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Microsoft Operating Systems Security Software Windows

Review of Microsoft's Anti-Spyware Tools 385

Posted by michael from the better-than-nothing dept.
happyslayer writes "Matthew Fordahl has written a review of Microsoft's anti-spyware tool and has declared it, in a word, 'ineffective.' Though the methodology isn't carried out completely (he uses another anti-virus program after trying MS's tool, but doesn't do the same with the anti-spyware tool), it's a fairly good anecdote on the MS product's usefulness."
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Review of Microsoft's Anti-Spyware Tools More

Review of Microsoft's Anti-Spyware Tools

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  • Call me crazy (Score:5, Informative)

    by edanshekar ( 656936 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:06AM (#11438799)
    But it's beta, and his methodology is just plain wrong. I'm not one to jump up and defend MS, but WTF?

    • Re:Call me crazy (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ikkonoishi ( 674762 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:25AM (#11438923) Journal
      I know... I mean why test if you don't do an objective test. And how is this news?

      This kevlar armor is ineffective. I mean I tried it out and the knife went right through it.

      The MS thing is mostly to get rid of the most annoying worms at this point.

    • Concurs... (Score:4, Informative)

      by stephenisu ( 580105 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:25AM (#11438926)
      I can't believe this is story was posted. As much as I dislike MS on many levels, THIS IS BETA!!!!

      Furthermore, some of the most effective anti-spyware tools I have used have broken windows before. It is in Microsofts best interest to be carefull in their approach to this. If they break legitamite programs with their tool, they a looking at lawsuits (EULA or no) and they have money to go after.

      Please save the bashing until this thing is released officially as non-beta.

    • Re:Call me crazy (Score:2, Interesting)

      by tsotha ( 720379 )
      Well, this is slashdot, after all. Anything bad you say about Microsoft will be accepted uncritically. Anything you say which doesn't take the appropriate anti-Microsoft tone will get you labeled an astroturfer [slashdot.org].

      • Re:Call me crazy (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MotherSuperior ( 695370 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @02:37AM (#11439538)
        This statement is getting ridiculous. In any thread that even vaguely mentions Microsoft (And many that don't.) Someone rants about how everyone on Slashdot is anti-Microsoft.

        Am I the only one reading the comments? Or just the only one noticing that for every Microsoft-basher, there's someone jumping into Bill Gates' corner. Granted, there might be a marginally higher population of [Insert trendy alternate OS here] fanboys than MS ones, but come on. I see /tons/ of Highly-Moderated comments that favor Microsoft on any given issue. Considering the comments are moderated by the slashdot readership, one has to assume that not everyone here is a MS basher, doesn't one?

        Bottom Line: Microsoft is not entirely evil, nor entirely good. Intelligent people will not label them as such. Rational, right-thinking people will examine each story/issue/what have you, and make judgements accordingly.

        Microsoft-bashers: Shut up

        Microsoft-basher-bashers: Shut up

    • Re:Call me crazy (Score:2, Informative)

      by bollox4 ( 852236 )
      But, the app works! It's one of those rare beasties that does what it says. The only folk that should fear it are those with something to hide. :)

    • Re:Call me crazy (Score:3, Informative)

      by Deathlizard ( 115856 )
      Spyware Warrior's Testing of AntiSpyware Clients. [spywarewarrior.com] Basicially Replace Giant AS with Microsoft AS and there you go.

      I'm using MSAS. It works well, And it's one of the best realtime scanners i've seen so far. Although as you can see from the above comparisons, while Giant AS was one of the best performing apps in the tests, it didn't catch every spyware app out there. In fact no other app did.

      The only problems I see from MSAS so far is it might not be a free app and an MS lawsuit frenzy from every big name sp

    • Re:Call me crazy (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )
      This is pretty typical. Somebody who knows a little something about computers appoints themselves an expert. And they get away with it, because the people around them (in this case the other reporters at AP) know even less. Sad, but not exactly unprecedented. Look at all the other "computer experts" who write total BS in various newspapers and online columns.

    • Not only that (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 )
      I would label all spyware tools as inefficitive, or at the very least suboptimal and flawed. I know of no tool that will autommatically remove all spyware safely and reliably, and block it form the system. I can find this technology in a virus scanner, several in fact. They have essentially a 100% detection rate, frequently updated definitions, ability to block viruses before they reach the system, and with heuristic analysis the ability to block unknown vairants.

