Microsoft Offering Free AntiSpyware Software

[BigHurt]

uhm, maybe i forgot, but arent we trying to BLOCK microsoft?

hehehe
seems like downloading spyware removal from the companies who create it

 

[traxxton]

Found a direct download if anyones interested.

http://www.file-mirrors.info/l...AntiSpywareInstall.exe

I thought it worked out pretty good. Still not sure if its better then spybot yet.

 

[Cheapest]

Anyone tried to uninstall IE x.x and OUTLOOK express sucessfully with effecting the WIN 2K or XP ?

 

[imported_Condor]

I DLed it and found two that it removed. I like it.

 

[John]

Yesterday I had a customers computer that was checked in for spyware and viruses. I first scanned his system with Spy Sweeper 3.5 and it found 48 items (programs) and 999 total traces. I did not remove anything and immediately installed the new MS AntiSpyware. It only found 26 items so I removed everything that was detected. I ran Spysweeper again and it found 447 traces this time and 22 items with one of them being CoolWebSearch. So far I am not impressed with the new MS product.

Spy Sweeper 3.5 + Ad Aware 1.05 + Spybot 1.3 + HiJackThis 1.99 = the best combo IMHO

 

[tZero]

MS gets a bad rap for some things it doesn't deserve, like spyware, viruses, and hackers. People didn't blame Honda for having the most stolen car in America 7 years in a row. Do you blame Firestone when some one slashes your tires?

I'd tend to disagree. They do deserve the rap they get regarding spyware, viruses and hackers. They're the ones that make an OS where everyone runs as an admin by default, not to mention the other glaring security holes (webpages that can decide they want to install software without informing the user). Your Honda analogy would be valid if the reason your car kept getting stolen was because the doors wouldn't stay locked when you locked them. Or the Firestone analogy would have more credence if Firestone decided to package razorblades with their tires. MS has long made a shoddy product and they deserve any and all bad rap for it...

 

[VaG]

Originally posted by: mparr1708

Originally posted by: VaG
Here's a link to the best free antispyware software available.

lol Firefox is good and I have it on my workstation but try switching 100 users to it. Even 100 isnt to bad but I used to work for a 30K+ user company. Think about the logistics of rolling everyone to a new browser. Not a fun project.....

I haven't tried 30k, but 100 was a walk in the park.

 

[funchild66]

BAD RESULTS!!!!!! with the microshit beta.

Installed it into pc I use for testing stuff and using for p2p only.
Sequesnce of events.
Home page hijack to MSN.
Test at pcpitstop revealed uncached speed at 42% (it was 115% before installation)
MSCONFIG start-up revealed new entries...."gifts" from microshit. I stopped them.

I uninstalled the program...still got same result at pcpitstop..and explorer start page set itself back to msn.
Was about to look around with hijack this but....ran ad-aware first.
It found 2 registry entries that I deleted. This PC was scanned just prior to beta installation and I did no surfing...so the entries were definatley from msft.

Back to pipitstop.....everything NORMAL!!!!!! This is a self-built machine...amd duron 1300, 512 RAM...NEVER a problem with it. Refuse to put sp2 in it and opted for non-certification of xp pro. Could they perhaps put in a bot to track it???

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: funchild66
BAD RESULTS!!!!!! with the microshit beta.

Installed it into pc I use for testing stuff and using for p2p only.
Sequesnce of events.
Home page hijack to MSN.
Test at pcpitstop revealed uncached speed at 42% (it was 115% before installation)
MSCONFIG start-up revealed new entries...."gifts" from microshit. I stopped them.

I uninstalled the program...still got same result at pcpitstop..and explorer start page set itself back to msn.
Was about to look around with hijack this but....ran ad-aware first.
It found 2 registry entries that I deleted. This PC was scanned just prior to beta installation and I did no surfing...so the entries were definatley from msft.

Back to pipitstop.....everything NORMAL!!!!!! This is a self-built machine...amd duron 1300, 512 RAM...NEVER a problem with it. Refuse to put sp2 in it and opted for non-certification of xp pro. Could they perhaps put in a bot to track it???

Ok, the new start-up events are probably the Real Time Scanner, the Auto Updater and the Application itself. If you had real-time scanning enabled, that is probably what slowed down your disk speed at PCPitStop. Try running PCPitstop after turning off the AntiSpyware.

 

[Texsstar]

I'd tend to disagree. They do deserve the rap they get regarding spyware, viruses and hackers. They're the ones that make an OS where everyone runs as an admin by default, not to mention the other glaring security holes (webpages that can decide they want to install software without informing the user). Your Honda analogy would be valid if the reason your car kept getting stolen was because the doors wouldn't stay locked when you locked them. Or the Firestone analogy would have more credence if Firestone decided to package razorblades with their tires. MS has long made a shoddy product and they deserve any and all bad rap for it...

Well said and excellant explantion of the analogies. :thumbsup:

 

[Zim]

Isn't installing this software a bit like hiring the fox the guard the hen house?

 

[myusername]

Originally posted by: Cheapest
Anyone tried to uninstall IE x.x and OUTLOOK express sucessfully with effecting the WIN 2K or XP ?

