Planetarion Forums - Microsoft Anti-spyware Beta

skiddy · 12 Jan 2005, 01:13

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

T'is very very good. I've just downloaded and installed, from what I've seen so far it blows Spybot and the likes out the water.

It's a Beta, so it's only gonna run for 200 days, but what the hell. It's worth it - first decent bit of MS software in a long while.

Thought I'd stick on GD as opposed to computer forums as everyone here browses the net so it's more likely to be of greater use here.

MrL_JaKiri · 12 Jan 2005, 01:44

It's apparantly a very good piece of software. I just don't want to have to pay for it. (post beta)

Phil^ · 12 Jan 2005, 02:06

last i saw it, it churned up a lot of false positives.

Hicks · 12 Jan 2005, 03:22

Found 1 item, Firefox <3.

Phalon · 12 Jan 2005, 03:27

Even if it's brilliant, it's MS, so it'll attract no end of attention from hackers anyway.

Just stick to Firefox/Opera i say and you wont get any of the shite in the first place.

Phil^ · 12 Jan 2005, 03:27

you forgot linux in the above

JammyJim · 12 Jan 2005, 04:04

it found things the other had missed acutally so well played and i quite like the 'be part of the spyware watch network'.

thats a very good idea imo. shame itll go pay or something stupid.

Androme · 12 Jan 2005, 09:44

shit

SYMM · 12 Jan 2005, 09:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil^

last i saw it, it churned up a lot of false positives.

The descriptions make it quite clear what is definitely spyware, and what are things that you could have reasons for having (I have RealVNC installed, and it listed it in the results and basically said "if you know you installed this, leave it, if not remove it" which sounds like pretty good advice to me

)

SilverSmoke · 12 Jan 2005, 09:53

It indeed finds a lot of stuff, still I have that antimapbend.exe or something like that in my memory running that soaks up my cpu if I don't put it on low priority

melandron · 12 Jan 2005, 11:45

Got a shudder even thinking about installing the program. I'm gonna wait for microsoft to relase a critical security update for their security software

Ste · 12 Jan 2005, 12:42

found two things that adaware and spybot S&D didn't.
Looks pretty useful.

Radical Edward · 12 Jan 2005, 13:02

I think selling a program which deals with the inadequacies of your own program is a clever capitalist plot.

pablissimo · 12 Jan 2005, 13:03

That it blocks scripts and reg file merges until you give the go-ahead is pretty neat.

Stew · 12 Jan 2005, 13:06

It found some stuff on this computer I'm using, including a key logger, which worried me slightly.

Edit: on my computer it found a couple of things (probably pre-date me using Opera all the time), including over 500+ signatures for messenger!

Leshy · 12 Jan 2005, 13:25

All I ever find are a few so-called tracking cookies.

Oh, and AdAware seems to think me setting MSIE to about:blank as homepage is a possible browser hijack attempt.

flapjack · 12 Jan 2005, 14:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by pablissimo

That it blocks scripts and reg file merges until you give the go-ahead is pretty neat.

May I suggest starting up the 'tea timer' function out of Spybot Search and Destroy? You'll find it effectively makes your registry files and such read only to all non-authorised programs (including itself for some odd reason).

Whenever a program tries to change anything in your registry, you get a nice big pop-up and the question to allow/disallow/always allow this change/never allow this change

skiddy · 12 Jan 2005, 18:22

"Thanks skiddy"

"Oh, no problem guys"

roadrunner_0 · 12 Jan 2005, 18:24

i will be sticking by SS&D so

skiddy

hehehe

skiddy · 12 Jan 2005, 18:28

In that case the spyware shall be sticking by you too, as experience would dictate that SS&D is poo.

roadrunner_0 · 12 Jan 2005, 18:30

nah, its done right by me so far, and its tea timer function does indeed help a lot on occation
(except on the soon-to-be mother in laws laptop, as she doesn't know anything about computers, so isn't allowed on the internet

)

Stew · 12 Jan 2005, 19:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by skiddy

"Thanks skiddy"

flapjack · 12 Jan 2005, 19:49

why thank people for actaully PROMOTING crap that M$ produces?

