[gungadin]

1rude- The google toolbar reports every search item you enter into it back to Google unless you explicitly de-activate the reporting feature. Perhaps you are aware of that and happy with it. Google retains all its search words anyway, but I guess with the toolbar it can group searches back to a specific PC.

jellybean- ad-aware won't do this without it asking, and you giving it permission to do so, and then only if it needs to remove something it has found but can only do so during reboot (very rare in my experience).

backhoe- good list of anti-spyware/security stuff there. My own use of Zone Alarm as a firewall has been complemented with taking note of reviews, and watching development of, the different software firewalls available. Zone Alarm appears to consistently come out on top in these comparisons and tests.

copycat- aside from appearing in msconfig as "on", does MSNMessenger actually start when you start Windows? Assuming it does, this can be turned off under the Tools -> Options -> General tab in Messenger itself.

Anyone needing a very good Registry cleaner will find an excellent one in

RegSeeker, available here

[Riley]

Thanks for pointing out RegSeeker-- great catch. I do support work- that'll be one for the flashkey drive.

[1rudeboy]

Forgot about that, thanks.