Run Spyware Automatically

[OldWiseMan]

Nice tip in this months PC Advisor magazine (UK):

"Reader Stephen Ottley wrote in with this tip to run Spybot Search & Destroy
automatically as a scheduled task. Open the program menu folder for S&D -
it's usually at C:\Documents and Settings\ All Users\Start Menu\Programs\
Spybot - Search & Destroy. Right-click the 'Spybot-S&D (easy mode)' icon,
select Copy from the pop-up menu then right-click the folder and select
Paste.

Rename the copy 'Spybot-S&D (automatic)'. Right-click the new icon and
select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, change the command line in the
Target box. Replace the switch '/easymode' with the following switches:
'/autocheck /autofix /onlyspyware /autoclose' and then click ok. Now add
this shortcut to the scheduled tasks list and Spybot will run automatically
at the times you selected.

But don't forget about Spybot altogether. The software still needs to be
updated periodically. "
-------------------------------

Ad-aware is supposed to support the parameter "+A": perform all
automatically (scan, remove and clean) but it doesn't seem to work for me
(Ver 6 Professional on Windows XP)

Anyone know anything about this - I'd like to set that up too, run one at
4:00 a.m. and the other at 5:00 a.m each day, should lead to a fairly clean
system.

 

[*Vanguard*]

OldWiseMan said in news:[email protected]:

Nice tip in this months PC Advisor magazine (UK):

"Reader Stephen Ottley wrote in with this tip to run Spybot Search &
Destroy automatically as a scheduled task. Open the program menu
folder for S&D - it's usually at C:\Documents and Settings\ All
Users\Start Menu\Programs\ Spybot - Search & Destroy. Right-click the
'Spybot-S&D (easy mode)' icon, select Copy from the pop-up menu then
right-click the folder and select Paste.

Rename the copy 'Spybot-S&D (automatic)'. Right-click the new icon and
select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, change the command line in the
Target box. Replace the switch '/easymode' with the following
switches: '/autocheck /autofix /onlyspyware /autoclose' and then
click ok. Now add this shortcut to the scheduled tasks list and
Spybot will run automatically at the times you selected.

But don't forget about Spybot altogether. The software still needs to
be updated periodically. "
-------------------------------

Ad-aware is supposed to support the parameter "+A": perform all
automatically (scan, remove and clean) but it doesn't seem to work
for me (Ver 6 Professional on Windows XP)

Anyone know anything about this - I'd like to set that up too, run
one at 4:00 a.m. and the other at 5:00 a.m each day, should lead to a
fairly clean system.

The problem I see with running any of the anti-spyware tools is that you
really need to see what they will change BEFORE you let it make the
change. Anti-virus programs will quarantine a file but they don't
delete them to make they unreachable later as do anti-spyware programs.
Some anti-spyware programs provide an unroll of their actions, but if
you continually have it make automated deletes of spyware then you may
not be able to later unroll earlier deletes. I don't remember which,
but only one of the two Ad-Aware and Spybot products even lets the user
know what changes they are about to make for each infection found.

An automated delete of spyware also masks that you ever had any. I
certainly want to know immediately when I got infected to I can recount
my prior steps to determine what might've been loaded into my system
that would have brought the infection. Going through a log a month
later to notice that some spyware got wiped will overly distance you
from when the source of it manages to infiltrate your system - unless
the automated run of the anti-spyware pops up an alert window that will
not go away without interaction from the user.

For Spybot S&D, you may want to leave off the /autofix command-line
parameter (the command-line parameters are described in the product
help). Maybe then it will perform the /autocheck option but leave the
window onscreen to let you know if it found anything BEFORE you let it
fix it. However, that means you'll be bothered with its main window on
every scheduled run instead of just leaving it open should it happen to
find something.