________________________________________________
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] ________________________________________________________________________
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.
ad2.
ad3.
ad4.
adlog
ads.
ads1.
ads2.
ads3.
ads4.
adserver
adstream
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

Back Home
|