freeing a freeware from spyware

["J. Yoon" <supercool9000 () hotmail com>]

Has anyone ever modified a freeware so that it doesn't depend on the spyware 
that it came with?

Aside from the obvious solution of "Don't use the Freeware"  (DUH... 8-), 
would you know how I could bypass the spyware (or at least just render it 
less harmful to the security vulnerabilities it opens up) and still make 
this freeware work?
I honestly don't mind the Ads when I use a freeware, but this one seems a 
bit more intrusive and riskier compared to other harmless banner ads. Here's 
a quote from http://www.cexx.org/cydoor.htm  "the program's ability to 
silently load executable code presents a potential security vulnerability to 
the user"

The freeware in question is:  Prosigner Vocab Wizard 6.3 running on Windows 
XP
I doubt they made the source code available since google doesn't seem to be 
able to find it.

This is what happenes:
- During installation, it also installs "cydoor" spyware
- It installs the main program file to the usual c:\program files\(...) 
subdirectory
- It writes its spyware files to C:\windows/system32/adcache? (or adware) 
directory
- Also writes a dozen or so spyware DLL's in C:\windows\system32 (file names 
are "cd_*.dll" )
- When my antispyware "ad-aware" kicks in, all of the above files are 
quarantined without any mercy.
- the freeware then stops working when it sees the spyware is deinstalled/no 
longer working properly.

I have tried the following
1) firewall solution: blocked the spyware from sending or receiving any 
packets. after a while, freeware complains about not being able to update 
the ads
2) deleted the main cydoor executable "cd_load.exe":  the freeware complains 
about a missing file with an extension of ".pat" but seems to work
although I don't know how much longer.

Any suggestions would be welcomed,
Thanks.

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