REVISED-Annoying spyware impossible to rid of
Written: Sep 28 '00 (Updated Dec 18 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cute, changing cursors
Cons: Impossible to uninstall, annoying, spyware
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| maceyr's Full Review: Comet Cursor |
Comet cursor, at first glance seems like a relatively harmless piece of software. After all, you get a bunch of cute little cursors at various sites that support the comet cursor. Thus, you get "pleasantly" surprised to see that your old, boring cursor has now transformed into cute, colorful works of art such as a pumpkin, a radar screen, etc. Depending on the web site visited (if they support the Comet cursor software), you may see your cursor transformed into whatever interesting image you can imagine. Sure, that seems harmless. But what most users don't realize is that comet cursor collects information about its users.
Although they don't ask about your name, address, etc when you download the software, they do collect information on some of your browsing habits. That includes recording the URL of the page the the cursor was changed (to its comet cursor) and the URL of the page that you went to afterwards. Also, each customer (websites that have licensed the technology from Cometsystems) has a unique number to identify which customer provided which cursor to the viewer. Also, Cometcursor does share information ("usage statistics") of its viewers to its licensors (eg. Snoopy & other Peanuts characters), although they claim that it's aggregate and anonymous information. This information was gathered from Cometcursor's privacy web page.
Downloads of the Cometcursor 2.0 and some others are uniquely identified with a download number, that they claim is used to keep track of the number of downloads. That, to me, doesn't sound believable. Cometcursor and many sites are capable of counting its visitors to their site, how long they were there, their ip address, which sites they went to afterward, their OS, CPU speed, etc and thus do not need to place a download number (GUID) on your computer software. It tells me that they want to identify you and hopefully track whatever sites you visit. What will stop them from doing that? Also, comet cursor generates a "session number" each time you begin a new browser session (eg. open up Internet Explorer) and transmit a "sequence number" (each time a cursor changes into the comet cursor. This sounds spyware to me) back to CometSystems' web site. If you downloaded and installed Real Player 7 and 8, you've downloaded and installed Cometcursor 2.0 since it was bundled with it (but they say that cursor doesn't have the download number). But, thinking again, since you're required to enter your name, etc at RealPlayer's site, what's to stop them from linking the info? Ah, I'm way too paranoid. Back to the curse, uh, cursor.
But what I dislike most about the comet cursor is that they, the makers of the comet cursor, self-installed it on my computer without my consent. And, even worse was the fact that the comet cursor could track every web site I visit (a spyware) and continue to change my cursor around. And this pesky software didn't even get my consent to install on my computer! When I got down to remove it, I was in for a major fight.
I tried first to uninstall the program via the Add/Remove option in Windows. Foolishly thinking that it was gone, I happened to stumble on a web site that uses the comet cursor technology and the annoying cursor program started, placing a shortcut on my desktop as well as the icon in the system tray. Okay. I went back and did the uninstall again, this time, going through my hard drive and deleting any comet cursor folders, files left. Curious, I decided to test it by going to the comet cursor web site. Sure enough, it's back. This time, I went through my registry searching for bits of the comet cursor that I could find and deleted them. Somehow, it comes back to haunt me. There is obviously something that was embedded in my computer that I couldn't find. So, I went to the comet cursor web site, searching for info on how to uninstall and rid of this pesky software. After much searching, there was a page that gave a download of the comet cursor uninstall and a patch. I downloaded both and tried to uninstall the cursor program. Neither of them worked. Also, on comet cursor's web site, they have a page that would put a cookie on your computer that will stop those annoying prompts to "install" the comet cursor on your computer every time you go to a comet cursor supported web site. I accepted their cookie and nowadays, I don't get the prompt when I visit a comet cursor site (slight consolation).
In my attempts to rid of this annoying software, I went to a site that talked about spyware and used that program to remove all the spyware on my computer. I think it worked (to some degree).
I'm sure a lot of people love this cute cursor software because it's so cute, interchangeable and interesting to look at. I just hate it mainly for the spyware portion of it and that it self-installed on my computer without my consent and created a lot of hassle for me to rid of it.
You can get rid of these spyware programs by using either of the following programs via the links:
Ad-aware
http://www.lavasoft.de/
Optout
http://grc.com/oo/program.htm
You could try to use the CometCursor's own uninstaller although it didn't work for me:
http://www.cometsystems.com/what/cleaner.shtml
And, you could remove the unique GUID from your machine (an identification number):
http://www.cometsystems.com/help/patch.shtml
And, if you want to NEVER be prompted again to install the comet cursor, please go to this page:
http://download.cometsystems.com/no_nag/nonag.asp
Also, there are many many "free" programs out there that are ad sponsored "spyware". Here's a link that lists a few of them:
http://www.infoforce.qc.ca/spyware/enknownlistfrm.html
Here's more info on spyware:
http://grc.com/optout.htm
and that Real Player is a spyware:
http://grc.com/downloaders.htm
If anyone is concerned about having unknown software self-install on their computer, I suggest disabling the self-install option on your browser. In MS IE, you go to Tools, Internet Options, Security, Custom Level, Installation of Desktop items. Select "disable" or at least "prompt" so that software doesn't get installed on your computer without your consent. And always be wary of prompts to install some software just because it's been verified to be safe. Select cancel and check out what you are installing first. You can always go back to the site and install it if you want to.
Also, please note that most programs will not work once the "spyware" portion is removed. You can try using my tip for the programs you want to use but you'll need to spend some time going through your directories for ads and spyware. Please read my review on Pkzip and other related computer & software reviews for info on how to get rid of ads or disable them. One suggestion is to use the above spyware removal programs to detect and locate the files and entries. And you can disable them by renaming the files. I always don't like deleting them in case something goes wrong. I also suggest installing a firewall (like the free ZoneLab's ZoneAlarm) so that you can be notified when a spyware program attempts to access the internet.
If anyone is interested in more tips on improving computer performance, improving internet surfing speed, or on ZoneLab's ZoneAlarm program, please check out my reviews on those categories.
Improving computer's performance (Tips & Tweaks Part I)
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-1F5A-395A4C8-39AEDD85-prod1
Improving internet speed
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-7708-1A7A01E-39A9ECD3-prod1
Zonelab's ZoneAlarm Firewall program
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-363D-C2231B1-39A54FE8-prod6
Thanks for taking the time to read this review.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
maceyr
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Location: Canada
Reviews written: 127
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About Me:
I hardly have time for Epinions anymore but do try to read and rate.
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