I have noticed a rising number of "addons" which is in fact executable files, often doing things which is possible to do IN GAME, i.e. telling how long you have played (ingame commend /played does this too), and changing realms for you (nice for those who are too lazy to log out the character, select Change Realm on the character selection list, and click the appropriate realm and character). MAYBE these programs works as promised, and is free of keyloggers and other nasties, but I do not trust any such programs, and IF I choose to download an executable related to WoW, I never run them same time, AND check all files for viruses, even if it is only a REAL addon. A tip for those of you who are afraid of keyloggers though, if you are the only one playing on your computer, let WoW remember your username, this way you only have to enter password each time you log in, and any keyloggers only get a useless password, no username to go with it... Final word of advice; Be careful with executables, you MAY loose your account!

Btw, I report ANY suspicious "addon" for the moderators to investigate for possible keylogger/virus/trojan, and would like everyone to do the same, thus making the addon community a safer place. I would hate it if Curse lost all its trust of the gamers...

Sincerely,
Arlyn Dath'anar, BE Hunter lvl 70, The Sha'tar (eu). For the Horde!

Just to further this note, i also want to make it clear for the non pc (internoob's) savi people that they should not click links on websites or in emails if they dont know what they are sending them too (its not always what the link says) and be very careful if you are playing wow at a internet cafe place. i note these as a friend had his account hacked and all items sold off and Gold taken

Make sure you have an antivirus with up-to date definitions to detect the latest viruses.

Currently I've found a good one to be Avast Home Edition. Its free for one thing and you'll be able to find it at http://avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html. Make sure you read all the information on that page as it includes information on how to obtain your free 1 year serial key (free to re-register after the year is up). Avast has a built in script blocker which if you are on a site which is using potentially dangerous scripts it will alert you and give you the option to block a connection to the requested page.

Personaly i'd recommend Avast . I use it aswell and have been spared of harm aswell. Also if you use firefox you could look in to NoScript , which prevents the execution of scripts aswell (avast might have this too but i'm not sure it is as effective)

AVG is what I use, has a free edition as well. Avast was my old anti virus, it wasn't as reliable as avg seems to be.

With the new Firefox 3.0 It has a built in NoScript File in it, so you really dont need to download Noscript jfyi

I used AVG before and it sucks.

NOD32 all the way.

Why oh why do you need any of these programs.... most likely they are all keyloggers. Never ever install an addon that is an exe. There is no need for an installer. If you think that you need an installer for an addon you shouldn't be playing WoW. Seriously it's a simple drag and drop = installed.

Keys to avoiding having your account stolen:
1. never install an exe addon
2. use the 'remember account name' checkbox
3. never install an exe addon
4. never play on a private server
5. never install an exe addon

get my point :)

LOL you can play on a private server, just don't use your same user name and pass that you use on live. And I would rephrase that to "If you think you need an installler for an addon, you shouldn't be messing with addons" Cause not everyone that plays wow uses/knows how to install addons.And if when you said all these programs are most likely keyloggers you were refererring to AVG and Avast...well then you are just a moron.

LOL you need to comprehend what you are reading before you call someone a moron. It's quite obvious that I was referring to exe addons as be potential keyloggers as stated in my second sentence. As far as private servers go you are just asking for trouble unless you know the person who is running them personally. Playing on a private server breaks the TOS so just don't :)

And when did installing an addon become hard or even slightly difficult???

Here is the process (generalized for windows):
1. find what you want
2. dowload the addon (save to a folder of your choice)
3. open the the download folder and the WoW addon folder (generalized remember)
4. double click the zip file that you downloaded
5. drag and drop into the addon folder.
6. enjoy your new addon

It takes me more time to type it out then it does to download, install, and log into WoW to use the new addon.

In all seriousness, if someone has trouble installing an addon (after knowing the general procedure) then they should not be using addons since most require some setup to get any usefulness out of them.