One of the little gems included with some OEM software packages is an array of several games from WildTangent Inc. If you have these games on your system there are a few things you need to be aware of.

I had been experiencing strange hang-ups when first connecting to the internet, and one of the first things I usually do in such a case is to use Control-Alt-Delete to bring up the running tasks window. When I did so, I found a curious app listed there called "wcmdmgr.exe" and was able to trace it to the WildTangent folder.

If you dig deep into the recesses of your Windows or boot folder, you'll find a folder named simply "wt" tucked unobtrusively away there. In this folder is an "open letter from Alex St. John, CEO of WildTangent Inc."... This so-called open letter has a header that reads "THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A CONTRACT, LICENSE AGREEMENT OR LEGALLY BINDING IN ANY WAY. "

If you laughed at the two quoted statements above, I did too. The textfile they came from is in my installation called "_privacy.txt"... if it's not a contract, license, or legally binding in any way, then it would seem everything else said there is totally useless. And 'open letters' should be in the open, not hidden away.

But the real worry, as far as I am concerned, is that this is yet another one of those apps that are put on your system in an underhanded way, and routinely 'phones home' to WildTangent.com, allegedly to check for upates. The actual WildTangent games are in my Program Files folder, and are quite nice games, I have to admit, but the phone home app is hidden deep in the Windows directory.

Other references in this so-called open letter make claims that the software uses very little system resources, but I found a .dll file of 652 kb and a Java .jar file of 311 kb, not to mention the 16 or 17 other .dll files it uses. This is no minor use of sytem resources.

If you have any WildTangent software (games, music, etc) or if you have ever gone to the WildTangent website then you may have this in your system. You can uninstall the wcmdmgr.exe, but if you do so, then the games will not work again until you reinstall it.

There is another option, if you like the games and if you don't mind the thing running on your system. The free ZoneAlarm firewall will warn you if wcmdmgr.exe tries to access the internet to phone home and you can set the preferences in ZoneAlarm to corral it so it can't get out. You can download either the free or Pro version Here.

I have been told in an email by a person who identified himself as an ex-employee of Wild Tangent that in the latest version of the games, there is an option to turn the phone-home "update" feature off.

If you have this software installed on your system and you want a real lesson in smooth-talking, please do read text files in the Windows/wt folder. The writer of these slick little files gets the Silver-tongued award in my book.