This was downloaded direct from one of Kazza's own forums please read it.
This is not my work and I claim no credit for it. The author identified themselves only as 10101 (199.234.188.---).

Giving KaZaA's Spyware A Root Canal...

First off what is spyware? What makes it so bad?

Well to put it simply, most often spy ware is ad ware. Utilites and programs often bundled with other software that earns a fast buck to the developer who sneaks it onto your system. Most often you dont even know its there.

This is what makes people so mad about spy ware, its existance and operations are often done in secrecy. A number of spy ware applications out on the net, gather up information about you from your computer and your surfing habits, and when you connect to the net it sends this information to other computer servers. Mostly spy ware is pretty harmless. Annoying, but harmless. Harmless that is unless you value your privacy and value your computer.

Besdies being highly annoying and a very un effective form of advertising, the biggest problem with "spyware programs", is that many are poorly written, containing bugs or errors, and can cause problems with the normal operation of your computer. If your web-browser experiences periodic General Protection Fault errors, hangs, or freezes it is very possible its due to one or more of these parasites.

The other big dark side of spy ware, rears its head when you go to delete or remove it. Most often spyware is tricky to get rid of and for the non experinced user can seem daunting. Not to mention potentially damaging to ones own computer.

Unfortunatley, like many other P2P utillites, KaZaA has bundled spyware with its new version 1.3.1 KaZaA's own reasoning for this, is that its parent company Fast Track, needs to make money to continue providing the great free service KaZaA is. However KaZaA, without a doubt made a mistake deciding to add in the spy ware. Many user's wont tolerate it, and will simply stop using the kaZaA program. KaZaA could have came up with other ways to generate funding, even I can think up a million diffrent alternatives then to use spy ware. But thats for a diffrent topic. This posting is all about how to get rid of the spy ware that has slipped on to your system, when you updated your old version of KaZaA or download KaZaA for the first time.

In order to wirte this, I tried allot of diffrent methods and tactics to remove the spy ware from my Windows box. I ended up ****ing things up 5 diffrent times, on the path to be able to find a good soloution to get rid of KaZaA's spy ware. If it wasnt for Windows XP and its new "roll back" feature I wouldn't be typing this, as I would be busy going back and fixing a million diffrent things.

The point is, the only real solution I have found that is simple to implement, and gets rid of all the spy ware is to install KaZaA 1.3, an older version. This is because KaZaA installs a spy ware application known as "Cydoor". One can remove all the other spyware programs, but once you remove Cydoor, KaZaA wont run anymore. One concept I learned of that would provide a work around is the process of neutirng the Cydoor program. However this method, isn't a sure fire thing for every KaZaA user, and I am aiming this guide at the KaZaA user who doesnt have that much experince with computers. Editing the registry is also out , because its always better to keep things simple. (And registry editting can be dangerous if its someone who doesnt even know what a registry is thats attempting to do the editing of it.)

After I installed KaZaA 1.3.1 I noticed the most peculiar green box at the very top cornner of my screen that wasn't there before. Then I happend to be at my neighbors house, and she also had this green box on her screen, having also installed KaZaA 1.3.1 I have talked to others, and they have also had the green box show up. For some it was large, for others, it was yellow. Clicking on it, does nothing. It also does not respond to right clicks from the mouse. Simply put, it reminds me of the "Orkin cockroach killer" TV commercials. :) It's actually graphic residue from the spy ware program Cydoor.

And now the new begins...

KaZaA installs roughly 6 diffrent spy ware programs when you install the KaZaA program itself. These include New.net, Onflow, WebHancer , msbb, TOPtext and Cydoor . give or take one or two, depending on if your smart enough to uncheck all of the extra program options during the installation of KaZaA 1.3.1 I know what your thinking, 6 programs!! Thats allot! and your right, it is alllot, too much really. But have no fear, we will get rid of each and every one.

First open up your KaZaA prgram,go to "Tools" then "Options" , a box will pop up with tabs across it. Select the tab that says "User" You will see a user profile, under that there will be two little boxes you can put checks in. Look at the one that says "Notify before installing automatic updates" Be sure it is filled with a check. Now close Kazaa up totaly. Make sure it is not still running in the taskbar by your computer's clock.

