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re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 7:56 am Posted by joe (7018 messages posted) quite possibley coming from a restore file, since it is protected by windows, each time you reboot your computer, whatever is taken off is put back on by system restore, create another restore point by disabling system restore, reboot then re-enable it. you can also try a scan with your AntiVirus with the restore off just in case but that is up to you... To disable System Restore 1. Close all open programs. 2. On the Windows desktop, right-click My Computer > Properties. 3. On the Performance tab, click File System. 4. On the Troubleshooting tab, check Disable System Restore, click OK, and then click Close. 5. Click Yes to restart. This disables the System Restore feature and will purge the contents of the _RESTORE folder when the system is restarted. To run another virus scan (if you choose to) 1. make sure your Antivirus is downloaded with the latest virus definitions. 2. Make sure that your AntiVirus is set to scan all files and all drives. Read How to configure Norton AntiVirus to scan all files for detailed instructions. 3. Scan the computer. To re-enable System Restore 1. Close all open programs. 2. On the Windows desktop, right-click My Computer > Properties. 3. On the Performance tab, click File System. 4. On the Troubleshooting tab, uncheck Disable System Restore, click OK, and then click Close. 5. Click Yes to restart. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Also, Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 8:07 am Posted by joe (7018 messages posted) clearing out your temp folder as well, open up internet explorer click tools-find Internet Options Delete cookies, files, (including all offline content) open settings, reduce amount of disk spaced used to 5 mb, click on "view objects", remove any that are "damaged" or "unknown" click ok, clear history and reduce the days to 5-10 days, click ok, and apply. close IE open "start" -search-files and folders-in search box type *.tmp and remove whatever it finds, empty out recycle bin, reboot. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 8:27 am Posted by brian (497 messages posted) hi there, Description of the System Restore Utility in Windows Millennium Edition a cookie is not a file type protected by system restore in windows me. system restore does not "each time you reboot your computer, whatever is taken off is put back on by system restore." system restore does make copies of some file types when the user even just "looks" at a file. looking at a file type is definitely opening that file but may be just highlighting the file. system restore only restores files when a restore operation is run. i have windows me. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 9:20 am Posted by joe (7018 messages posted) One of the features of Windows Me System Restore. This feature, is used by Windows to restore files on your computer in case they become damaged. Windows Me keeps the restore information in the _RESTORE folder. These folders are updated when the computer restarts. If the computer is infected with a virus, or malware of any type, then it is possible that the virus could be backed up in the _RESTORE or System volume information folder. By default, Windows prevents System Restore from being modified by outside programs. Because of this, any repair attempts made by antivirus software will fail. To work around this, you must disable System Restore, and restart the computer. This will purge the contents of the _RESTORE or System volume information folder. You must then run a full system scan.... "i have windows me. " i don't exactly know what that means but this is a public help forum and not a competition..... [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 9:41 am Posted by brian (497 messages posted) this is a public help forum. system restore does not put files that were deleted back on your computer each time the computer is rebooted. you referred to the cookie that Alan kept deleting and kept coming back on each reboot. system restore would not be replacing that file on each reboot. having windows me means i have my experience from running the operating system and not from documentation. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 10:44 am Posted by joe (7018 messages posted) ok, well put, but i also run Me on two box's and XP (one with SP2) on three and another one i am building for the role out of Longhorn.....if you are assuming or hinting that i do not know what it is i am talking about then ok, that is your right, but personal "attacks" do not solve problems, or is it fair to the original posters problem(s). let's try to act like adults here and keep it clean please. ;-) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 10:57 am Posted by brian (497 messages posted) ok, i stated i have windows me to clarify that i have experience with win me not only win me documentation. i do not do personal attacks. questioning something is not a personal attack. wrong or erroneous information is wrong or erroneous information. correct information to a poster is fair. this is an open forum. if a user wants an instant fix to a problem they should try taking a rabbit out of a magic hat. ;-) ;-) [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 11:48 am Posted by joe (7018 messages posted) i tried that and the dang rabbit bit me, i didn't have elmer fudds number handy so, cest la vie....;-P [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 11:54 am Posted by Jack Gulley (5917 messages posted) I have never seen a cookie with that name before. But it sounds like the type that some Browser Extensions put in your cookie folder. Often these and AD sites place a cookie with your "local" information that identifies where you live (like a ZIP CODE or AREA CODE) so that marketer's can target you with "local" ADs. This is why Ad-Aware SE flags it. So it should be deleted each time you run Ad-Aware SE, but it will just keep coming back. It is possible that every "AD" on each web page could be puttion such a cookie on your system. It is not clear from the wording of your post if you are only finding one cookie with that name each time, or if you are finding thousands of cookies by that name (which would be a major problem). One possible problem I see. Ad-Aware SE uses the WININIT.INI file to delete cookies, and cookies are not really removed from your machine until you reboot. So there could be something wrong there, if they come back by just rebooting. Some sort of "hijack program" could also be doing the same thing. Try the following: Reboot your system and do