That's what it feels like. I'm working away on my system, minding my own business, and next thing I know I look at my desktop which is COVERED with demo files, posts, etc. for immediate processing ... and what do I see? Icons that have planted themselves and won't even move. FIND A DATE, TUNE YOUR PC, yada yada. I get so angry I could spit.

I have anti-virus and spykiller. WHO plants this stuff on my desktop? Where do they live? I want to hunt them down. Does anyone know? I think that's why my system goes into overload sometimes and just quits working.

:soap:

They come from all over, and, unless you disable all scripting in your browser, you are probably bound to get tagged sooner or later.

You can find many applications for making it as 'later' as possible though. Here is a good collection of them.

Thanks for the link, JT!

I really dislike feeling sticky fingers reaching into my system. It seems no matter what I do, they find a way in. This link will really help me.

L

My desktop is covered with junk too, but it's all my own doing.

To preserve your sanity (or is it too late?), you might consider switching to a Mac. ;)

FWIW, On the pc's we stopped 99.9 percent of attacks by changing browser from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Forefox.

Regards

Phil

Agreed. I use FireFox, Phil!

But you hit on something I think. When I first started using FireFox, all this garbage stopped. It started again recently. Being a semi-computer nerd, your post brought up the question, "What has changed?" Oh. I had downloaded something called PalTalk because of a music site on there (another passion of mine). But it kept interrupting me so I would cancel it when it came on. But I think that was too late and junk was 'getting in' then. I just uninstalled the puppy. Thank you!

LaRetta ;)

To preserve your sanity (or is it too late?), you might consider switching to a Mac.

It's way too late to preserve my sanity, Mike; it left me a long time ago. I'd like to blame it on this issue but I surely can't.

Rub it in about the Macs again, go ahead. I'll have one soon! I want to network them and let one system just run the 11 speed tests sitting here that I'm dying to understand! As it is, I can't design AND test simultaneously!

And why is it that when I download a file from a Mac person I always get a _MACOSX folder also? I used to keep them but finally figured out they weren't necessary for Windows. Do Mac Users always have to have an extra folder? That would be a pain!

LaRetta ;)

And why is it that when I download a file from a Mac person I always get a _MACOSX folder also? I used to keep them but finally figured out they weren't necessary for Windows. Do Mac Users always have to have an extra folder?

I don't know what that's all about. Though I do get a folder if it was the actual folder that was compressed, I don't get them all the time (and never named "_MACOSX".)

I think it's something to do with the built-in zip creation tool on OS X. If I compress folders using this tool, windows users always see the extra folder, but mac users do not. If I use stuffit or just make a tarball, then there is no extra folder. I don't know if this is a bug, or a 'feature'

Dana

*edit - maybe it's an advertisement for OS X to windows users....

Edited July 22, 200520 yr by Guest

The .DS_Store file holds the "view" of the folder, allowing the essentially UNIX OS X to work/look like a Mac. There is a freeware app, CleanArchiver, that can compress without adding them, for your PC clients. I usually forget to use though, even though it's on my Dock -]

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23678

P.S. All your folders have this file (once opened), but it's invisible. Try this AppleScript to see:

choose file with invisibles

I don't know what the ._database.fp7 is. FileMaker icon? But it's trash to a PC. Files starting with a period are invisible on a Mac. I believe CleanArchiver also excludes those files.

Edited July 22, 200520 yr by Guest

Thanks Mike and Dana!

Well I just tried to open a file within the folder ._regfile.fp7 (and got the results I expected). Windows said it was not an FM file or was damaged. If Mac Users don't need it ... and Windows Users can't use it, it makes no sense why it's even created. Mac Users don't put "._" before all your file names do you? When I unstuff, I get that folder too.

Ah well, sometimes we must focus brain resources on things that are more important. But I dislike not understanding everything and it adds to my desktop clutter so thought I'd ask.

Hi Fenton! Talk about simultaneous timing! Thanks for explaining it for us. Unix, huh? That's one world I know NOTHING about. Thank you!

Edited July 22, 200520 yr by Guest

I don't know what the ._database.fp7 is. FileMaker icon? But it's trash to a PC. Files starting with a period are invisible on a Mac.

Well Windows isn't very bright. It assumes a file is of a type, depending upon the extension. So it makes them FM files (icon). If I remove the ._ (removal is required for PC to identify it as a file), and open it as text, it contains: tab tab tab 2 tab R FMP7FMP7

And files starting with underline are considered deleted to PC (well, DOS anyway) and starting period is disallowed. Sometimes the folder contains a 'text-looking' .DS_Store file but it's always empty.

The files that start with a . on a mac are invisible (on a Mac) files that the Mac OS uses to keep track of the info on the file that invisible file is linked to. Such as creation date, modification date, label color, last opened, ownership and permissions, locked or unlocked, icon info, icon size, and as of Mac OS 10.4 Meta Data for each file. If you really want to screw up a mac file, delete its invisible counterpart.

Microsoft is offering Anti-Spyware/Adware protection for free, I've been running it on 6 computers with no issues so far.