This afternoon, I noticed two software programs on my computer that I don't recognize:

Buddy_API by Magic_Modules

Smart_Heap by MicroQuill

I've checked Google, but it doesn't tell me anything. Is anyone familiar with this software? Thanks for any info.

Want to add that none of the above show up in a search for files/folders.

my guess is that they're adware or spyware programs. these types of programs are designed to go unrecognised since they have no immediate visible effect to your computer. I wouldn't advise deleting them until you're SURE you know what they are/where they came from, but I'm fairly confident that they are spyware/adware programs.

I could be wrong, but thats my opinion.

I also think those are spyware files, which might have been installed by some program, such as KaZaAA and others.

Just to rule out the possibility of having spyware/adware in your computer, you can download and run a small, free utility called Ad-Aware, from http://lavasoft.de

When you run the program, check all the items in the left pane, then click on Scan Now and let the process go on.

If it finds no spyware/adware, you'll see a message congratulating you on having a "clean" system. Otherwise, it will list spyware files and registry entries for you to check and delete. You should just follow the on-screen instructions that you'll see.

Bear in mind, however, that if you installed one of those programs such as KaZaA that secretely installs the spyware, it may lose (some) functionality after cleaning your system of those nasty files.

Anyway, a clean system is the way to go.

Juan

No for a fact they are spy-ware. Download lavasofts ad-aware off cnet.com or somewhere else to get rid of them

Thanks for the responses. I run SpyBot (which I think is better than AdAware) on a regular basis. As I said, this software shows up in Google, but I can't figure out what they do or what program, if any, they are associated with. The only place I can find mention of this software on my comp is in JV16's listing of installed software. How do I search the registry- maybe I could find them there.

I found MicroQuill in HLM/Software, but no indication of what it belongs to.

Agreed on Spybot is better than AdAware. When you run Spybot, does it target them as spyware?

Curiosity got me, so I did a google search for Buddy_API and it did not show anything that I could make sense of, so I searched Buddy API and it got lots of hits, this is the first one:

http://www.mods.com.au/budapi/

here's the search results:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Buddy+API&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Search results for SmartHeap:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=SmartHeap&spell=1

I didn't read all these hits but it sounds like they are legitimate files from what I scanned.

Hope this helps.