Explain "immunize" in 1.4

[richard904]

Following the advice of another forum I upgraded to 1.4 yesterday. Almost immediately it asked me if I wanted to "immunize." The help feature gave insufficient explanation to me. Is it safe to "immunize" or will it cause me trouble somewhere.

Also, I just did an install, and did not do a de-install of 1.3. Does the install leave everything clean?

[md usa spybot fan]

Following the advice of another forum I upgraded to 1.4 yesterday. Almost immediately it asked me if I wanted to "immunize." The help feature gave insufficient explanation to me. Is it safe to "immunize" or will it cause me trouble somewhere.

When you "Immunize", entries are added to the system Registry. This blocks cookies from some sites, places other sites in the restricted zone and blocks the download/execution of selected ActiveX scripts. If you are interested in learning how this type of blocking works, see Note #1 below. Also note that if you use Spybot S&D and other products like IE-SPYAD, SpywareBlaster, etc. together, there is an overlap of some of the protection offered. If you undo or disable the protection in one product, it may remove some of the protection installed by the other. You should re-immunize or re-enable the protection in the other products as appropriate.

For the most part immunizing shouldn't cause you any trouble. There have been errors with the immunization past that have caused some problems but for the most part it is save to use. Some people have been troubled by certain restrictions that are in the immunization routine such as iwon.com being placed in the restricted zone and cookies being blocked from yahoo.com, but these problems are easily overcome.

Note #1:
Microsoft Knowledge Base Article – 182569
Description of Internet Explorer security zones registry entries
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=182569

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 240797
How to Stop an ActiveX Control from Running in Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=240797

Also, I just did an install, and did not do a de-install of 1.3. Does the install leave everything clean?

I always recommend that you uninstall before upgrading, but having not it you should be ok.
How to uninstall?
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/faq/27.html