Windows XP Hacks

File Sharing without the Spyware

Finding and sharing music files doesn’t mean that your system has to be filled with pop-up ads and spyware. Here’s how to share files and entertainment files without the excess baggage.

If you’re a fan of the Kazaa file-sharing and music-sharing software, you probably know that the biggest problem with the program is that it’s full of pop-up ads and spyware. The spyware tracks your activities as you use the Internet, reports on them to an ad server, and you’re then served ads based on your travels. Additionally, some of the spyware can be even more insidious and in the future could make use of your computer’s spare CPU cycles without you knowing it.

If you try to track down and disable the program’s associated spyware, as detailed in [Hack #33], you’ll disable Kazaa.

Kazaa Lite

One solution is to get an ad-free and spyware-free version of the program, called Kazaa Lite, shown in Figure 10-6. In all other respects, it looks and functions like Kazaa and taps into the same file-sharing network, but it doesn’t carry the ads and spyware. It’s free and available for download from http://doa2.host.sk.

Figure 10-6. Kazaa Lite

Search and share files with it just as you do with Kazaa. As with Kazaa, if you’re using a high-speed connection and fast PC, you may find that your PC will be turned into a supernode , which means you’ll be subject to many searches and ...