Is Microsoft downloading porn to my PC?
QI make regular use of a registry-cleaning program on my Windows 7 computer. Recently, after deleting entries relating to some old software, I discovered some worrying mentions of porn websites. I had 45 years in engineering so the terminology does not bother me, but I am concerned that someone is loading pornographic material on to my computer without my knowledge. The actual addresses were part of a Microsoft key. Surely, Microsoft isn’t downloading porn on to my computer? I cleared all of the entries – 1,200 in all! – but I’d like to know how they got there. Any ideas? Alan Heasman
AYou didn’t provide us with the key’s full path but our educated guess is that it’s HKEY_ Current_user\software\microsoft\ Windows\currentversion\internet Settings\zonemap\domains. This is where Internet Explorer (IE) stores info about its various security zones.
Our guess is that at some point you’ve installed a security tool that has added a list of blacklisted websites to the Restricted zone, placing entries for each in the ...\Zonemap\domains key. You’ve deleted them now but had you rightclicked one and chosen Modify, you’d likely have seen that the figure in the ‘Value data’ field was a 4 (see screenshot) – this is the number that bestows Restricted status. IE prevents Restricted websites from doing many things that might have malicious intent.
So, you’ve wiped a well-intentioned blacklist but otherwise no damage has been done – and Microsoft has not been downloading porn to your PC.