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Add-on Manager from Windows XP SP2 Internet Explorer
Add-on Manager from Windows XP SP2 Internet Explorer

A Browser Helper Object (BHO) is a DLL module designed as a plugin for Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser to provide added functionality. In Computer science, a library is a collection of Subroutines used to develop Software. Modular programming is a software design technique that increases the extent to which software is composed from separate parts called modules Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a BHOs were introduced in October 1997 with the release of version 4 of Internet Explorer. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Most BHOs are loaded once by each new instance of Internet Explorer. However, in the case of the Windows File Explorer, a new instance is launched for each window.

Some modules enable the display of different file formats not ordinarily interpretable by the browser. The Adobe Acrobat plugin that allows Internet Explorer users to read PDF files within their browser is a BHO. Adobe Acrobat is a family of computer programs developed by Adobe Systems, designed to view create manipulate and manage files in Adobe's Portable Document

Other modules add toolbars to Internet Explorer, such as the Alexa Toolbar that provides a list of web sites related to the one you are currently browsing, or the Google Toolbar that adds a toolbar with a Google search box to the browser user interface. The Alexa Toolbar, an application produced by Alexa Internet, is a Browser Helper Object for Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows that is used This page is a summary of services and tools provided by Google Inc The user interface (or Human Computer Interface) is the aggregate of means by which people&mdash the users '&mdash interact with the System

Contents

Concerns

The BHO API exposes hooks that allow the BHO to access the Document Object Model (DOM) of the current page and to control navigation. For the slang term meaning female prostitution see Prostitution. The Document Object Model ( DOM) is a platform- and language -independent standard Object model for representing HTML or XML and related Because BHOs have unrestricted access to the Internet Explorer event model, some forms of malware have also been created as BHOs. Malware, a Portmanteau word from the words '''mal'''icious and soft'''ware''', is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without For example, the Download.ject exploit installed a BHO that would activate upon detecting a secure HTTP connection to a financial institution, record the user's keystrokes (intending to capture passwords) and transmit the information to a website used by Russian computer criminals. In Computing, Downloadject (also known as Toofer and Scob) is a Malware program for Microsoft Windows servers Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP) is a Communications protocol for the transfer of information on the Internet. Keystroke logging (often called keylogging) is a method of capturing and recording user keystrokes Computer crime, Cybercrime, e-crime, hi-tech crime or electronic crime generally refers to criminal activity where a Computer Other BHOs such as the MyWay Searchbar track users' browsing patterns and pass the information they record to third parties. MyWay Searchbar, also known as MyWay Speedbar, pre-install this software on some of their commercially sold PCs

In response to the problems associated with BHOs and similar extensions to Internet Explorer, Microsoft added an Add-on Manager to Internet Explorer 6 with the release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (updating it to IE6 Security Version 1 (a. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (commonly abbreviated to IE6 is a graphical Web browser developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and k. a. SP2). This displays a list of all installed BHOs, browser extensions and ActiveX controls, and allows the user to enable or disable them at will. A browser extension is a Computer program that extends the functionality of a web browser in some way ActiveX is a Component object model (COM developed by Microsoft for Windows.

For users that are not using Windows XP, there are free tools (such as BHODemon) that list installed BHOs and allow the user to disable malicious extensions.

Many BHOs install toolbars in Internet Explorer, but others don't produce any visible effect. It is therefore possible that a PC contains BHOs that the owner doesn't know about. The security risk here is that the BHO doesn't need any kind of permission to install malicious components and thus spyware may be spread without the user's knowledge.

Since it's relatively easy to write BHOs, many badly written BHOs will harm the computer and compromise its security, and even sometimes destroy valuable data or corrupt system files.

See also

External links

Microsoft sites

Listings and examples

Removal tools

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