In 2K, if you remove the IE core, you lose inline html, which means you can't read help files (.chm files ... oldschool .hlp files are still readable). You also lose the ability to use the add/remove control panel(which is displayed in html, but 3rd party programs work instead. Some programs will not install properly, notably Norton Systemworks 2k3 / NAV (though most importantly, the Ghost component *did* install)

XP probably has more inline integration, so you should check it out yourself.

nLite optimized - http://nuhi.msfn.org

my installation
Components removed:

Accessibility Options
Briefcase
Games
Pinball
Screensavers
Cameras and Camcorders
Display Adapters
Toshiba DVD decoder card
IBM Thinkpad
Isdn
Modems
MultiFunctional
Multi-port serial adapters
Printers
Scanners
SCSI
Sound Controllers
Communication tools
FrontPage Extensions
Internet Connection Wizard
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer Core
Internet Information Services
Internet Printing
Java Virtual Machine
Netmeeting
Outlook Express
Synchronization Manager
Web Folders
lang_Arabic
lang_Baltic
lang_Central Europe
lang_Chinese Simplified
lang_Chinese Traditional
lang_Cyrillic
lang_Georgian
lang_Greek
lang_Hebrew
lang_Indian
lang_Japanese
lang_Korean
lang_Thai
lang_Turkish
lang_Vietnamese
Multilanguage Support (LANG dir)
Images and Backgrounds
Mouse Cursors
Paint
Roland SoundCanvas Sound Set
Speech Support
Disk Cleanup
DR Watson
Help
Manual Installation
MS Agent
Tour
Upgrade from Win9x/NT
Web View
Autoupdate
ClipBook
Fax Services
Indexing Service
Remote Registry
Telnet Server

and no, I won't be installing any MS antispyware

 

[jono8]

Originally posted by: Slappy00

Originally posted by: statik213
Where is this validation crap stuff? Couldn't find it.

Neat interface though..... is it really freE?

http://www.microsoft.com/downl...671&displaylang=en

This download is available to customers running genuine Microsoft Windows. Please click Continue to begin Windows validation.

its only "recommended" though so no biggie

When I say that i do not want to validate, it just takes me back to the original download page instead of downloading anything at all. It runs this loop on ie and firefox.

n/m found the direct link posted above

 

[soflawill]

hmmmmmm

MS getting into the anti-spyware business-isnt this sort of like letting the fox guard the henhouse?

 

[Kevin1211]

it detected a trojan that ad-aware and spybot failed to find

 

[tinkakat]

I,am still worried about putting sp2 on my computers.:frown:

 

[Bugg27]

Just install and it remove spyware that adaware and spysweeper didn't pick up...Plus it monitors for spyware at no charge..

 

[FreshPrince]

it may not detect all spyware out there...but I find that it detects the more malicious ones that others like spybot and adaware failed to find.

ex: one machine at the office keeps acting weird, but spybot and adaware scans show up nothing. Installed this new software and it immediately found a key logger...

So, I would recommend adding it to your anti-spyware arsenal

 

[Bozo Galora]

a few additional thoughts:

a previous poster used a failed methodology to test virus finding ability.
When using Giant - one must always run a second scan after rebooting since some malware cannot be removed while Windows is running - they specifically do not allow removal by design, so Anti-Virus tools must first prevent it from starting to remove it on reboot. Actually, the best way to run GAS is in safe mode.
Any AS scan will leave stuff that other AS will pick up - but most of "critical items" are just low level cookie trackers. Note in the link below, when adaware or Spybot is used FIRST, then Giant comes to the rescue.
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/a...?action=show&id=84

Giant does get all the serious stuff, in my experience - I have been using it for a year. Of course, now that the dark side of the force has put its filthy hands on it - I will never use it again. I have 1.0.301 (last version) and will continue with it as long as it still seems effective.
What it boils down to is whether you trust MS or dont. If you feel comfortable with them, then feel free to utilize this fine software.

FWIW, i would highly recommend ProtectX to stop malicious registry entries being loaded - amazing program
I also use Spysweeper 3.5, CWS Shredder, McAfee Stinger and HiJackThis 1.99.
Additionally, if you install F-Prot it will then give you the option on right clicking a (downloaded) file to scan just it - very quick and seems to work really well - saved me many times.
Of course Firefox 1.0 and Thunderbird, and Win 98 to surf because it doesnt have all the telnetting type services that XP does.
Disable Messenger/Outlook/Outlook Express - you know - all your fav programs - lol

 

[DanDaMan315]

Originally posted by: lebe0024
Okay, they're also planning on selling their own anti-virus software.

Doesn't anybody else think this is a huge conflict of interest?

"If our OS ends up having more holes than a cheese-grater, then our anti-virus software will be a best seller!"

well XP and microsoft OS's in general really dont have that many holes, its just the fact that 88% of computer users run a Microsoft OS so any hole at all is exploited to the maximum to effect as many computer users as possible.

 

[hevnsnt]

anyone have a link to it anymore.. I can't get any of the links above to work

 

[FreshPrince]

just go through the validation...unless you don't have a legal copy...

 

[w33bo]

I was using Giant anti-spyware before it got bought by Microsoft, and i really liked it, it picked up tons of stuff spybot S&D and Adaware, but it wouldn't clean up my pc anymore because the trial ended, so I uninstalled and DLed the Window's copy, it all looks exactly the same, but i can't get it to search through my cookies, and right before uninstalling Giant it said there were 5 problems found, now I only have 1 found, did MS ruin this peice of soft too???

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

You don't HAVE to validate your windows.

Just click the don't validate and take me to the download page option.

On the bad side, the software expires on July 31, 2005.

It did however find 4 things spybot\adaware\AVG missed.

 

[JohnDoh]

Very impressed, I knew microsoft has been working on something like this for some time, they purchased an antivirus company a couple years ago. Its not what I expect, I expected a simple scanner this thing is very impressive with features, more so then spybot s&d and adaware.

Now wait for the lawsuits... Much adware-spyware you agree to in the fine print of some software you installed. This make a huge dent in those businesses who make money off of spyware-adware, if-when this becomes released on windows update.

Thos who are questioning downloading it or not heres a few screenshots (dont know how long ill leave this on my webspace)

http://home.tampabay.rr.com/myfuckingpage/microsoft/