By Gary Stango
NSI Senior Support Engineer

If you know spyware, then you know Viewpoint. It's that nasty data collection program bundled in everything from web plug-ins to AOL and even in commercial Adobe software. You remove it, and a day later it's back in your system monitoring your every move.

I have come up with my own “home-brew” method to stop its installation. It may seem lengthy, but it really only takes a few seconds to complete. Then you can rest easy knowing that you're free and clear of at least one of Big Brother's little toys.

1. First, if it is in your PC, remove it. You can delete it from Add/Remove programs under the control panel. It will be labeled as “Viewpoint Software”.

2. Once it is gone from that list, go to START -> RUN -> and type "C:\program files". This will bring you to the system folder where it would normally be installed. Make sure that the Viewpoint folder is really gone. If it is not, delete it.

3. Next, in the Program Files window, click on “Tools” in the menu bar and select “Folder Options”. In this window click on the View tab. Then make sure the box next to “Hide extensions for known file types” in the lower portion of the window is unchecked. Click OK.

3. Next, right click in the Program Files folder. Right click the white space around the other folders and go to NEW-->Text Document. Name this file   "Viewpoint" WITHOUT AN EXTENSION! (remove the .txt that is automatically added)

4. Right click this file and click on Properties. Under Attributes, click Read Only.

5. You are done.

In the windows file system, a file with no extension takes the same name space as a folder. Since there is a file in the place of where Viewpoint would install itself, Viewpoint can no longer put itself back on your system!

One less pair of eyes watching you…