      All the spyware software is flawed in some

  • Found things the others didn't... (Score:3, Informative)

    by techstar25 ( 556988 ) <techstar25 AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:07AM (#11438810) Journal
    I ran the current version of Spybot, then I ran the current version of AdAware (free version), and when I ran Microsoft Antispyware, it still found stuff to remove that the others didn't. That's proof enough for me. Of course I immediately uninstalled the MS Antispyware after running it, but that's besides the point. I would never let it run in the systray because if MS's reputation for bloat.

    • Re:Found things the others didn't... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Tenebrious1 ( 530949 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:19AM (#11438887) Homepage
      I ran the current version of Spybot, then I ran the current version of AdAware (free version), and when I ran Microsoft Antispyware, it still found stuff to remove that the others didn't

      Of course, the program has been criticized for the huge number of false positives that it detects. Did you check to see if the things it found were in fact spyware?

      I ran MSAS first, and it found some spyware it was not able to remove. Then running Ad-Aware which identified the spyware correctly, and also removed it. That's proof enough for me that MS AS is not ready.

      • Re:Found things the others didn't... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by norminator ( 784674 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:47AM (#11439054)
        From everybody's stories about which one ran first, second, then third, and there are always things left over after each one, I'd say that's the nature of spyware removal tools.

        It's been my experience that with the few tools I've tried, there's always stuff left over. Like someone else said, it may be Microsoft's now, but it was a different brand before. I've never had any real problem with malware on my PC's (home and work), but for my coworkers' and family members' computers, I've never really seen any of the removal tools that were 100% effective.
      • I've never ran an anti-spyware tool before, so I ran Microsoft's. It came up with one hit, for eDonkey 2000 (which it says installs spyware). Problem was, I hadn't installed eDonkey 2000. What it detected was the presence of eMule being installed (it looked at the protocol handler for ed2k:// to determine that eDonkey 2000 was installed). It did, though, rank the threat level as "Low", but still a false positive nonetheless.

        Other than that, it didn't find anything (I don't install anything that has spyware
    • I also ran it after Spybot and AdAware and it found more items.

      Quite frankly, I was impressed.

      Perhaps the author of the review went in with the intent of giving a bad review?

    • Tracking cookies... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by parvenu74 ( 310712 )
      Tracking cookies were the only thing MS anti-spyware didn't find, and there is nothing in the documentation about MS antispyware going after such items.... so in other words it performed as advertised -- and needs improvement.

      That said I am switching to Mac and leaving this spyware crap behind me.
      • That said I am switching to Mac and leaving this spyware crap behind me.

        Many people don't realize that spyware is not necessarily inherent to the Windows OS. Dos/Windows itself is secure, as long as you don't run programs that give anything the opportunity to compromise said security. I.E. microsoft software. Want to keep your computer spyware free? Do what I did, uninstall IE and Outlook, and install Firefox, Thunderbird and Ad-Aware. Haven't had any problems since, and my system is still secure, spy/adw

  • Again? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How many times are we going to have a Slashdot blurb about someone reviewing this thing?

  • Actual conclusion (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wmspringer ( 569211 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:08AM (#11438819) Homepage Journal
    From the end of the article:

    Overall, I was more impressed with the antispyware program's protective measures and simple interface than with its ability to cleanse existing infections. Still, Microsoft seems to be on the right path to fixing the mess caused by the careless users, malicious programmers, unethical companies and vulnerable software.
    • Whenever a Microsoft bashing article comes up on slashdot we need a little video song clip to come on with pasty aggressive nerds emerging from their basements in homemade rockets with the lyrics blaring: SLASHDOT! FUCK YEAH! Coming again, to save the mother fucking day yeah, SLASHDOT, FUCK YEAH! Linux is the only way yeah, Microsoft your game is through cause now you have to answer too, SLASHDOT, FUCK YEAH! So lick my slanted posting, and suck on my trolls, SLASHDOT, FUCK YEAH! What you going to do when w
    • "Still, Microsoft seems to be on the right path to fixing the mess caused by the careless users, malicious programmers, unethical companies and vulnerable software."

      Those last 4 are all Microsoft too.

  • Wow. Anecdotal Evidence! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frennzy ( 730093 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:09AM (#11438821) Homepage
    This is great news!

    Is someone at /. intentionally trolling?

