ahh!! MS ROCKS!!! Antispyware, w00t!!!

[oldsk00l]

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Get it, run it, and join SpyNet. This is vastly important, and besides the app is better than ad-aware.

Very nice program.

Of course, you could also just run Linux....but any XP users this is a must-have download.

[GamerGuyX]

and besides the app is better than ad-aware.

How? :confused:

[intercede007]

How? :confused:

GIANT's Anti-Spyware app has always been better than Adaware and Spy-bot. I've always recomended it to my friends, and inevitably it picks up and deletes things adaware either never saw or couldn't touch.

FYI, Microsoft bought GIANT Software. Their "Beta" is a fully functional, mature piece of software. The only differance being the front-end and some of the network connections have been changed to update through Microsoft. That's it.

[GamerGuyX]

GIANT's Anti-Spyware app has always been better than Adaware and Spy-bot. I've always recomended it to my friends, and inevitably it picks up and deletes things adaware either never saw or couldn't touch.

FYI, Microsoft bought GIANT Software. Their "Beta" is a fully functional, mature piece of software. The only differance being the front-end and some of the network connections have been changed to update through Microsoft. That's it.

Man your right I just downloaded it. I think its great! :)

[anzak]

Man your right I just downloaded it. I think its great! :)

Ditto. I also like the idea of it being a microsoft product meaning its more tightly integrated into windows.

[GamerGuyX]

Ditto. I also like the idea of it being a microsoft product meaning its more tightly integrated into windows.

Yeah, its very user friendly.

[superklye]

This seems like a really cool/good/nice program.

[CaptNKILL]

Hey this looks pretty nice :) Doesnt seem to hog resources and I like the idea of an anti-spyware network. Its exactly what Ive been saying we need to fight the problem.

One thing worth noting though... adaware still picked up the same number of tracking cookies as always even after running this scan. I doubt they do anything anyway, but this program doesnt find them.

I only had 2 separate objects on the list. Some Kazaa stuff (from Kazaa lite) that I had it ignore, and some Kontiki crap that i had it delete.

My computer is pretty clean. Hell, Im usually outside my firewall with my computer on all day. I dont know how people's computers get totaly overrun with spyware and viruses. What the hell do they do to those poor machines????

[AlphaWolf_HK]

IMO, antivirus and antispyware should be one in the same software, they both essentially remove malware, just different variants of malware.

I personally have no need for either though. I haven't had any spyware on my PC in about a year and I haven't had a virus in about 6 years, thus I don't have a need for either of those, nor a firewall program since I use NAT. Knowing what should and shouldn't be running on your PC and learning from your mistakes is the best prevention of malware, hands down. People who don't learn from their mistakes just keep making them over and over again. I tell people not to download every god damned program out there that has the word "free" written on it, and they still do it anyways because that little message says that the search toolbar they give away is so convenient. Another thing I recommend is not visiting any sites that give stuff away for free and require you to use internet explorer in order to receive those free items.

Also FWIW: I wont lie, the windows I have installed on my PC is black market. Funnily enough though, the little application that checks to see if you have a legit copy says mine is legit :D

[YOGIx213]

I like this software alot. Very easy to use and along with other spyware programs, it makes me feel a bit more guarded. One thing though, it's beta but once it is finalized, will this be available for free to verified XP owners or will we have to pay for this?

[Cota]

It seems it doesn't detect cookies and spybot detected a few more.

And it seems neither adaware and ms spyware don't detect anything on firefox, but spybot does.

[intercede007]

I like this software alot. Very easy to use and along with other spyware programs, it makes me feel a bit more guarded. One thing though, it's beta but once it is finalized, will this be available for free to verified XP owners or will we have to pay for this?

After the beta period is over with, it will be a product that Microsoft sells. You can thank all of the Anti-trust lawsuits for that.

[intercede007]

It seems it doesn't detect cookies and spybot detected a few more.

And it seems neither adaware and ms spyware don't detect anything on firefox, but spybot does.

Go to Advanced Tools and run "Tracks Eraser" if you want to delete cookies.

It doesn't delete cookies because often they are associated with website settings the user has choosen, thus deleting something many users might find usefull.

[superklye]

My computer is pretty clean. Hell, Im usually outside my firewall with my computer on all day. I dont know how people's computers get totaly overrun with spyware and viruses. What the hell do they do to those poor machines????
They click "yes" on EVERY box that pops up.

[zsynth]

I've been using Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, and Spywareblaster for a long time. I installed the MS Antispyware, ran it, it found one entry for some toolbar. After that I reran Ad-Aware and it found at least 9 new critical entries for Alexa ( Alexa is tracking put out by MS) :confused:

If you install MS Antispyware, rerun Ad-Aware and Spybot afterwards, see what you get.

Is Alexa Spying On You?
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm

"This feature is still 'spyware', to be clear. If you do use it, you will be sending information to MSN and Alexa, and there is nowhere that Microsoft adequately discloses and documents that privacy 'leak'. Sure, Alexa have some information on it, and a pretty clear privacy policy, but you don't get to know of Alexa's involvement until after you use the feature, and even then you have to hunt for it, and even then no mention is made of MSN's interstitial involvement. Don't blame Alexa though - it's Microsoft's responsibility to provide their users with complete and truthful disclosure - and they haven't."

