...
why oh why do people download and install all this spyware and adware in the first place?
It's
so easy to avoid - just don't do it!
I didn't find it very hard to teach my kids not to do it:
(1) I told them "don't download and install any viruses or spyware"
(2) when they did I disconnected their machine from the net until such time as I could get round to sorting it out
(3) each time it took me about twice as long to "get round to" sorting it up.
We're now up to about a month of downtime next time they do it, which seems to be sufficient incentive for them to take me seriously, as they have refrained from downloading and installing crap for a long time now.
Adults, surely, shouldn't need this training exercise, and should be able to just accept the advice ("don't download and install any viruses or spyware")
the first time?
(Although if you read
slashdot you will find that American college kiddies do use such a training method on their grown-up friends and relatives - they charge them $50 for cleaning the machine up the first time, $100 the second time, $200 the third time ... until they get the message: "don't download and install any viruses or spyware"; or run out of money. But actually even that doesn't work, apparently some of these people just throw the computer away and buy a new one when it gets too infected. And then download more crap onto the new one.
Why?????)