    I can tell you that I had to clean a machine today that had 56,000 instances of 'Claria' (GAIM aka Gator)

    Ad-aware missed them on the first pass...so I used MSAS, and it caught them all. And removed them. Successfully. (whereas Ad-aware would have just quarantined them).

    I know I'll get roasted for this obvious 'fanboi' ism, but remember, MSAS is actually still GIANT, who they brought it from. (check your process names while running it...you'll see)

    • Re:Wow. Anecdotal Evidence! (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Since when can Windows run 56,000 instances of anything?
    • And removed them. Successfully. (whereas Ad-aware would have just quarantined them).

      Errr and how is quarantining worse than deletion ??
      I personally would find quarantining a feature because .. well sometimes computers *do* make mistakes and i prefer it if they can undo the mistakes.
    • >>Is someone at /. intentionally trolling?
      ...New to /.

    • I can tell you that I had to clean a machine today that had 56,000 instances of 'Claria' (GAIM aka Gator)

      I'd call bullshit even if you'd said 5,600 instances.

      I've dealt with a lot of fubared systems. I've dealt with systems that were so full of nefarious DLL hooks that using the machine was literally impossible; ads would pop up, IE instances would launch instead of the action the user was trying to perform. I've dealt with systems that barely managed to boot outside of safe mode due to spyware infestation

  • Well... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Mad Merlin ( 837387 )
    I don't know about you, but I'd get pretty nervous about using any software that Microsoft *openly* admits is beta.

  • Labels competitors tools as spyware too. (Score:5, Informative)

    by tpgp ( 48001 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:11AM (#11438832) Homepage
    According to this story on the register [theregister.co.uk], the MS anti spyware tool also labels Bitdefender [bitdefender.com] (a romanian anti virus tool) as spyware.

  • Er, isn't this a duplicate? like 2 days ago (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    like they don't even read their own site?
  • I have to give credit to Microsoft purchasing the company who made this AntiSpyware program. Yesterday I went to a client site and their server got infected (surfing on a naughty site I'm sure) and AdAware and Spybot removed a few but the machine was still hosed. I was unable to double click on any icon on the desktop - I would get a GPF. I went in safe mode with networking, downloaded the MS AntiSpyware tool, went in regular mode to install it (LUCKILY that worked, not sure why), went back in safe mode to

  • WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DarkBlackFox ( 643814 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:17AM (#11438876)
    What's up with all these "reviews" immediately condemning this new tool? As far as I can tell, it's an honest attempt on Microsoft's part to actively aid it's customers in removing crap from their computers. I've used it myself at work, and after running Spybot, Ad-Aware, SpySweeper, and HijackThis, Microsoft Antispyware still manages to flag and remove quite a few leftovers.

    Granted, by itself it may not be the most effective thing in the world, but the same can be said for any antispyware/antivirus software. We need to run at least 3 antispyware programs at work, and at least 2 antivirus programs before we feel confident that a computer is clean enough to return to the customer.

    Besides the fact that it's just a beta, it's worked out pretty well for what it is. The interface is easy enough to figure out and use, and it identifies software which comes bundled with adware/spyware. When was the last time Spybot or Ad-Aware flagged Kazaa or Imesh as adware bundlers, while the default action is "ignore," but removal and quarantine are obvious choices? I say enough of these reviews. I'll be "reviewing" it myself by using it for what it can do well. If the final version works as well as this does, or better, it'll stay on my list of removal tools for my customers.
    • "We need to run at least 3 antispyware programs at work, and at least 2 antivirus programs before we feel confident that a computer is clean enough to return to the customer."

      And that my friend is the reason that I've begun to recommend Mac's even tho I work for an MS partner. It has now become more cost effective to replace the machine than clean/repair it if it's a Windows box. Sad but true.

  • M$ is Evil!! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ontheheap ( 824062 ) <ontheheap AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:19AM (#11438883) Homepage
    That seems to be the common mindset amongst a good majority of /.'s. While I don't necessarily agree with their business practices, I admit that they put out some pretty good software. The visual studio family of compilers for one. Another thing, I've /never/ experienced a crash with XP. Because I know how to use it. I've never had a crash with Slackware either. You know why? Yup. Because I know how to use it. Also, firefox is not some magical solution to spyware. I'll admit it's a bit harder to become infected if you use ff instead of ie, but a stupid user is a stupid user regardless of what software you place in front of them. In short, MS AntiSpyware looks like a very promising app. One which I hope MicroSoft continues to improve.
    • allright, let's cut to the chase here. You're right, MS does make some good software (visual studio, MS office (2000 at least was actually a good office suite), etc). You're also right that if you know how to use it the winnt based OS's (NT, 2K, XP) are quite stable. I have a number of windows 2000 machines in my house which are well protected, well maintained, and are almost as stable (not quite actually but not pariculary unstable) as my main desktop (debian) or my laptop (Mac OSX). The majority of users

