Desktop image

[Guest]

I've always been able to select a desktop image, but as of last week it won't
appear. When I go to my computer and select the image, it displays in the
preview and accepts the change. But at startup, I only have a white
background. My icons appear against the white background.

The desktop image appears when the screen times out to the password box, but
as soon as I enter the password and get to the desktop, it's just white.

Any ideas....I installed Xoftspy last week by ParetoLogic and that seems to
be when the problem started. I've since deleted the software.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "pat" <[email protected]>

| I've always been able to select a desktop image, but as of last week it won't
| appear. When I go to my computer and select the image, it displays in the
| preview and accepts the change. But at startup, I only have a white
| background. My icons appear against the white background.
|
| The desktop image appears when the screen times out to the password box, but
| as soon as I enter the password and get to the desktop, it's just white.
|
| Any ideas....I installed Xoftspy last week by ParetoLogic and that seems to
| be when the problem started. I've since deleted the software.
|

XoftSpy is crapware. It was labled as a Rogue anti spyware on Spyware Warrior but was
removed from the list. However, based upon News Posts and reports, it appears to have been
a hasty decision.

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Remove XoftSpy and use suggested software from the above Spyware Warrior site such ad
Ad-aware SE v1.06 and SpyBot Search and Destroy v1.4

After you remove XoftSpy, perform the following.

Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.ik-cs.com/programs/virtools/Multi_AV.exe

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute; Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose; Unzip
Choose; Close

Execute; C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE to go through your
FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode.
This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor's web site.
The choices are; Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Kaspersky, Exit this menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file. http://www.ik-cs.com/multi-av.htm


* * * Please report back your results * * *

 

[Alan]

I've always been able to select a desktop image, but as of last week it
won't
appear. When I go to my computer and select the image, it displays in
the
preview and accepts the change. But at startup, I only have a white
background. My icons appear against the white background.

The desktop image appears when the screen times out to the password box,
but
as soon as I enter the password and get to the desktop, it's just white.

Any ideas....I installed Xoftspy last week by ParetoLogic and that seems
to
be when the problem started. I've since deleted the software.

Get rid of that software, it is questionable. Try spybot and adaware- both
are free.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Get rid of that software, it is questionable. Try spybot and adaware-
both are free.

Xoftspy is not as bad as it used to be. Eric Howes, at his "Rogue/Supsect
Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites" site
(http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm) now says "Note on
XoftSpy: XoftSpy was listed on this page because of concerns with false
positives (1, 2, 3, 4), questionable license terms, and the use of
aggressive, deceptive advertising (1, 2), including exploitation of the name
"spybot" by affiliates. Earlier versions of XoftSpy were also Ad-aware
knockoffs. (There was clone of XoftSpy named SpyBurn, but that application
is no longer available.)
Over the past few months, XoftSpy has taken aggressive steps to reign in its
affiliates (who were primarily responsible for the unsavory advertising),
revised its license text, and released a new version of XoftSpy (version
4.0) that addresses our concerns with false positves. Given these changes we
can no longer regard XoftSpy as "rogue/suspect" anti-spyware."

 

[Alan]

Xoftspy is not as bad as it used to be. Eric Howes, at his "Rogue/Supsect
Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites" site
(http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm) now says "Note on
XoftSpy: XoftSpy was listed on this page because of concerns with false
positives (1, 2, 3, 4), questionable license terms, and the use of
aggressive, deceptive advertising (1, 2), including exploitation of the
name "spybot" by affiliates. Earlier versions of XoftSpy were also
Ad-aware knockoffs. (There was clone of XoftSpy named SpyBurn, but that
application is no longer available.)
Over the past few months, XoftSpy has taken aggressive steps to reign in
its affiliates (who were primarily responsible for the unsavory
advertising), revised its license text, and released a new version of
XoftSpy (version 4.0) that addresses our concerns with false positves.
Given these changes we can no longer regard XoftSpy as "rogue/suspect"
anti-spyware."

Interesting, thanks. But time will tell. At the moment it doesn't appear to
have any advantages over Spybot or Adaware which have not been associated
with questionable activities.
I know which of those 3 programs I won't be using.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Interesting, thanks. But time will tell. At the moment it doesn't
appear to have any advantages over Spybot or Adaware which have not
been associated with questionable activities.
I know which of those 3 programs I won't be using.

You're welcome. I don't use it myself, and wasn't recommending it--just
pointing out that it's apparently not as bad as its older reputation might
indicate.