Now, to start you need 2 main things. Number one, a program you can download for free from the net called Ad-aware. It is made by a company called LavaSoft. You can get it by clicking HERE. Besure you download "version 5.5 final". Secondly you need the KaZaA.exe file from the old version of KaZaA (1.3) I have provided a copy for you, get by clicking HERE. (You can also find the old version at various other sources around the net.) And that takes care of that. Download those files, and save them to a place where you will remember them later on.

Getting rid of New .net...

Lets start with ridding ourselves of the program New.net First "click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs." You should have reached an "Add/Remove programs" window. It is here you will see something called "new.net" listed amongst any other programs that you have on your computer. Select "new.net" from the list and hit remove.

Did it work? If you weren't able to remove it, then call New.net at (626) 229-7800. Besure to think up something pleasant to say to them before they pick up. But lets also try this...

First, you will need to locate the New.net ".dll" file that is on the computer. Do this by going to "find" from your windows start menu and do a search for "newdot*.*". The file will be located in your "Windows" folder (depending on what version of Windows you are running). Once found, make note of the actual filename which should look something like this:

You may see a bunch of them. Therefore you might have to repeat the following steps a few times.

Warning: There is a chance that doing this could make things worse. If it screws up your machine, it isn't my fault. Its New.net's problem, so really you should call them if you couldn't remove it from the "install/uninstall" option.

Next, Close the Find or Search window then... Click "Start", Click "Run", and then type in the following line: "rundll32 c:\windows\newdotnet2_98.dll,NewDotNetUninstall"

Note: You may have to replace "newdotnet2_98.dll" with the name of the new net .dll you discovered during your search. (I am only using it for example purposes) Hit "OK" and a small window should pop up, asking if you want to uninstall the New.net application. Click "Yes". Once this is done, restart your computer.

New.Net should now be gone!

Getting rid of TOPtext...

Now lets go on to TOPtext. (Ezula), The reason we are removing this one, is not just the fact that it is highly annoying, but because it destorys a web page creators hard work.

A person builds a web site. They have worked hard on it. Then if you have TOPtext running on your machine, and vist thier web site it will make tons of funny little yellow links appear all over that persons web site, even where the person who made the web site did not intend links to be. When you click on these links you can get content that the web master never intended for you to be sent to from his or her site. Imagine being at website about how gambling can be an addiction, and suddenly a link appears sending you to a site that lets you gamble right over the internet. (That was probably a dumb example, but I think it gets my point across.)

Microsoft planned to add this feature, (They were calling it Hot Text) into its Windows XP operating system. However this was dropped after much public outrage. why does KaZaA still have it? well your guess is as good as mine. Now though, lets get rid of it!

To remove it we will follow the same steps we did above for New.net, click "Start", then "Settings", then "Control Panel", and then "Add/Remove Programs". Look for TOPtext (Ezula) in the list, select it and hit Remove. Now this might not work for you. It most likely will just try to recconect to the inter net, and then re load itself. When it comes to ridding this parasite, you might not be able to delete it by standard windows file deletion methods. We will leave this bad boy then, for later on in this guide.

Getting rid of Web Hancer...

Next up, WebHancer. With Web Hancer things get a bit more tricky, First, once again we will try removing Web Hancer by simply clicking "Start", then "Settings", then "Control Panel", and then "Add/Remove Programs". Look for "webhancer" or "webhancer customer companion", in the list. Select it and hit "Remove".

DO NOT! I repeat, DO NOT! Delete Web Hancer by simply deleting its components in the Windows sytem or Program files folder. When Web Hancer installs itself, it writes over critical system files with its own files, This will mess up your machine if you send its files to the Recycle bin, or cause you to no longer be able to connect to the internet.

If removing it from the control panel did not work. You may want to ask the makers of web hancer why? give them a call at... (613) 721-7747. As with New .net think of something pleasant to say before they answer. If you had no luck removing this then don't worry, we will take care of it later on as well.