  • How many reviews of this thing do we need? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by glrotate ( 300695 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:22AM (#11438908) Homepage
    I think this is the third. How about holding off until a final product, or at least a new version, is released?
  • I'm not a M$ fan by any means, but this has got to be better than nothing. Mom and Pop aren't going to install firefox/adaware/etc. unless /we install it for them.

    If M$ puts this on windows autoupdate as they SHOULD (the browser that brings the crap is free, so the cleanup tool should be equally free), then this will at least put a basic measure of protection in place for the majority of Win users who don't frequent /. for the latest spyware news.

    I'm tempted to give kudos to M$ for the effort, but I fe

    • the browser that brings the crap is free

      The browser brings absolutely nothing, the users clicking "OK" when they shouldn't (because they just have to look at this cool page on teh interweb) and installing crap that in turn installs more crap ad nauseaum - that's what "brings the crap".

      I'm tempted to give kudos to M$ for the effort, but I fear I would get modded Troll for doing so

      No, no, your use of "M$" is prolific enough to warrant at least a +1, Sheepbot. Kudos to you.

  • Ineffective? Are you so sure? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kozz ( 7764 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:27AM (#11438947)
    I think it's great [bbspot.com]. Nooo, definitely no sarcasm here. uh-uh.

  • Users & Spyware (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Vulture101 ( 728858 )
    what seems to escape most posters is that the majority of spyware on computers was instaled by the people that uses them. There is no OS or antispyware or whatever that can do anything about that, average joe is dumb in windows in linux or os2, average joe will click on ad or will install bonzi budy just to watch some naked chicks. its mostly a problem of user education, not software.

  • Operator Error (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SamMichaels ( 213605 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:36AM (#11438996)
    The author is ineffective at system recovery.

    I tested the programs on a Windows XP computer I borrowed from my wife's cousin. The 3-year-old PC, a Gateway running Windows XP Home Edition, was basically unusable.

    Me too, except this was a customer.

    Error messages appeared when I tried to open the Task Manager, a Windows utility that shows running programs and processes. It refused to load Windows Update, Microsoft's site for downloading security patches and other fixes.

    Those plus the TCP stack was corrupt on this machine...wouldn't renew the DHCP lease. Had to manually rebuild that as well.

    To load Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool, I had to get it using another machine, load it on a USB drive and install it manually. (It's usually available through Windows Update.)

    Or you could have just put the executable on a CD with SP2's executable and MS Anti-Spyware's executable. But that would make sense for someone in the system recovery business and we can't have that!

    The tool looks for a limited number of pests, such as "Sasser" and "MSBlaster," so it didn't find the worm, "Netsky.P," that had infected this PC.

    The program was designed to search for a few insanely critical bugs. It COMPLIMENTS your set of tools...not replaces them.

    But bizarre behaviors -- including multiple pop ups, unwanted toolbars and generally sluggish behavior -- continued.

    That's because you're not in safe mode and you haven't stopped the programs from regenerating.

    So I rebooted the PC in safe mode...

    Now we're going in the right direction!

    After rebooting again, the PC continued to show signs of infection, though it did seem less bogged down. Having spent two days disinfecting the system, I broke down and reformatted the hard drive. I then reinstalled Windows XP and all its patches.

    Pfffft. Ineffective computer technician.

    I don't have the option to just backup whatever I feel is important on a customer's PC...they're paying me to recover their system, not pick which files have to disappear forever and cause them to lose all their settings and programs.

    Once again for clarity: INEFFECTIVE COMPUTER TECHNICIAN.

    MS Anti-Spyware has done an EXCELLENT job on every single customer PC. The Malware tools from MS make a quick and easy check during the in-home visit for those REALLY nasty bugs.

    Who is this guy, anyway? Oh wait...

    MATTHEW FORDAHL, AP Technology Writer

    Technology WRITER. Leave the tech stuff up to the tech people and have fun with your little Word.
    • "It COMPLIMENTS your set of tools...not replaces them."