I mean, we all know that by the time this program goes gold, it will have at least 100 functions that nobody will ever use and an equal amount of bugs.

In addition it'll either be imbedded into the next version of windows and built in such a way that it makes all other anti-spyware programs useless, or it'll be 1 in the line of programs which you'll have to buy for windows to work properly, obviously this would mean a price tag that far exceeds the average customer's current spending abilities.

In short, DO NOT use anything M$ makes unless there is absolutely no alternative/no other way to get certain things (bad example, windows (purely because of the games and the fact that nobody but me would be able to use a Linux computer (in this house ofc)))

[/rant]

Stew · 12 Jan 2005, 19:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by flapjack

In short, DO NOT use anything M$ makes unless there is absolutely no alternative/no other way to get certain things (bad example, windows (purely because of the games and the fact that nobody but me would be able to use a Linux computer (in this house ofc)))

[/rant]

But this removed stuff the others didnt, hence making using it worthwhile.
It doesnt have to be one OR the other, it can be AND for something like this.

pablissimo · 12 Jan 2005, 20:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by flapjack

In short, DO NOT use anything M$ makes unless there is absolutely no alternative/no other way to get certain things (bad example, windows (purely because of the games and the fact that nobody but me would be able to use a Linux computer (in this house ofc)))

[/rant]

Well that's pretty dumb.

Phang · 12 Jan 2005, 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by pablissimo

Well that's pretty dumb.

i'd like to introduce you to flapjack. even the RPers consider him without merit.

Tactitus · 12 Jan 2005, 21:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phang

i'd like to introduce you to flapjack. even the RPers consider him without merit.

Faint praise indeed.

Androme · 13 Jan 2005, 02:45

Ad-Aware + Spyware Blaster =

Btw, MS wouldn't need this spyware crap if MSIE was safe

Vaio · 13 Jan 2005, 07:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by flapjack

why thank people for actaully PROMOTING crap that M$ produces?

I mean, we all know that by the time this program goes gold, it will have at least 100 functions that nobody will ever use and an equal amount of bugs.

In addition it'll either be imbedded into the next version of windows and built in such a way that it makes all other anti-spyware programs useless, or it'll be 1 in the line of programs which you'll have to buy for windows to work properly, obviously this would mean a price tag that far exceeds the average customer's current spending abilities.

In short, DO NOT use anything M$ makes unless there is absolutely no alternative/no other way to get certain things (bad example, windows (purely because of the games and the fact that nobody but me would be able to use a Linux computer (in this house ofc)))

[/rant]

Are you one of those linux muppets that doesn't do 'freedom of choice' ?

~Vaio~

meglamaniac · 13 Jan 2005, 10:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by flapjack

In addition it'll either be imbedded into the next version of windows and built in such a way that it makes all other anti-spyware programs useless, or it'll be 1 in the line of programs which you'll have to buy for windows to work properly, obviously this would mean a price tag that far exceeds the average customer's current spending abilities.

One word for you: Antitrust
Microsoft have escaped it in the US, but the EU has ordered them to release a version of Windows the does not include Media Player as they consider it to be an abuse of their monopoly. This "unbundled" version should be available soon. They have also slapped Microsof t with the largest ever fine given to a company.
Do you think Microsoft will be anxious to have a repeat of that? At the very least they'll offer Windows without it, and I'd be surprised if they bundled it at all.

On the other topic, you do indeed have to laugh at all the praise being given to Microsoft for releasing a product in a category that they themselves created by thier own inability to write secure programs.

pablissimo · 13 Jan 2005, 11:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by meglamaniac

On the other topic, you do indeed have to laugh at all the praise being given to Microsoft for releasing a product in a category that they themselves created by thier own inability to write secure programs.

Given their apparent inability to properly secure IE and XP at the minute, it's better than nothing though, and does seem to perform better than its competitors.