not installing spyware??

[MaxRat]

I have a simple but, rather complex question?

Can you extract files that you want from a program without actually installing it?

What i mean is sometimes i like to download a theme or a wallpaper ( for free of coarse) and some of the files come zipped and others come wrapped in an .exe file that is full of spyware and what not...

You have to agree to download there product to get to what you want then finally you get what you came for! plus other junk...

Is there a way to get inside the .exe file and seperate the good stuff from the crap...

The place I downloaded the themes from was www.ezthemes.com and some are fine and some have the "ezulu" stuff in it... these look like a little monitor and a box of diskettes file when you down load them???

Thanks ..Terry

[rjfvillarosa]

You would need programming knowledge to be able to do that and a lot of these applications will not actually work unless they are complete with the nasty little addons.

[bozo]

Do yourself a BIG favor...don't mess with *ANYTHING* that is packaged with spyware...just ain't worth the hassle.

bozo

[glc]

Some .exe's are openable with utilities like Winzip and Winrar - it all depends how the application was packaged.

[Miz]

You can try installing the software then running Spybot and Ad-Aware to eliminate the spyware. The programs may or may not work after the spyware is eliminated but other than deconstructing the program, re-coding it, and recompiling it, I know of no other way.

[MaxRat]

that's pretty much what i do is just install it anyway....they're just some themes and wallpapers..
so what I do when I am done is run spybot then Nortons.....nortons won't take it out but it does show you the path and so I just manualy take it out...thanks for the help...Terry