      Which is why it isn't really useful. I have several tools that compliment one another, but all that adds up to is needing to have 4 or 5 different apps scan 150000+ files (on average) one after the other to effectively clean a machine, rather than one app that gets 98% or more nasties in one sweep. This is the difference between 20-30 minutes and 2-3 hours, and often the difference between the customer fixing or replacing their 2 year old pc due to la
    • How can your ego be so bloated that you actually think you can find everything that might be wrong with a computer manually? I get the idea you enjoy your share of call backs.

      Sometimes the best solution is to do a clean install and set up a proper backup and recovery protocol - but yes, doing so ultimately makes the services you provide obsolete (or very nearly so).
      • "Sometimes the best solution is to do a clean install and set up a proper backup and recovery protocol - but yes, doing so ultimately makes the services you provide obsolete (or very nearly so)"

        Often that is the best solution, but also often more than the cost of a new pc, once you factor in all the application installs, updates, patches, etc etc etc.

        I don't know about the parent but I be glad to make myself obsolete to most of the people I have to deal with.

        Most Windows users seem to operate their machi

    • Re:Operator Error (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mikeb39 ( 670045 )
      Your elitism is undeserved and annoying. In actual repair shops (it sounds to me like you just do it freelance without knowing much), the quickest and best way we do things is by backing up the data, then reformatting. You can dink around forever fixing this little bug or that one, or get the whole job done in about 2 hours. One of those choices is the one used by actual professionals.
  • I work seven days a week, 10-14 hours a day as a freelance computer repair person. Most of my clients are residential, and about 80% of their problems are related to viruses and spyware, most of it brought on my the downloading and usage of "bundlers" such as Kazaa. I've found AdAware and Spybot to be very effective, followed closely by Hijack This and CW Shredder. Security Task Manager is also pretty good, and Killbox is great for eliminating hard-to-delete individual files. I was glad when Giant came

  • Crap article (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AutoTheme ( 851553 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @12:53AM (#11439095)
    I neither hate it nor love it or Microsoft. The simple fact is that the review was crap. The methodology was lacking and the scientific process non-existant. We've done several anti-virus and anti-spyware comparisons. What you do is simple: - Load up a virtual machine with XP and take a snapshot - then kill it with viruses or spyware - run a tool and find what it catches/cleans - revert to the snapshot and run the next tool - do some simple math
  • I spelled his name wrong, because i didn't want to get modded into oblivion, but i think micheal's posts are getting more and more lame. That last story said how effective it was, and in my experience it is effective (plus systray bloat).

  • Pointer to a *competent* review (Score:3, Informative)

    by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @01:06AM (#11439155) Journal
    Eric Howes tests anti-spyware products including the one Microsoft bought [spywarewarrior.com].

    A test of "I ran A but then I ran B and it found X left over" is meaningless by itself. You need to start over and run in the opposite order, to see how much A catches that B doesn't.

    What Eric Howes found matches what service techs find. There's no tool with 100% coverage. Which, if you know any statistics, tells you that even running multiple tools doesn't guarantee anything. I tell any client who will listen to focus on prevention.

    You know what else is wrong with the AP "review"? He keeps calling the "Malicious Software Removal Tool" (hilarious name, think about it) "antivirus". It's not intended to be. It's a bundle of a few cleanup utilities.

    • "You know what else is wrong with the AP 'review'? He keeps calling (it) the "Malicious Software Removal Tool" (hilarious name, think about it)..."

      You know what is wrong with your quote? You don't know what the author is refering to. He's not reviewing MS AntiSpyware. He's reviewing the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool [microsoft.com] just like he says.

      It's a web based tool that removes the 5-6 most nasty worms. Do a bit of research before you take the high road next time.

  • I know that the so called "ineffectiveness" of this tool is another Slashdot Bull-crap.
    My personal experience with this tool has been very satifying.
    I never had spyware or virus on my XP so I downloaded some malware off the web to a Virtual PC session to test this out.
    The developers have done a stupendous job on this program.

    I am sure as hell surprised that MSNBC carried this story too.
    Review: Microsoft Anti-Spyware Ineffective [msn.com]

  • WTF??? (Score:2, Troll)

    by Lxy ( 80823 )
    Let's just bash everything Microsoft makes. Better yet, let's bash the BETAS that Microsoft is publishing.

