Comet Cursor is one of those things that some website operators think is so "cute" that everyone who downloads certain files, and in some cases, even just visits their site, will be slipped a copy of the Comet Cursor program, usually on the sly. It transform your cursor into any number of different shapes; why anyone would think that this behavior is cute is beyond me, but many do.

While Comet Cursor is not exactly in the spyware league, it nevertheless tracks your web surfing links and stores the information, which can be accessed by Comet Cursor affiliated websites. Furthermore, it's just one more unnecessary application that runs in the background and takes its share of your system resources. The Comet Cursor website is Here , but I would not advise your going there until you have read how to keep this thing off your system, below.

If you are unlucky enough to already be infected with this pest because of downloading Real Player 7.0 or having it slipped into your system by other means, here is how you can get rid of it.

Removal

1. Open Control Panel ( Start button, Settings, Control Panel).



2. Click on "Add/Remove Programs".



3. Go down to the Comet or Comet Cursor listing and select it.



4. Click the Add/Remove button and follow the intructions for removal.

If this doesn't work, or you get an error message, it is probably because the program was partially or fully deleted without using the Control Panel as described above. If you think this has been done, then go to www.cometcursor.com using the link above and reinstall it, then follow the steps described above again to uninstall.

Blocking Comet Cursor installation in Internet Explorer 5+

1. From your menu, click on "Tools and Internet Options", then click on "Security".



2. See the box labeled "Select a Web content zone etc" and click the "Restricted sites" icon.



3. You will then see a new box underneath, "Restricted sites". Click the just below this, on "Sites".



4. In the box labeled "Add this web site to the zone", enter this: cometsystems.com.



5. Click on the "Add" button and cometsystems.com will now be in the box labeled "Web sites".



6. Click on "OK" and you'll be back to the main Security panel. Click on the icon on the left, labeled "Internet". then, In the box named "Security level for this zone", click "Custom Level".



7. Check the first setting in the Security Settings panel. Be sure the setting "Download signed ActiveX controls" is checked for Disable.



8. Click the "OK" boxes until you're done with the window.

"There are two main versions of the Comet Cursor. One is the version of the Comet Cursor which is bundled with RealPlayer 7. This version is not issued a GUID. "All other versions of the Comet Cursor contact our servers to record logs of cursor impressions using a GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier). When you download the Comet Cursor software, it is issued a GUID from our servers. Using this GUID, we can keep track of how many people are using our software. The GUID is also used every time the software contacts our servers when we log cursors changing."

"Our software contacts our servers to record logs of cursor impressions. By this we mean that we record whether you saw a cursor change, what page (URL) you saw the cursor change on, and what page (URL) you chose to view immediately after seeing the cursor change. [...]In addition, our software checks in with our servers periodically to see if enhancements for Comet Systems software are available. For example, if there is a bug fix or version upgrade for Comet Cursor 2.0, the software will retrieve the new code and replace the outdated code.

Some of the info that Comet Cursor monitors and collects are IP addresses, the time of your visit, the browser used, OS, referrer IDs, etc.