newbee here!
The subject file (insthlp.dat dated 9/04/2003) seems to
have been installed when I purchased the ASUS
motherboard. Reported only on the last scan as
Unclassified.Spyware.Loader. Any reason to be concerned?

william

Googling, I see one other report of this detection in January of this year.

Here's what I'd suggest:

1) see if you can verify via Asus' installation media that this file is
identical to that found on read-only installation media from Asus.

2) you could also submit the file to:

http://www.virustotal.com

http://virusscan.jotti.org

I'd say that if you can tie #1 in pretty clearly, and if #2 comes up clean
from all vendors, this is probably a false positive.

The other way to go about this is to find someplace where "unclassified
spyware loader" is clearly defined with details, and check those details
against your machine.

http://research.sunbelt-software.com...threatid=15100

may be a useful reference. It doesn't mention your file by name.

The Tools, Advanced tools, Advanced file analyzer will compute the MD5 hash
for your file, and you can compare it to those at the above URL, fwiw.

I'd say the chances are quite high that this is a false positive.

You might want to post a message about this in the .signatures group, which
is where false positive reports are solicited. The other thing you could do
is to submit a Tools, suspected spyware report, and note in your report that
this file is detected, and that it appears to be a false positive.

--

"william brown" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:061401c58a17$d14b6fb0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> newbee here!
> The subject file (insthlp.dat dated 9/04/2003) seems to
> have been installed when I purchased the ASUS
> motherboard. Reported only on the last scan as
> Unclassified.Spyware.Loader. Any reason to be concerned?
>
> william

Seems to have installed with the an Asus screen saver so
can't verify signature. Have removed: no use to accept
the risk. It tried to reinstall itself. 4 registry
entries it seems. Successfully removed finally.

Thanks for your quick response and fine help.

william
>-----Original Message-----
>Googling, I see one other report of this detection in
January of this year.
>
>Here's what I'd suggest:
>
>1) see if you can verify via Asus' installation media
that this file is
>identical to that found on read-only installation media
from Asus.
>
>2) you could also submit the file to:
>
>http://www.virustotal.com
>
>http://virusscan.jotti.org
>
>I'd say that if you can tie #1 in pretty clearly, and if
#2 comes up clean
>from all vendors, this is probably a false positive.
>
>The other way to go about this is to find someplace
where "unclassified
>spyware loader" is clearly defined with details, and
check those details
>against your machine.
>
>http://research.sunbelt-software.com...t_display.cfm?
name=Unclassified.Spyware.Loader&threatid=15100
>
>may be a useful reference. It doesn't mention your file
by name.
>
>The Tools, Advanced tools, Advanced file analyzer will
compute the MD5 hash
>for your file, and you can compare it to those at the
above URL, fwiw.
>
>I'd say the chances are quite high that this is a false
positive.
>
>You might want to post a message about this in
the .signatures group, which
>is where false positive reports are solicited. The
other thing you could do
>is to submit a Tools, suspected spyware report, and note
in your report that
>this file is detected, and that it appears to be a false
positive.
>
>--
>
>"william brown" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:061401c58a17$d14b6fb0$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> newbee here!
>> The subject file (insthlp.dat dated 9/04/2003) seems to
>> have been installed when I purchased the ASUS
>> motherboard. Reported only on the last scan as
>> Unclassified.Spyware.Loader. Any reason to be
concerned?
>>
>> william
>
>
>.
>