Download the beta of Microsoft anti-spyware software

Thanks charlesvar

Will check it out.

BillyBob

 

OOOPPPSSSS !!!

A miss read/type on my part. It is SearchSquire not Search Squire

Please note the difference.

From a Net search.

doxdesk.com: parasite: SearchSquire
SearchSquire. more unsolicited commercial software. Description. SearchSquire is an Internet Explorer sidebar containing paid links that opens when you use search engines. Variants
www.doxdesk.com/parasite/SearchSquire.html

Search Squire show to be as you mentioned.

THANK YOU for noticing a possible problem.

BTW.

SPELLING has caused me more problems than just about ANYTHING in the OS.


BillyBob

 

Well... I downloaded the beta and ran it. Nothing. Absolutely clean as a whistle. I chalk it up to essentially one major thing: my browser... Firefox.

 

Another good reason for the hard core 98 people to can it!

Been running Trend Micro's PC Cillin about 40 days now and removed Ad Aware and Spybot.

The new MS tool found one bad guy after no scans in about 30 days.
Im very happy with the trend product and was more than happy to pay for it.

 

BillyBob Windows is the defective product. Microsoft is trying to get in the arena of fixing it. This seems totally unethical to me.

If we support such actions, there will soon be no incentive for Microsoft to offer any updates to their products for free!

 

Hi Ray,

Windows is the defective product.

Fair enough. But, I don't think there exists a "non-defective product ". Just a matter of degree, IE compared to FF. Fire Fox isn't w/o it's problems either, just right at the moment, it looks perfect next to IE. Speaking of which, if MS doesn't do something about IE, anything MS does will be sort of a treadmill, running to stay in place.

Microsoft is trying to get in the arena of fixing it. This seems totally unethical to me.

That's not fair. If MS doesn't try fixing - they get beatup. If they fix, reactions like yours, which from what I gather is widespread.

Now I think I understand what you mean - which is the basic OS design. But that's the Titianic because of how widespread MS OS's are. Look at SP2, a major security overhaul and the "drama" surrounding that. Any change like that runs into: breaking of some systems, ignored by some, greeted with suspicion by some.

Regards - Charles

 

This is not about an "add-on" product, such as Windows Media Player or a browser. This goes to the heart of the code being defective. By definition, malware takes advantage of defects.

Microsoft is going to be entering the pay-for-security business. That is unethical. If they keep their security products free, then it's alright.

I don't see much difference between those clowns that were installing problems then selling the fix.

Ray

 

Hmmm,
So the question is .. Is this going to be free or are you going to have to pay for the final release?

Anybody?

 

RayH I truely and honestly believe that to be not true. Who better to make parts for a Chevy car than the company that made it in the first place.

Read one of my replies on the 6th. You will see what the MS new product helped me remove. NOBODY else had found it. And every damned bit of it was put in by ( or hidden in ) supposedly ligitament software. Nobody else had found it.

A computer does not run on Windows alone. It takes A COMBINATION of hardware ( right from the Motherboard on up ) Software, AND A USER. ( I find the latter to be the most dangerous part )

We just pickup boxes and DO NOT read. That alone has caused me a few problems.

We try to make the OS do what it ani't supposed to.

Or we try to run incompatable COMBINATIONS of software.

But as a whole I have NEVER had a problem with Windows ( any version ) I have had problems making adjustments in it. But once I got them made all is well.

I have done something with Windows that I would bet even BenMcDonald[MS] would frown on. This HD that I am using right now started out as a 40gig HD with Win95 OSR2 in ANOTHER machine. Went to 98SE. Copied to this 80gig and ran for some time on this machine. Then I put XP Pro over it.

ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS

So there is no way you will convince me that Windows is the defective product.

BillyBob

 

Just tried it and wanted to see if Adaware or Spybot can find anything before Antispyware does. And they didnt. So i then ran Antispyware and it came up with 2 spyware and adware.

 

Is there a way to turn off the notifications that I get every 5 secs?! Its getting real annoying...

 

What notifications, exactly?

