igohigh: nice explanation for people who want to start with... it is difficult to explain such things as registries in simple steps... for spywares, there is also addaware that is a nice thing, but some softwares will REFUSE to work if their associated spywares aren't in function. Then you still can block outcoming spywares with a firewall :) anyway what you said only prevent windows from using Ie as a default browser, isn't it ? I mean, sadly, IE still loads in memory at start of the computer, IE still take some 40mb space on your hard drive too, and many of its dll(such as the lousy pseudohtml help system) are still rooted into the system, so does the control panel applet (the source where most gator or spyware like to pollute..) I was talking about REMOVING :) (some ready to use software like 98lite free version does this like a charm). However it comes with a price: some other softwares, without any internet relevancy, will refuse to install, such as mediaplayer codecs (the installere needs ie, i dont know why, really.. but you still can install them manually), or 3dsmax 5 and paintshop pro 8. For me, the fact a 3d software or a paint software badly needs/requires some internet browser to be present (well not some, juste ONE, the worst in ater of stability and security) is totally puzzling to me. So far i do not use 3dsmax or psp8, so it is not very annoying. i think nothing without a price: either get annoyed by spywares, activeX scripts, some lousy trojans, and start popup and the like, not to mention other stability and memory issues, but being able to "do like everyone", and also install some high end programs, or be totally quiet about all those problems. I know it is a difficult choice for many... but it is another story and i think it goes outside the boundaries of Poser forum i think people may learn to be more exigeant and morethoughtful about themselves in the long term, instead of lazyly accept poisonned presents that tickle their self confort string but in fact have so many bad side effects... and for other people, remember: there is not very often now so called 'virus' in the strict meaning of the term according to virus programming gold age. Most of "annoying" softwares nowadays can be seen in startup registry keys, or by msconfig.exe, of by a task monitor, so in fact they are not VIRUSES, yet sure they are a real mess for unexperimented people. Hopefully, most of the time these 3-clicks vbscript generated pesky codes are easy to spot and remove when you know where to look...