My spyware reported that a "desktop surveillance" program had been inserted in my megascenery folder as indicated here:d:program filesmicrosoft gamesfs9megasceneryncsantar_ewtexture002113100333033an.agnIt said that this program could monitor all of my desktop activity and email information off of my computer. I emailed the megascenery people, but they did not respond within 24 hours to my inquiry.Does anyone know if this is a mistake of my anti-spy software or if this is true spyware that megascenery is using? Please advise if you know.Thanks,Bruce

Definitely a mistake by the spyware program. That's just an autogen annotation file for one of the Megascenery texturess :)

>Definitely a mistake by the spyware program. That's just an>autogen annotation file for one of the Megascenery texturess>:)Does the file record some aspect of the autogen function? Perhaps that's why it is accidentally taged by the anti-spyware.

Submit the file to your spyware provider and have them check it. If it is not, they can include it in their next round of updates so no one else gets the alleged error.Also list what spyware program found it, update file date, etc, so it can be confirmed, rather than a simple dismissal.Also JimmiG, did you create this file, and do you work for the company or are you just guessing here?JOIN The AVSIM RTW RACE FLIGHT TEAM****************Grab My FREEWARE Voice recognition Profiles here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=58334]Cessna 172 Voice Profile[/a][a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=60740]FSD Avanti Voice Profile[/a].You will need the main FREEWARE Flight Assistant program to use it, get it here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=genutils&DLID=39661]Flight Assistant 2.2[/a]

A very educated guess. I'd be happy to look at the particular file with a hex editor as well as with the standard FS SDK annotation tool and compare it to other .agn files but I bet the file structure would be exactly the same. Also autogen annotation files are never actually executed as such, FS just looks at them for autogen placement information making it almost impossible to insert some kind of trojan or tracking mechanism into them.

"Also autogen annotation files are never actually executed as such, FS just looks at them for autogen placement information making it almost impossible to insert some kind of trojan or tracking mechanism into them."False positives happen fairly often....Unless the file is bogus. Some of the newer spyware is scanning hard drives for popular applications, and creating files with similar names/extensions. A "trigger" app then executes the bogus file. The more malicious code is hidden in the bogus file, whereas the trigger app seems rather innocent. I've seen this more and more over the past twelve weeks or so--makes it tough as heck to rid systems of spyware and trojans.There's also the "hide file extensions for known file types" trick, where a common system setting (which I can't stand) is used to disguise an .exe by giving the file a name like xxxxxxxx.agn.exeCould either be the case? I'd be surprised, but stranger things have happened. The gloves come off when it comes to spyware "pushers". They play dirty--they don't play fair. Anything's fair game. So it's better to contact the creator of the file to be sure.-John

I sent PC Aviator/Megascenery customer service an email. They have not responded. I left a message on their forum...no response. I'll send the file to SpySweeper.

I'd also give them a couple of days to respond.JoeJOIN The AVSIM RTW RACE FLIGHT TEAM****************Grab My FREEWARE Voice recognition Profiles here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=58334]Cessna 172 Voice Profile[/a][a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=60740]FSD Avanti Voice Profile[/a].You will need the main FREEWARE Flight Assistant program to use it, get it here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=genutils&DLID=39661]Flight Assistant 2.2[/a]

Here is the MegaScenery team response: >>No, there is no spyware in any of our products.The .agn file is simply a DATA file that FS2004 uses to display tress and houses on the scenery.You can open it with Microsoft's autogen annotation software and see the houses and trees.Because there are generally over 100,000 files in a megascenery product and each file contains different data, there may be some instances where the data looks like what the spyware is expecting.The spyware has simply found a match of a series of numbers in a data file that it thinks is spyware.Since all megascenery and megaCITY products are simply "just data" you should ignore software that thinks there are viruses or spyware.The only true "software" that exectues in megascenery/megaCITY is; the installer, the scenery tips and the FS2004 automatic library update. --------------------MegaScenery & megaCITY Development TeamAerosoft Australia <