Getting rid of Cydoor...

Now lets toast Cydoor! Unfortunatly as I said earlier, the best way to do this is to replace our Kazaa 1.3.1 .exe file with a Kazaa 1.3 exe file.

To do this find the zip file you downloaded here on P2PTech, when you started reading this little guide. Then open it up by unzipping it. If you don't know what a .zip file is or can't open it, then go and get Winzip for free from www.winzip.com.

Once you have it unzipped, right click on the file named kazaa.exe, and select COPY. Then look through your computer for KaZaA's main folder. This is where your computer put the Kazaa prgram, when you first installed it. It will most likely be located in your windows "Program files" folder. Look for a folder called KaZaA or KaZaA media desktop. (Not "My Kazaa")

Open up this folder, point the mouse at an empty area in this folder and right click. Select PASTE. Windows may or may not, prompt you with a message saying something like..."This folder already contains a file called kazaa.exe, do you wish to replace it with this file. blah blah" select YES. Your Kazaa 1.3.1 version .exe should be replaced with the older version of KaZaA.

Close up all the folders, and reboot your computer.

Once your computer is turned back on again, install the program Ad-Aware you downloaded earlier. (You may have to restart your computer after installing Ad-Aware)

Cleaning out the computer with AD-Aware...

Next open up Ad-Aware. Let it scan your computer. When its finished it will show you how much spy ware it has found.

You might be surprised. I found 52 examples, (personally I found 68!) all from just downloading Kazaa version 1.3.1 Ad aware will present you with a list of all the spy ware on your computer. Check these all off, and continue on...

Ad-aware will now remove any traces of spy ware. Once this is done close Ad-Aware, and re boot your computer once again. (If it turned out you didnt have any spy ware, consider yourself lucky!) Once your computer is back up and running again, guess what?...run Ad-Aware again. Some of the spy ware is quite stubborn and wont disappear the frist time around. It is reccomend you repeat the rebooting and re running of Ad-Aware about 3 times to give your computer a good cleaning. (If you encounter any problems stop using Ad Aware, and go to the Ad-Aware web site for help. They have a bunch of excellent FAQ's)

Getting rid of the spy ware scraps...

Finally once you have given your computer a good cleaning, there is one last thing to do. Go to your windows start menu, click "find" and search your computer for the following files:

sporder.dll
webhdll.dll
whagent.inf
whInstaller.exe
whInstaller.ini
atlansi.dll
atlunicode.dll
license.txt
regwebh.dll
sporder.dll
wbhshare.dll
webhdll.dll
whAgent.exe
whAgent.inf
whAgent.ini
whiedc.dll
whiehlpr.dll
whiehlpr.ini
whieshm.dll
whInstaller.exe
whInstaller.ini
CD_CLINT.DLL
CD_GIF.DLL
CD_SWF.DLL
CD_LOAD.EXE

Hopefully none of these will show up. If any do, right click on them and delete them with care .

Ahh! Finally spyware free...
Last but not least, restart your computer yet again for the final time. This time when its up and running again, it should be spy ware free.

Now open up KaZaA, when you do, you should get a message box telling you a new version of KaZaA is available for you to download/update. Select NO to this message, (Each time you start KaZaA you will have to select No to this, unless you liked my little guide so much, that you want to go through it again!)

KaZaA should then start up, and you will be able to search and download your favorite songs, movies and whatever else it is you happen to want to download.

I hope the above was some what helpful to you. I also hope that you were succesful in removing the spy ware from KaZaA and your computer. Nothing is 100% effective or fool proof, and just like condoms, this guide doesnt claim to be.

As a final note, I am not resposible for any computer mess ups that may have occured on your computer. Also if you ever happen to see a folder labled "n-case" appear in your windows Program Files folder, just simply delete it, as it is left over spy ware that Ad-Aware wasn't able to clean out. For more info on spyware or advertising ware I reccomend doing a search on google.com

Enjoy life spyware free!And remeber, Its not just KaZaA that installs spyware programs. Ton's of other file sharing programs also come spy ware packed. (08/04/01)

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