not open a Browser. Just run Ad-Aware SE and delete all that it finds. Then reboot your system and run Ad-Aware SE again and see if it finds the same cookie(s). If the cookie is back already, there is something putting it there or the WININIT.INI process is broken on your machine. After booting, look in the C:\Windows\ folder and see if there is a WININIT.INI file. There should be a WININIT.BAK file. If you still have the WININIT.INI file, then something is wrong with your system. Just delete the WININIT.INI file and then make sure you do have a WININIT.EXE program file in that folder. Extract a clean copy from the system WIN_17.CAB file if it is missing or not working correctly. Some of the CoolWebSearch browser hijacker versions damage or remove the WININIT.EXE file. You might also want to run DELINDEX.BAT to remove all cookies from your system and give it a good cleaning. page [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Wednesday, March 2, 2005 at 3:01 am Posted by Ale (16 messages posted) Thanks for the suggestions guys (and the amusing duel interlude!). To clarify, Adaware finds only one cookie but it gets hundreds of 'hits' a day implying it's registering almost every keystroke and mouse click. I have found some other reports of this but ~~local~~ is too broad a search parameter to determine how wide the problem is or even if it's a problem. I have tried all but the WIN.INI suggestion so far and touch wood I'm clean. Let's see if it's still the same at the end of the day. Thanks On Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 11:54 am, Jack Gulley wrote: > I have never seen a cookie with that name before. But it sounds like the type >that some Browser Extensions put in your cookie folder. Often these and AD sites >place a cookie with your "local" information that identifies where you live (like >a ZIP CODE or AREA CODE) so that marketer's can target you with "local" ADs. This >is why Ad-Aware SE flags it. So it should be deleted each time you run Ad-Aware SE, >but it will just keep coming back. It is possible that every "AD" on each web page >could be puttion such a cookie on your system. > It is not clear from the wording of your post if you are only finding one cookie >with that name each time, or if you are finding thousands of cookies by that name >(which would be a major problem). > One possible problem I see. Ad-Aware SE uses the WININIT.INI file to delete cookies, >and cookies are not really removed from your machine until you reboot. So there could >be something wrong there, if they come back by just rebooting. Some sort of "hijack >program" could also be doing the same thing. > Try the following: Reboot your system and do not open a Browser. Just run Ad-Aware >SE and delete all that it finds. Then reboot your system and run Ad-Aware SE again >and see if it finds the same cookie(s). If the cookie is back already, there is something >putting it there or the WININIT.INI process is broken on your machine. After booting, >look in the C:\Windows\ folder and see if there is a WININIT.INI file. There should >be a WININIT.BAK file. If you still have the WININIT.INI file, then something is >wrong with your system. Just delete the WININIT.INI file and then make sure you do >have a WININIT.EXE program file in that folder. Extract a clean copy from the system >WIN_17.CAB file if it is missing or not working correctly. Some of the CoolWebSearch >browser hijacker versions damage or remove the WININIT.EXE file. > You might also want to run DELINDEX.BAT to remove all cookies from your >system and give it a good cleaning. > >alt="Windows ME fixes" src="http://users.adelphia.net/~jgulley/me/me_icon.gif" border="0">page [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Wednesday, March 2, 2005 at 3:10 am Posted by brian (497 messages posted) Delindex.bat is a good suggestion to try. Delindex.bat take a look at this thread and see why Really Tough Home Page Problem [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Also, Wednesday, March 2, 2005 at 11:58 pm Posted by Stormblazer (5 messages posted) Of course, if you're using Firefox instead of IE (a VERY good idea i might add), then it manages the cache size and stuff for you. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Also, Friday, March 4, 2005 at 8:23 am Posted by Ale (16 messages posted) Yes, I really must stop putting that off. How easy is it to transfer favourites etc? I haven't got rid of ~~local~~ completely but I think it comes from a streaming financial site that I use. The time reference seems to agree when it reinstalls itself. As such the site pays for itself by advertising and keeps a check on what you are looking at. It could be that every time I change page it logs up 10-15 ads as having been seen. I suppose it's the price to pay for not wanting to pay the subscription fee! On Wednesday, March 2, 2005 at 11:58 pm, Stormblazer wrote: >Of course, if you're using Firefox instead of IE (a VERY good idea i might add), >then it manages the cache size and stuff for you. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Also, Thursday, March 10, 2005 at 6:39 pm Posted by Stormblazer (5 messages posted) it's very easy, all you have to do is install it, and it asks if you want to move favorites and stuff over from IE or start fresh. Also, the download size for Firefox is about 4MB, so it's easy to get even on a dial-up connection. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: spyware cookie name@~~local~~ Friday, June 30, 2006 at 1:22 pm Posted by Brian (1 messages posted) I've got the same problem for a while, but just couldn't figure out why this "myname@~~local~~" always shown while I'm using P2P software. I've tried to delete all the cookies and temp files, but not long this cookie will show up again. Besides, while I was trying to delete the temp file, there are one or 2 files that associated with this local thing will automatically delete them selfves before I hit the delete key. It seems like they are very "intelligent" spyware. Hopefully someone knows the way to remove it/them. Brian On Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at 4:22 am, Ale wrote: >Adaware has recently started to detect a cookie "myname@~~local~~" with thousands >of hits per day. Clearly this is coming from a frequently visited site but I cannot >work out where from. Do I have a problem or shall I just delete it every time Adaware >finds it? There seems to be no effect on the system but I am concerned at the incredible >number of hits. SpywareBlaster doesn't stop it. Due to the nature of the name of >it, it is virtually impossible to search for any help. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows Me Discussion Forum