At Least FIVE Anti-Spyware Programs

[Tom [Pepper] Willett]

I have thoroughly enjoyed your patronizing posts over the past few days. If
you have a life beyond the "Cybernetic", you must be taking a hiatus.

TPW

 

[Wesley Vogel]

I don't use System Restore. I use ERUNT. And I would've spent half the
time that I spent getting rid of the scumware adjusting settings, etc.
anyway.

No kind of a restore or backup is going to return things exactly as they
were unless you set a Restore Point or make a registry backup *right* before
you do something stupid. ;-)

Installing & Using ERUNT
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html

To see an illustrated registry restore procedure
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_erdntuse.html

Take a complete registry backup using ERUNT
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm

NTREGOPT NT Registry Optimizer
ERUNT The Emergency Recovery Utility NT
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

Direct download links (the zip files just need unzipping and dropping on the
drive. {Thank you, Jim}
http://aumha.org/downloads/erunt.zip

http://aumha.org/downloads/ntregopt.zip

ERUNT [[Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) to
make a complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the whole
registry (for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive is
saved), nor can the exported file be used later to replace the current
registry with the old one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is
merged with the current registry, leaving you with an absolute mess of
old and new registry keys.]]
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt

NTREGOPT [[Similar to Windows 9x/Me, the registry files in an NT-based
system can become fragmented over time, occupying more space on your hard
disk than necessary and decreasing overall performance. You should
use the NTREGOPT utility regularly, but especially after installing
or uninstalling a program, to minimize the size of the registry files
and optimize registry access.

The program works by recreating each registry hive "from scratch",
thus removing any slack space that may be left from previously
modified or deleted keys.

Note that the program does NOT change the contents of the registry in
any way, nor does it physically defrag the registry files on the drive
(as the PageDefrag program from SysInternals does). The optimization
done by NTREGOPT is simply compacting the registry hives to the
minimum size possible.]]
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/ntregopt.txt

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

As a rank amateur, I find this fascinating. I would have thought you would
have created a System Restore Point beforehand. For my money, System
Restore is one of the greatest achievements of XP. Surely that would have
saved you a great deal of time.

The only time I ever got any spyware was when I downloaded a FREE DVD
encoder program. Yea, I read the EULA, but I thought that I was smarter
than they were. It took me an afternoon to get rid of everything. What
really made mad was that the DVD encoder program never even worked. ;-)

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

I have 4 as well, the last time they ever caught any positives was when
I installed the programs. Also, I use IE for everything since I believe
I have secured it properly. Also I am sitting behind a NAT router which
protects me by dropping unrequested packets.

--
William Crawford
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

I happen to have four anti-spyware programs.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In D. Spencer Hines <[email protected]> hunted and pecked:
Do you honestly expect folks to install at least FIVE different
Anti-Spyware programs, keep them updated, monitor them and constantly
tweak each one as required?

DSH


[...]

There is no one software that cleans and immunizes you against
everything. Antivirus software - you only needed one. Firewall,
you only needed one. AntiSpyware - you will need several. I have
a list and I recommend you use at least the first five.

First - make sure you have NOT installed "Rogue AntiSpyware". There
are
people out there who created AntiSpyware products that actually
install spyware of their own! You need to avoid these:

Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Also, you can always visit this site..
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
For more updated information.

Install the first five of these: (Install, Run, Update, Scan with..)
(If you already have one or more - uninstall them and download the
LATEST version from the page given!)

Lavasoft AdAware (Free and up)
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/atdn )

Spybot Search and Destroy (Free!)
http://www.safer-networking.net/en/download/index.html
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/atdk )

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (Free!)
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/ate3 )

SpywareBlaster (Free!)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/ate6 )

IE-SPYAD2 (Free!)
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/resource.htm
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/ate7 )

CWShredder Stand-Alone (Free!)
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html

Hijack This! (Free!)
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
(Log Analyzer: http://hjt.iamnotageek.com/ )

ToolbarCop (Free!)
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/toolbarcop.htm

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Microsoft AntiSpyware BETA (in testing stages - Free!)
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/fqur )

Browser Security Tests (Free Tester)
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/

Popup Tester (Free Tester)
http://www.popuptest.com/

The Cleaner (~$49.95 and up)
http://www.moosoft.com/

 

[Kerry Brown]

Kerry

System Restore can restore malware!

Of course it could. The context was making a restore point right before
installing a program then going back to that restore point if some malware
came in with the install. This may temporarily stop the malware but most
malware would survive this and come back within one or two reboots.

Kerry

 

[Kerry Brown]

Good Post.

Sound Advice.

We don't work on computers for a living -- and have lives beyond the
Cybernetic.

Shenan fails to understand that simple fact of life.

DSH

Shenan's advice is very good advice. If everyone followed it there would be
far less spyware as it wouldn't be financially lucrative to infect the few
people that didn't follow the advice. Unfortunately my experience has been
that most people will only do what is absolutely necessary. I would like all
of my customers to follow Shenan's advice. I am pragmatic enough to know
that most won't so I recommend a course of action that will defend them
against most spyware and warn them that eventually they may become infected
again. If someone appears keen I will recommend something very similar to
Shenan's advice.

Kerry

 

[Gerry Cornell]

I have thoroughly enjoyed your patronizing posts over the past few days.
If you have a life beyond the "Cybernetic", you must be taking a hiatus.

TPW

Tom

This link explains a little.
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=poguemidden&FORM=QBRE

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Tom [Pepper] Willett]

Thanks, Gerry. I think Shenan was on target about the *troll* ;-)

Tom

I have thoroughly enjoyed your patronizing posts over the past few days.
If you have a life beyond the "Cybernetic", you must be taking a hiatus.

TPW

Tom

This link explains a little.
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=poguemidden&FORM=QBRE

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

Stop Dreaming...

Most people are simply NOT going to install, update, tweak, watch and WORK
five or six Anti-Spyware programs.

So, you are whistling in the wind.

The best you can hope for is that they will use Norton or McAfee, keep it
updated, do system scans regularly and watch for new products such as the
Microsoft beta.

DSH


<baldersnip>

 

[NoStop]

Do you honestly expect folks to install at least FIVE different
Anti-Spyware programs, keep them updated, monitor them and constantly
tweak each one as required?

DSH

Well that's just part of the Windoze eXPerience. Free yourself and your
computer - try Linux.

 

[clarissa]

Remarkable. This month is the 20th anniversary of the first virus
(brain). so your artillery must therefore predate the first virus.

Or are you telling porkies?

again

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4630910.stm

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Clarissa

This link contradicts yours but it seems the first Norton
Anti-Virus dates to 1991.
http://www.pc-history.org/pc-virus.htm

Peter Norton Computing was acquired by Symantec
in 1990.

Peter Norton Computing was founded in 1986 and
produced Norton Commander but this was not an
anti-virus programme.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[PA Bear]

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/01/19/pc_virus_at_20/