 

Every time I run MS Spy Sweeper it always finds the following:

Spyware Scan Details
Start Date: 09/01/2005 12:35:46
End Date: 09/01/2005 12:39:05
Total Time: 3 mins 19 secs

Detected Threats

Possible Browser Hijack Browser Hijacker more information...
Details: Possible Browser Hijack redirects Internet Explorer.
Status: Ignored
High threat - High risk threats typically are remotely exploitable vulnerabilities, which can lead to system compromise. Successful exploitation does not normally require any interaction. May open up communication ports, use polymorphic tactics, stealth installations, and/or anti-spy counter measures. May us a security flaw in the operating system to gain access to your computer.


Detected Spyware Cookies
No spyware cookies were found during this scan.

I think the reason is that my home page is a local file on my hard drive at the following location:
C:\Program Files\HTML Files\Drive\index.htm
and spysweeper sees this as a possible threat, do you think I am correct in this assumption.

I also have Webroots Spy Sweeper running and as soon as I select remove it does its job and tells me that my home has changed (although it has not) so there is a conflict between the 2 as both appear to me doing there job but they conflict with each other, I do realise I should only have one running but I do have the option with MS Spy Sweeper to always ignore this supposable threat but would this stop any geniune browser hijack threat?

Paul

 

My suggestion is " Turn one off and see what goes on then.

I think possibley it could be.

But. I also think that says SPysweeper is doing as it is meant to.

Also you could change your home page to see what it says then.

I am interested in the result.

BillyBob

 

Found this in Microsofts Newsgroup for AntiSpyware Software

Interesting - If you run diagnostics in the about window you'll see:

Session.TimeBombDaysRemaining: 2038

Session.TimeBombExpirationDate: 7/31/2005

Hmmm,

Can't find if it's going to be free or not. But most of the posts I find say Microsoft hasn't decided yet.

Rockit

 

BillyBob

Changed my home page to "http://news.bbc.co.uk/" also changed MS spy sweeper to this as my start page and re-scanned but still came up with the hijack result (that had not happened) I then found another setting (Tools/Advanced Tools/Browser Hijack Settings) for a "start page all users" re-scanned still the same result so shut down Webroot and the MS scan was okay but then MS started showing warnings that my home page had altered and put it back to my local page, so there was another setting somewhere (never did find it).

Webroot will accept a home page as being local MS will not
Webroot will catch tracking cookies on the fly MS will not

I do understand this is a beta product but it should accept local pages as a browser start page and make some attempt to catch cookies on the fly. And that menu system is to confusing to be of any practicable use.

With this all in mind I decided to uninstall it as it was becoming to much of a hassle, will review (if still free) when out of beta.

Paul

 

Not sure I see what the hassle is. I haven't heard a peep out of it. I chose to not run it in real time nor to update itself. I want that control. When I open it and run it (twice now) it scans my hard drive and reports as it should. That's all there is to it. Of course, it never finds anything and that is, IMHO, because of my choice of browser (FF). I'm wondering whether to even bother keeping it, given the fact that to date it has done nothing that Ad-aware (which also finds nothing) suffices. I think I'll keep it for another week and see what transpires.

 

Hi James,

There is no downside to keeping it if you're running it as a scanner only - just HD room which ain't much.

Regards - Charles

 

BillyBob The fact that Microsoft can find breaches that no other product can find proves my point: Microsoft is peddling a fix for a defective product.

It doesn't seem strange that only Microsoft knows where to find the hole? It's ranks in there with a stock analyst recommending stock he has financial interest. The advice isn't necessarily bad. It's just unethical.

Maybe the next OS (Longhorn) will have specific deficiencies for Microsoft to fix! Prove they didn't write the code like that!

 

Hi Ray,

The fact that Microsoft can find breaches that no other product can find proves my point: Microsoft is peddling a fix for a defective product.

This is not an MS product, at least not yet.

If you take a look at the Wilders thread on this subject, there are GIANT users that have posted. So far, from their response, this is still GIANT.

Regards - Charles