[DiaBlo666]

odd my original copy is detected as "piracy" over ms webpage..

[anzak]

My computer is pretty clean. Hell, Im usually outside my firewall with my computer on all day. I dont know how people's computers get totaly overrun with spyware and viruses. What the hell do they do to those poor machines????

You use Firefox don't you? 95% of viruses and spyware come from the security holes in IE. Hell, I only use the built in SP2 firewall and never have a problem with viruses. I cannot believe the number of people who use IE when Firefox has more features and is 100 times safer.

[oldsk00l]

I do like the SpyNet concept though, that you have a massive distributed network collecting information on spyware.

[DaveW]

I can't beleive all the MS butt kissing going on here. MS O/S gets infested with spyware because of their own poor security mentality and lousy coding practices and their solution is to release MS Antispyware??? Ooooo thanks Microsoft.... This is like getting beaten and butt raped by some big black guy who then offers you a tube of Preperation H afterwards... yeah, that makes it all better...

MS should be stopping the spyware from getting on their OS in the first place, not offering software to try and fix the problem afterwards. How about being a computing professional and addressing the root cause of the problem?

I've been running Firefox instead of IE, Thunderbird instead of Outlook, and Videolan instead of WMP for 5-6 months now and I have had no spyware at all other than the occasional "tracking cookie" which isn't really spyware anyway.

[GamerGuyX]

Also FWIW: I wont lie, the windows I have installed on my PC is black market. Funnily enough though, the little application that checks to see if you have a legit copy says mine is legit :D

You know you didn't even have to let them verify your copy anyways. :D

[CaptNKILL]

You use Firefox don't you? 95% of viruses and spyware come from the security holes in IE. Hell, I only use the built in SP2 firewall and never have a problem with viruses. I cannot believe the number of people who use IE when Firefox has more features and is 100 times safer.
I use IE actually... I never have any problems and im usually completely spyware\virus free.

That said, I dont hang around pr0n and warez sites all day like most computer users :p

EDIT: Dave, for what its worth. I run all of the microsoft software that you named and like I said before, I have no problems with spyware or viruses. I think the problem lies in the crap that people look at and get into on the internet. If you stay away from the sites that spam the crap out of your computer with spyware, you wont get it. The reason it effects IE more than anything else is because IE is what they target. Im willing to bet that less than 1% of computer users use or even know about Firefox. Thats why it hasnt been bombarded with malicious software, exploiting its weaknesses. Whatever Microsoft does to stop spyware, it always gets bypassed eventually because IE is the main target for spyware. Using a different browser probably works, but come on, do you really think MS is stupid enough to just NOT fix the weaknesses with their software? They have tried, but its not worth it.

If everyone used Firefox, then Firefox users would be just as spyware infested as anyone else because they would be targetted as well. In fact the problem would probably be worse because they wouldnt have the resources to fight the problem... Microsoft does.

Microsoft's (potentially) large-scale anti spyware network is the only possible way to control the problem.

EDIT2: I just thought of something else too. I doubt many (if any) novice computer users use Firefox or any other browser that isnt given to them from the start (aol, netscape, ie). And its obviously no big secret that novice users are usually the ones that click everything they see and allow (yes, allow... most of the spyware thats out there cant get in unless you actually let it) the spyware to infest their computer. Anyone who is knowledgable enough to download 3rd party browser software is probably already compitent enough to know how to protect their computer from spyware. Couple this with what I said earlier about IE being targeted and firefox being ignored by malware makers, and thats probably an explanation for why Firefox seems so much better than IE for now.

[AlphaWolf_HK]

You know you didn't even have to let them verify your copy anyways. :D

I know, I just wanted to humor their little check and possibly give myself some personal amusement. I actually didn't even download the anti-spyware program, nor did I have the intention to. I just visited the website and saw the little auth checker and decided to play with it :D

[PikachuMan]

Don't get too confident about spyware just because you use a different browser (though it is a wise move), it won't help you at all if the program you're downloading is riddled with spyware.

That said, evading spyware is still really easy, I see no need for an "antispyware" program using up my resources.

[GamerGuyX]

I know, I just wanted to humor their little check and possibly give myself some personal amusement. I actually didn't even download the anti-spyware program, nor did I have the intention to. I just visited the website and saw the little auth checker and decided to play with it :D

Wait a minute, I always assumed that they would deactivate your copy of Windows if they found out it was pirated. Or this not even technically possible? :confused:

[AlphaWolf_HK]

Wait a minute, I always assumed that they would deactivate your copy of Windows if they found out it was pirated. Or this not even technically possible? :confused:

Cannot be done, unless they decided to delete files on your computer but that would be opening up a pandoras box beyond your wildest imagination for microsoft.

Doesn't matter anyways in my case though, the auth checker was completely fooled into thinking that my copy was 100% authentic, and I didn't even have to do anything complicated at all in order to accomplish that.