For those of you who remove spyware

How often do you end up having to reformat a computer due to the multitudes
of spyware accumilated on the computer?

Never.

--

Andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

"Nocturnal" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:eK0kZPWMFHA.1492@CPMSFTNGSA04.privatenews.microsoft.com...
> How often do you end up having to reformat a computer due to the
> multitudes of spyware accumilated on the computer?
>

"Nocturnal" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:eK0kZPWMFHA.1492@CPMSFTNGSA04.privatenews.microsoft.com...
> How often do you end up having to reformat a computer due to the
> multitudes of spyware accumilated on the computer?
>


Depends on the level of infection. If you have 1 or 2 infections that
can be eradicated in under a couple hours of effort, that's the way to
go. If you get stuck having to clean up someone's host that has 95
infections whether viruses, spyware, or other malware, it could take
longer to sterilize the host than to backup the data files, reformat,
reinstall the OS and apps, and restore the data. Using drive images can
be even faster for disaster recovery. It takes me about 4 to 6 hours to
reinstall a fresh copy of the OS, all applications (I have lots of
them), restore data, and edit all OS and app configurations or tweaks.
If I spend more than half that time on sterilizing a host (which may
still leave you in not-as-stable-as-before a state) then I'd rather wipe
and reinstall. Restoring from a drive image takes about half an hour
but you lose everything you've installed since then (and your data
created or modified since then if you didn't do backups). After working
on a host for 4 hours, wiping and reinstalling starts to look attractive
and restoring a drive image even more so. Luckily, me and my fellow
tech and pros at work rarely get infected. Usually it is some friend's
home PC or someone off in Training, Sales, or Marketing that wastes your
time (and usually they have so many infections that it isn't worth the
effort to sterilize so instead just get their data and wipe &
reinstall).

--
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Post your replies to the newsgroup. Share with others.
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Well, Vanguard is right, only if it has turned my OS into a point where I
don't see my taskbar anymore, the Start menu takes 10 mins to appear.

--

Andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

<Vanguard> wrote in message
news:%23XdqTnWMFHA.2364@CPMSFTNGSA04.privatenews.microsoft.com...
> "Nocturnal" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:eK0kZPWMFHA.1492@CPMSFTNGSA04.privatenews.microsoft.com...
>> How often do you end up having to reformat a computer due to the
>> multitudes of spyware accumilated on the computer?
>>
>
>
> Depends on the level of infection. If you have 1 or 2 infections that can
> be eradicated in under a couple hours of effort, that's the way to go. If
> you get stuck having to clean up someone's host that has 95 infections
> whether viruses, spyware, or other malware, it could take longer to
> sterilize the host than to backup the data files, reformat, reinstall the
> OS and apps, and restore the data. Using drive images can be even faster
> for disaster recovery. It takes me about 4 to 6 hours to reinstall a
> fresh copy of the OS, all applications (I have lots of them), restore
> data, and edit all OS and app configurations or tweaks. If I spend more
> than half that time on sterilizing a host (which may still leave you in
> not-as-stable-as-before a state) then I'd rather wipe and reinstall.
> Restoring from a drive image takes about half an hour but you lose
> everything you've installed since then (and your data created or modified
> since then if you didn't do backups). After working on a host for 4
> hours, wiping and reinstalling starts to look attractive and restoring a
> drive image even more so. Luckily, me and my fellow tech and pros at work
> rarely get infected. Usually it is some friend's home PC or someone off
> in Training, Sales, or Marketing that wastes your time (and usually they
> have so many infections that it isn't worth the effort to sterilize so
> instead just get their data and wipe & reinstall).
>
> --
> ____________________________________________________________
> Post your replies to the newsgroup. Share with others.
> E-mail reply: Remove "NIXTHIS" and add "#VS811" to Subject.
> ____________________________________________________________
>

Hi Nocturnal,
Good question! Usually if a machine is hosed with spyware, I'll find a
combined effort with malware, virus, and adware mixed in. The call to blast
a machine is made when you can't assure with a great degree of certainty
that the machine is safe, and isn't compromised by a rootkit, keylogger etc.
When I can't be comfortable with a unit, it gets Ghosted.

Ron Chamberlin
MS-MVP

"Nocturnal" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:eK0kZPWMFHA.1492@CPMSFTNGSA04.privatenews.microsoft.com...
> How often do you end up having to reformat a computer due to the
> multitudes of spyware accumilated on the computer?
>
>

Usually don't cause the client doesn't have all their
applications or data anywhere else. It takes from 1 hour
to 10 hours or more to completely get a os back running.
I do understand that sometimes you feel the system is well
screwed beyond recongition, but with some time and effort
(which is in short supply) I have been quite successful
using the recovery console, lavasoft, Spybot S&D, and
MSAS. My complaint is the Symantec, McAfee, and all the
others just plain suck and spyware/adware removal.
>-----Original Message-----
>Never.
>
>--
>
>Andre
>http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
>FAQ for MS AntiSpy
http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm
>
>"Nocturnal" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
in message
>news:eK0kZPWMFHA.1492@CPMSFTNGSA04.privatenews.microsoft.c
om...
>> How often do you end up having to reformat a computer
due to the
>> multitudes of spyware accumilated on the computer?
>>
>
>
>.
>

<anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:206e01c5324c$e0fb0e20$a601280a@phx.gbl...
<snip>
> My complaint is the Symantec, McAfee, and all the
> others just plain suck and spyware/adware removal.

And a box-end wrench makes for a lousy hammer. Why would you think
Norton Antivirus, VirusScan, or any other anti-VIRUS product would
perform well at detecting SPYWARE? Wrong tools usually end up with poor
results.