    Longhorn:
    I installed this piece of crap on my laptop. It didn't ask if I wanted to keep my linux partitions, it juts made me delete them. The default wallpaper is stupid, and how many users know to right click the desktop to change it? Also, the Win95 drivers shipped with my laptop don't work in Longhorn. And it keeps telling me about this "beta" thing that I supposedly installed. It's really slo
  • You know, i've been thinking, maybe having all of these anti-spyware programs in the long run isn't such a good thing. Maybe if people had to do a complete re-install and lose all their data everytime they do something stupid on the net, then people would learn to be a little more careful.
    In all seriousness though, I've done my best to try to educate my own friend and family for whom I have to do tech support, and it seems like some of these people either don't get it at all, or have decided that it's jus
    • I work in a white box store. When I take the $50 - $150 that we charge to clean a system up, I explain that all pop-ups are evil. No exceptions, no excuses, if you click on a pop up you have spyware. Then I show them how to update and run Ad-Aware and Spybot and tell them to do it weekly. Every box that leaves our store has these installed, repaired or brand new. I just treat it as part of the Win installation process on a new or reformatted machine. I also run Win update on everything, had a dial up conne

  • Ineffective? (Score:3)

    by iCEBaLM ( 34905 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @01:41AM (#11439331)
    I'm the last to support MS in any way shape or form, but seeing as this is nothing but a rebranded version of Giant Anti-Spyware, and Giant Anti-Spyware was shown to have the best batting average [slashdot.org] of removing spyware why are we jumping on the bandwagon to bash it so soon without allowing it to get out of "beta" (which it really isn't, as Giant Anti-Spyware wasn't beta).
  • I recreated the only spyware infection I've ever had in order to test MS AntiSpyware. [sirsha.com]

    Bottom line: MS AntiSpyware did almost nothing to protect me and using it to "clean" the spyware left me in a much worse position than when I started. After using MS AntiSpyware to clean my PC, I still had a new IE toolbar, a popup ad whenever I opened IE, and a big search bar over my taskbar and, thanks to MS AntiSpyware, I couldn't get rid of them. I had to reinstall the spyware and uninstall using add/remove program

  • No corporate solution (Score:3, Informative)

    by sremick ( 91371 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @01:53AM (#11439390)
    This article [zdnet.com] from a few days ago dubs spyware "IT's public enemy #1" and I have to agree. I admin a small network of about 100 Windows PCs and it's such a headache. Sure, I know how to clean a machine completely... but it involves an arsenal of different programs plus a lot of by-hand work and reboots and safe-mode and such.

    The problem is, there is no one effective tool. The antivirus industry has matured. Granted, Symantec might not catch EVERYTHING but what it DOES catch covers everything I've ever come across, and 99.999% of what most other people will too.

    SpyBot... AdAware... SpySweeper... Giant/MS Antispyware... each catches stuff the others don't. Doesn't matter what order you run them. And I can run ALL of them, and sometimes go into HijackThis and find more spyware still lingering. Sometimes it's remnants of some spyware the tool identified but wasn't effective in completely removing. Sometimes it's an entirely NEW piece of spyware.

    So what's a corporation to do? Sure, some of them offer corporate versions... but since none of the catch a reasonable amount, there's no single one worth investing that amount of money in. So what do you do... manually spend an hour ever week on each machine? x100? x1000? x10000? It's crazy.

  • utter nonsense (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Diabolus777 ( 663144 ) on Saturday January 22, 2005 @01:58AM (#11439417)
    I sincerely hope they never do charge for this product.

    MS selling anti-spyware is like Goodyear selling anti-defective-tire-glue-or-something.

    1.Build defective product
    2.Let customer get flooded with problems
    3.Instead of fixing defective product, sell customer
    some kind of half working fix you bought from someone else
    4.profit!!!
  • It doesn't work at all. I couldn't even get it to open the installer on my PowerBook. I mean, really, what good is software that you can't even install? I had to fight with Safari just to get the microsoft webpage to load. Sheesh, you think they'd know SOMETHING about Information Technology by now.
  • which i personally have solved at home by cresting the learning curve of *nix. yeah it's not a perfect solution by any means. but instead of chasing my tail and trying to bludgeon an ms OS into submission, i have been slowly learning how to tailor a linux based OS to my needs and wants. i'm not chasing a moving target of virus, spyware, adware or what have you. to me, joe sixpack, my choice just seems easier. oh yeah, and the free beer aspect...duh!

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