You Tore Me Down

All this month I've been fighting a battle against spyware and adware on my computer. Of course, I have AdAware and SpyBot, along with Norton AntiVirus, but I've still got lingering programs in my computer.

The problem, I think, stems from my Internet Explorer. Even though I don't use it anymore (I've been using Firefox since July), my ISP (BlueLight), every time I log on, automatically launches IE, with all of its security flaws. Usually, I'm quick enough to shut IE down just as it starts to load, but sometimes I'm distracted and the browser successfully launches, and the spyware programs that are hidden from SpyBot go into action. Worse yet, last time I allowed IE to open, two viruses were installed on my computer (but I caught them with Norton).

My operating system is WinME, and I saw some news stories recently that said that Bill Gates is no longer going to make any new security patches for IE & ME users. If a person wants a secure IE, he has to buy WinXP. That bastard.

Right now, I'm toying with the idea of getting a new ISP - one that won't automatically launch IE (or will let me set Firefox as my default browser). I tried emailing BlueLight a few days ago, asking if there was some way I could prevent IE's autolaunch, but the tech support insisted that I had to use IE. Bastards.