Really Mad!
I am normally a very patient person and it takes a lot to make me angry. It takes even more to make me really mad. Today something happened that made me really mad!
I love 'eye candy' on my computer. I have so much that sometimes I just can't decide what to display. I am always on the lookout for new wall paper and screensavers. Today while surfing I found a screensaver site that I hadn't seen before. There are tons of free screensavers on this site and screenshots are available. I downloaded several screensavers that had great screenshots. I installed a freebie from Nero, Volcano. This one is really neat.
So then I installed another one, Winter Magic with music by Celine. During the installation, it asked if I wanted to install New.net (aka NewDotnet). Now New.net is known spyware so I said 'No'. Guess what, it installed anyway. I have a program that watches for newly installed programs that want to startup with my computer and it came up and asked if I wanted to allow New.net to startup. The only way to get out of this dialog was to say 'Yes'. By this time I am starting to get angry.
I opened Ad-aware and checked for an update and did the scan. Eighteen entries for New.net found & deleted. Cool! But then when I updated and ran Spybot Search and Destroy, three more were found. Spybot managed to delete two of the New.net files but when it attempted to delete the third entry, my startup program jumped up again and the only way out of it was to say 'Yes'. Now I am Really Mad!
I went into Windows Explorer and found the New.net folder with two dlls and tried to manually delete. The startup program jumps up again. Spybot is still open and then asks me to allow it to run on the startup. I say 'Yes', the system reboots, Spybot runs and finally I am able to get rid of this disgusting piece of spyware.
There is a moral somewhere in all of this, I suspect it is check it out before you download!
Adware Report has a description of New.net.
The bad guy
The title of the screensaver with New.net attached is listed as DBtitle and the author's name is listed as Lacats. However further investigation on this site lists the author as scubagirl. Scubagirl may not know that New.net has been attached to her screensavers. A third party host is the culprit.
The good guys
Ad-aware
Spybot
The hero that let me know New.net was wanting to startup, StartupMonitor
The questionable guy
Where I found the screensaver. Keep in mind, they may not have known about the unscrupulous load attached to the screensaver, however I am letting them know!
Response from my emails to the download side and the creator. No response was ever received from the creator, but the site where I found the screensaver responded. As I hoped, they did not know that New.net was attached to the screensaver. From their response, apparently the creator doesn't know either. The creator is using a third party host to store her screensavers. The third party host was using banners & ads to support the cost, now, however they are using stuff like New.net which pays better. Greed will get us every time!