How to make MS AntiSpyWare NON-RESIDENT?

[John]

Is there any way to make MS AntiSpyWare absolutely non-
resident, with no icon in the system tray, no real-time
anything, and no @%$&*! scheduled scans? I want to run it
manually only, so that it doesn't interfere with my
system. So far, I've found no way to do that, and I
assume the only alternative is to uninstall it.

 

[Andre Da Costa]

You can hide it another, right click the taskbar, choose Properties > under
"Notification Area" > choose "Customize", select Microsoft AntiSpyware -
Active > click in the "Behaviour" box and select "Always Hide".

Bill Sanderson:
This setting works for me, but only until a scheduled scan. The scheduled
scan puts the icon out there again.

 

[Andre Da Costa]

Under Scheduled Scan Options, look for the last checkbox: Disable Schedule,
check it then hit the Update Schedule button.

 

[John]

I don't want to merely hide the system tray icon, I want
to make MS AntiSpyWare TOTALLY INACTIVE unless or until I
tell it to run. So far, since this concoction of
Microsoft's insists on loading itself into memory no
matter what, it's simply a system-boggling problem, like
spyware itself, and not a solution.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Follow the "workaround" section of this KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892375 End users may be prompted to allow or
block administrative actions that originate from a central management tool
after they install Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) on a computer that is managed
by Systems Management Server 2003

 

[Bill Sanderson]

If you are seeing a significant effect on your system from Microsoft
Antispyware, you are seeing a bug--or perhaps spyware--and it'd be nice to
get to the root of that, of course./

 

[John]

No, I just want the option to make MS AntiSpyWare
inactive until I tell it otherwise. As it is, it
interferes with other software and causes system crashes.
I don't believe the crash-cause is spyware or anything
except MS AntiSpyWare. Why the heck is there no option to
turn the darn thing off? Why does Microsoft want to load
stuff into my system's memory without giving mt the
option to control it? If the only control is to uninstall
it and use other antispyware instead, well, so be it.

 

[John]

John,
I have the same problem, the only way I can get rid of it
is to UNISTALL it!!! You would think if you
uncheck 'Enable the Microsoft Antispyarw Security Agents
on startup' it would not load in to memory!
Thanks for the Spyware acting software Microsoft!

 

[OldBoy]

Could it be that other software interferes with the MS AntiSpyWare program
and causes system crashes?
What software is interfered?
I do ask since I have no problems whatsoever.

Gr. Jan

 

[John]

Yes, it is of course possible that other software is
interfering with MS AntiSpyWare. But what's the
difference? The problem is still caused by MS AntiSpyWare
as long as it's impossible to keep it out of memory.
Specific crashes: my wife's computer, running The Sims
Online, and also another online program called "There."
On my computer: at first, degraded performance, but now,
nothing, as I've uninstalled MS AntiSpyWareSystemHog and
will not reinstall it unless it's fixed, which I doubt
We're-Perfect-Microsoft will do.

 

[Andre Da Costa]

Just right click its icon in the Notification Area (System Tray) and click
"Shutdown Microsoft Antispyware".

 

[John]

That's only a halfway measure. The question is how do you
get MSASW to NEVER run automatically and to NEVER put any
danged icon in the system tray in the first place? (The
Start Menu is quite enough, thank you very much.)

 

[John]

I tried that--several times. It doesn't work. It just
keeps coming back with what is apparently a default
insistence on loading into memory. In my book,
Microsoft's attempt to make an antispyware program is at
this point a failure.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Check my other reply for how to turn off real-time scanning. I'll freely
admit that it is neither intuitive nor simple--but it is published.

If this app were causing crashes on most systems, there would be many
hundreds of thousands more messages than there are now.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

If the beta app causes crashes on your system, uninstalling is an
appropriate thing to do. Check back again when beta2 is released.

Feel free to send email to me directly at that time if beta2 still causes
problems on your system--I'd like a chance to get to the bottom of that, if
possible, before you pull the app again. Take the last two terms off my
return address to get a working one.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Please use the workaround method described in this KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892375 End users may be prompted to allow or
block administrative actions that originate from a central management tool
after they install Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) on a computer that is managed
by Systems Management Server 2003

(alternatively, you can just remove the startup item, which I've done--but I
believe the KB article method is more effective.)

 

[Bill Sanderson]

This is a somewhat confusing thread.

I'd be interested in hearing whether you want Microsoft Antispyware to not
load just on principle (which I fully sympathize with you on)--or because
there is a particular performance or other issue?

 

[Andre Da Costa]

Amen to that Bill. :-o

 

[John]

Sorry about the confusion. This thread is a little zig-
zaggy.

Keeping MS-AntiSpyWare from loading is a matter somewhat
of principle, in that I want to keep the memory free.

There is also a specific software conflict issue. On my
wife's computers, MSASW has been causing repeated crashes
when running the online games, "The Sims Online"
and "There." These are crashes that require a shutdown
and reboot. I know a couple of times MSASW had been
trying to do a scan. I think others were its trying to
update itself, and I think some were simply from it being
in memory monitoring this or that. That's not very exact,
but the result, anyway, was for me to think that to
circumvent whatever is happening, there must be a way,
short of doing the tedious ctrl-alt-del routine, to turn
the program off, but when I found there didn't seem to be
one, I uninstalled MSASW from my computers and resumed
depending on better-behaving antispyware programs. My
wife has left the MS one in operation, however, and
though she has experienced frustration sloggling through
its confusing menus looking for a turn-off switch, she is
still hoping to find a way to make it work, and I'm
trying to help that hopeful effort--and to urge Microsoft
to consider the novel notion of making its products user-
friendly.

 

[John]

Turning off real-time scanning is a step, but I (and I
think others) want an actual OFF switch.
And probably MS AntiSpyWare is not causing a great many
crashes, but it is still one more intrusive piece of
software obliviously nibbling away at system resources.
But a lot of people will ignore that, and so MS will
obliviously get away with foisting on the public the
equivalent, disguised as a useful tool, of a runaway car
with no on-off switch.