ATTN: Eric Howes

[spy1]

Eric - I just got through un-installing the original IE_SPYAD and d/l'ed and installed IE_SPYAD2. (I wanted it running on all profiles).

True to your note:

"Side Effects

When you install IE-SPYAD2 you should be aware of two side effects of using system-wide settings as opposed to user-specific settings for the Restricted sites list.

First, if you've added sites to the Trusted sites zone, the new Restricted sites may not show up in the Restricted sites box (Tools >> Options >> Security). This appears to be a quirk of Internet Explorer. What's happening is that Internet Explorer won't display sites loaded in the HKLM Registry hive (from IE-SPYAD2) if there are sites already loaded in the HKCU hive (from the Trusted sites zone).

Even though the Restricted sites may not display, however, Internet Explorer will still use the block list to restrict sites covered by the list."

when I went back and looked after installing it, very few sites were showing in my "Restricted" sites zone.

Since I have to do it anyway, I opened SpywareBlaster and re-enabled protection for everything (there were a 1000+ entries un-protected).

After doing so, my list of stuff in the "Restricted" sites zone looked much healthier - but it caused me to wonder whether or not SWB had also made all the IE_SPYAD entries re-appear.

How would I check? Pete

[Bubba]

Pete....I do not see how SWB could cause IE-Spyad entries to just appear. As you may know....SWB is applying the entries pretty much the same way as merging a reg file....like IE-Spyad for instance.

Also....there is an ~ 8 to 1 ratio of differenece in numbers between the 2 programs. I reckon we could count them if you want to buy the first round 8)

With the latest version of IE-Spyad....the last entry is zzuu.com....and it's not an entry in SWB's database. If that entry is in IE's Restricted Zone....then I'll buy the first round :)\

Edit:
Sorry Pete....I just noticed you directed this thread to the Attn: of Eric....my bad.

[spy1]

Bubba - NP. You pretty much answered my question, anyway. The listing you gave isn't in the "Restricted" sites list at the moment, so apparently none of the rest of the IE_SPYAD stuff is, either. Thanks! Pete

[eburger68]

spy1:

What happened is this:

1. You uninstalled the original IE-SPYAD, which had the effect of disabling almost all of the SpywareBlaster Restricted sites, since the original IE-SPYAD and SpywareBlaster both load entries into HKCU. Undoubtedly, though, there were still a few entries in HKCU from your Trusted or Restricted sites zone.

2. You loaded IE-SPYAD2, and the entries from HKLM didn't show up in the Restricted sites box because of the previously existing HKCU entries noted above.

3. You then re-loaded the SpywareBlaster protections, which added 1000 or so entries back into HKCU, and those re-loaded entries DID dispay in the Restricted sites box, making it look "healthier."

As I said in the ReadMe, what you're seeing is a quirk of Internet Explorer -- it's maddening, but there's very little that we can do about it.

Best,

Eric L. Howes

[spy1]

Thank you, Eric.

It may be maddening in a way to some, but it could actually be an advantage to others. (You know, people that want to install it and not have others' see that it's there so that they won't mess with it).

Since the IE_SPYAD list is in there working (whether you can see it or not in the Restricted zones' sites list), it's all good. I grant you that it could make it a wee touch difficult to find out what's going on if a particular site won't load and you're trying to find out why - but as long as everyone's aware of this issue with IE_SPYAD2 and they're using it, all they'd have to do is un-install it temporarily to see if that's what was causing the behavior.

I'm quite content with it the way it is. Pete