Nice post, John, and well worth reading.

WinPatrol will help you monitor cookies if they are a concern to you. You can add terms to the "nuts" list and WinPatrol will prevent the cookie from being set. You can still have cookies on for the sites, such as Mudcat, whose cookies you actually want but you can kill the third party tracking cookies. WinPatrol will warn you when a cookie has been added and give you a chance to permanently allow it by checking a box or removing all unchecked cookies. This feature may be used or not, as you choose.

Kat, you are probably the victim of what is termed a "browser hijacking." WinPatrol gives you the ability to see all the "browser helper" apps that you are loading and decide whether you want them or not. Another great program aimed specifically at browser hijacking is HijackThis. It will find any possible way your browser can be hijacked and let you stop it. HijackThis also comes with a program called StartupList that builds a text file listing absoutely everything that gets started by any means when you boot your computer. This list is often requested by knowledgeable experts at support forums (fora?) such as SpywareInfo, Tek-Tips Forums, JLR Forum.Net, or many of the sites listed as Windows Support Sites at the Windows Support Center site (not Microsoft, Inc.).

      - Mark