Microsofts New Beta Anti-spyware download

mog976 · Post by **mog976** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 12:56 am

I agree that Microsoft Anti-Spyware is a fantastic program. I am also a little bit miffed that it fails to remove some of the more malicious forms of spyware such as "FreshBar". Perhaps they'll fix it in some later update.

If anybody's feeling particularly adventurous, there is a program called "HiJack This" that will allow guaranteed removal of any spyware program. But caveat emptor, HJT can also ruin a computer and its operating system in ways that no spyware would ever be able to. Always take proper precaution when using software that directly modifies binary data.

CJ Krause · Post by **CJ Krause** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 1:14 am

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:40 am

So Microsoft will be charging a subscription to cover up their own security mistakes.

As said in another forum, this is like building a house with a hole in the roof, then renting to the buyer a tarp to cover the hole.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 2:41 pm

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4094856.stm ---

Last month, Microsoft announced plans to offer its own anti-virus and security updates for home computers, called Windows OneCare.

The service would be on a yearly subscription basis, just like other anti-virus protection services.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 2:56 pm

Leland wrote:From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4094856.stm ---

Last month, Microsoft announced plans to offer its own anti-virus and security updates for home computers, called Windows OneCare.

The service would be on a yearly subscription basis, just like other anti-virus protection services.

Is this in fact the same product? Strange to label the beta "anti-spyware" and then call it "anti-virus'.

adam0408 · Post by **adam0408** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:08 am

Hey guess what, you can get that stuff for free, forever. Adaware and spybot are both great FREE programs, and when used in tandem are even more effective. I wish to deal with microsoft as little as possible because of their failings as an effective software company.

Often I have found that free stuff works much better than the microsoft version of things example: Mozilla.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 5:41 am

adam0408 wrote:Hey guess what, you can get that stuff for free, forever. Adaware and spybot are both great FREE programs, and when used in tandem are even more effective. I wish to deal with microsoft as little as possible because of their failings as an effective software company.

Often I have found that free stuff works much better than the microsoft version of things example: Mozilla.

The MS product is a bit more than spyware prevention. There's a fair amount of security monitoring in it.

Shockwave · Post by **Shockwave** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 9:40 am

I tried the Microsoft product, and it worked, but unfortunately it contains many many Microsoftisms. Basically the program does what microsoft wants and you really have to search to find the hidden control to make it stop doing what microsoft wants. Today it interrupted what I was doing to give me the message "There is a new version of microsoft antispyware. Would you like to install it now?" The options were: Yes, No, or remind me in 1-30 days, then an Ok button. That kind of thing really pisses me off, more than the paperclip guy, and almost as much as the security warning bubbles you have to manually edit the registry to turn off. My response was to delete the program.

-Eric

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:59 am

Shockwave wrote:I tried the Microsoft product, and it worked, but unfortunately it contains many many Microsoftisms. Basically the program does what microsoft wants and you really have to search to find the hidden control to make it stop doing what microsoft wants. Today it interrupted what I was doing to give me the message "There is a new version of microsoft antispyware. Would you like to install it now?" The options were: Yes, No, or remind me in 1-30 days, then an Ok button. That kind of thing really pisses me off, more than the paperclip guy, and almost as much as the security warning bubbles you have to manually edit the registry to turn off. My response was to delete the program.

Wouldn't it have been easier just to turn off the notification and checking in the "Options...Settings" menu? It only took me, oh, about 5 seconds to locate...

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:13 am

Chuck(G) wrote:Wouldn't it have been easier just to turn off the notification and checking in the "Options...Settings" menu? It only took me, oh, about 5 seconds to locate...

See, now you're even thinking like a 'softie... a pretty scary thought by itself!

Daryl Fletcher · Post by **Daryl Fletcher** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:19 am

I tried it on my computer. I wasn't really expecting it to find any spyware. The odd thing was that it reported a couple of different versions of VNC I have installed. I can certainly see how VNC could be a security risk, especially if it isn't used properly, but I certainly wouldn't call it spyware.

It does choose ignore as the default action for VNC when it finds it, which I guess is a good thing.

I would like to know more about what Microsoft's intentions are for this software after the beta period is over.

Joe Baker · Post by **Joe Baker** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 11:50 am

Daryl Fletcher wrote:I would like to know more about what Microsoft's intentions are for this software after the beta period is over.

A quick review of Microsoft's history should tell you the future:

Predatory pricing to drive out the competition; then
Escalating costs to maintain essentially the same functionality.

Which is not to say that they will NECESSARILY charge a subscription for it (though I believe they will). There are other ways for an OS company to make money off of an application. Remember when you used to have to BUY Netscape? Then along came MS Internet Explorer, which pretty much killed Netscape. How much has web browsing improved since then?

How much have I spent on new computers and OS's since then to just keep up with what I had then (because, without really giving me anything useful, they've managed to schlock up the web with crap that runs tooooo sloooooow on old hardware)?

They've never charged a dime for IE, but it's cost the end-users PLENTY.
___________________________________
Joe Baker, who doesn't see a lot of difference between Microsoft and any other company in this regard, except the MS has been more successful at it.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 1:41 pm

Joe Baker wrote: Remember when you used to have to BUY Netscape? Then along came MS Internet Explorer, which pretty much killed Netscape. How much has web browsing improved since then? How much have I spent on new computers and OS's since then to just keep up with what I had then (because, without really giving me anything useful, they've managed to schlock up the web with crap that runs tooooo sloooooow on old hardware)? They've never charged a dime for IE, but it's cost the end-users PLENTY

Most browsers (IE, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera) are all based on the paid-for-by-the-taxpayer NCSA Mosaic browser, which has always been open-source and free:

http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Softwa ... cHome.html

In my book, my gripes with IE are MS's implentation of Active-X (otherwise known as OLE warmed-over) and the integration of the IE interface into Windows proper; both big security risks.

As far as bloatware, I remember an Intel app engineer telling me shortly before the introduction of the 80486, "What the hell, it isn't going to make any difference. You software types will just p*ss away the speed improvement anyway."