Re: Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Hi Norman - Good report - thanks for that info!

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

"N. Miller" <anonymous@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:b94022gpb8wj.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:05:31 -0400, PA Bear wrote:
>
>> Yuck! What hath God wrought?!
>>
>> <QP>
>> AIM [v5.9] Is Now Your Window to the Web
>>
>> With the new AIM, your favorite Web sites and features are always just a
>> click away in the new **AOL Explorer** [emphasis added] window, thanks to
>> convenient, built-in browsing features like:
>>
>> . Spyware Quick Scan: Checks your computer for a selected number of
spyware
>> and adware programs that may interfere with your online
>> experience....Relax - your computer is scanned every few minutes for the
>> worst performance-sapping and identity-stealing spyware programs.
>> </QP>
>> http://www.aim.com/get_aim/win/latest_win.adp?aolp
>>
>> We're already beginning to see default browser being hijacked to "AOL
>> Explorer" (e.g., clicking on links in email message).
>
> Has anyone actually tried it? Compared it with Yahoo! Messenger 7.0?
>
> I fired up AIM, and got the pop-up advertising the upgrade to Version
> 5.9.3861 (I was on an earlier 5.9). As I proceeded through the menus, I
was
> presented with a screen with two pre-checked options. I stopped here and
> read the options.
>
> Item 1: Did I want the AIM (AOL?) browser? I cleared the check from the
> box.
>
> Item 2: Did I want the AIM MS Internet Explorer toolbar? I cleared the
> check from the box.
>
> At this point I proceeded with the install. When the install was complete,
> I checked my Internet Options security settings; free.aol.com was still in
> the Restricted sites zone (there was a brief period during the Netscape
> 6.x/AIM 4.x/ICQ period when AOL would place it in the Trusted sites zone,
> overriding the personal choice of the computer operator. People raised a
> stink in the Netscape newsgroups, and that behavior has since ceased).
> There were four shortcut icons linking the AOL service installer:
> "C:\Program Files\AOD\AolAod.exe" -activate
>
> Shortcuts and installer easily removable. My browser start page is still:
>
> Firefox (default browser):
>
file:///F:/My%20Pictures/V-W-X-Y-Z/Yamaneko/Kabegami%20Koubou/Mana-musume%20Ito/maya20_800.png
>
> MS Internet Explorer:
> F:\My Pictures\V-W-X-Y-Z\Yamaneko\Kabegami Koubou\Mana-musume
> Ito\maya23c_1024.jpg
>
> Mozilla:
>
file:///F:/My%20Pictures/V-W-X-Y-Z/Yamaneko/Kabegami%20Koubou/Mana-musume%20Ito/maya23d_800.png
>
> Netscape 7.2:
>
file:///F:/Profiles/Norman/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/A/Atene%20no%20Mori/mero1.jpg
>
> Opera:
>
file://localhost/F:/My%20Pictures/V-W-X-Y-Z/Yamaneko/Mana-musume/maya2005-2.jpg
>
> I surfed to a site with a mailto: link, and clicked on it. I got a Pegasus
> Mail 4.21c session, complete with a message compose window pre-addressed
to
> the email address in the mail link.
>
> By contrast, when I got the Yahoo! Messenger alert to upgrade to Yahoo!
> Messenger with Voice (7,0,0,437), things weren't quite what they seemed. I
> got into the install process, and had the option to use either a Standard
> install, or a Custom install. I read the descriptions. No warnings about
> what the "Standard" install entailed; just the usual, "This is optimal for
> most users" type of statement. Talk about intrusive; this installed a
> number of items I had no desire to have installed; BHO in MSIE, home page
> reset, a couple of extra goodies in the Add/Remove programs list. Yikes!
>
> I uninstalled everything, had an issue with a missing .dll on boot, System
> Restore was hosed; cleaned the registry, cleaned all ypgr files, and
> reinstalled Yaho0! Messenger version 6. Finally, after a couple of hours
of
> swearing at Yahoo!, I was back to a normal system configuration. Being the
> glutton for punishment sort of Lab Rat that I am, the next time I started
> Yahoo! Messenger, and got the upgrade notice, I proceeded again. This time
> I selected the "Custom" install. Now I got to see everything listed that
> Yahoo! wanted to install. I unchecked ***ALL*** of the extras. This time,
I
> got all that I wanted; just the basic Yahoo! Messenger client. Whew!
>
> I would worry more about Yahoo! than about AOL, at this point. And yes,
for
> those who will scope out my IP address, I am an SBC Yahoo! DSL Service
> customer. But I don't have anything SBC-Y branded as software. The only
> Yahoo! application in place is the basic IM client, and an HP-Yahoo! BHO
> installer; I used it once, decided it was more trouble than it was worth,
> and removed it. But the purple ball with the yellow, "My" in it, over the
> "My Yahoo! for HP" shortcut name looks kind of cool. So it remains on the
> desktop.


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