B
BillR
Yahoo Anti-Spy (available via the Yahoo Toolbar) is PestPatrol-based.
Rather to my surprise, when I ran PestScan and Anti-Spy today, the results
were different.
I originally guessed Anti-Spy was based on Web Root Spy Sweeper because of
the close resemblance of the icons, however a PestPatrol press release
(repeat that quickly five times) says:
"The technology that Yahoo! is using is based on a Software Developers
Toolkit that PestPatrol has developed for such partnership opportunities.
Other companies that PestPatrol has partnered with include Zone Labs,
Authentium, Zero Knowledge Systems, Stomp, and PC Pitstop to name a few."
-- http://www.pestpatrol.com/News_Media/Press_Releases/news06040401.asp
I also offer yet another more-than-one-is-better anecdote. I've been
running without a software firewall or cookie blocker for several days (just
SpywareBlaster, teatimer, WinPatrol, antivirus, and NAT) so I've accumulated
a larger than normal collection of garbage. I decided to do a little
very(!) informal comparison.
* I ran Spybot S&D and removed almost everything it found.
* I then ran Yahoo Anti-Spy and Ad-aware Personal SE in parallel. Each
found several items that Spybot and the other missed. I removed or excluded
these items. (Ad-aware always identifies several useful favorites as
"potential hijackers" for reasons that are not always clear to me.)
* Next, I ran McAfee's new AntiSpyware ($). It found a couple of new items,
including the remnants of a trojan (maybe), all of which I removed.
* Finally, I ran PestScan. It reported a pair of related adware registry
entries the others missed and several additional suspect cookies. I was a
little surprised since I had recently run Yahoo Anti-Spy.
* Without making any of the PestScan changes, I ran Yahoo Anti-Spy again.
This time it found nothing at all.
This result is consistent with having removed everything Anti-Spy found
earlier; it is not consistent with Anti-Spy being based on the most current
PestPatrol db. The Yahoo Anti-Spy removal feature is handy and so far has
not damaged anything (AFAIK), but I'll still be running PestScan on
occasion. Oh well.
When installing Yahoo Toolbar, be sure to have a good registry monitor
running. The most recent Yahoo Toolbar tried to replace my default home
page as well as changing the IE search bar. I don't remember an earlier
version trying to do both.
Yahoo recently released v1.6 of Anti-Spy. I noticed that their reporting
system includes an entry for v1.7 so I presume it will arrive soon.
PestPatrol was acquired by Computer Associates. I hope that PestScan
continues to be supported. It is definitely on my "100 most useful sites"
list.
BillR
Rather to my surprise, when I ran PestScan and Anti-Spy today, the results
were different.
I originally guessed Anti-Spy was based on Web Root Spy Sweeper because of
the close resemblance of the icons, however a PestPatrol press release
(repeat that quickly five times) says:
"The technology that Yahoo! is using is based on a Software Developers
Toolkit that PestPatrol has developed for such partnership opportunities.
Other companies that PestPatrol has partnered with include Zone Labs,
Authentium, Zero Knowledge Systems, Stomp, and PC Pitstop to name a few."
-- http://www.pestpatrol.com/News_Media/Press_Releases/news06040401.asp
I also offer yet another more-than-one-is-better anecdote. I've been
running without a software firewall or cookie blocker for several days (just
SpywareBlaster, teatimer, WinPatrol, antivirus, and NAT) so I've accumulated
a larger than normal collection of garbage. I decided to do a little
very(!) informal comparison.
* I ran Spybot S&D and removed almost everything it found.
* I then ran Yahoo Anti-Spy and Ad-aware Personal SE in parallel. Each
found several items that Spybot and the other missed. I removed or excluded
these items. (Ad-aware always identifies several useful favorites as
"potential hijackers" for reasons that are not always clear to me.)
* Next, I ran McAfee's new AntiSpyware ($). It found a couple of new items,
including the remnants of a trojan (maybe), all of which I removed.
* Finally, I ran PestScan. It reported a pair of related adware registry
entries the others missed and several additional suspect cookies. I was a
little surprised since I had recently run Yahoo Anti-Spy.
* Without making any of the PestScan changes, I ran Yahoo Anti-Spy again.
This time it found nothing at all.
This result is consistent with having removed everything Anti-Spy found
earlier; it is not consistent with Anti-Spy being based on the most current
PestPatrol db. The Yahoo Anti-Spy removal feature is handy and so far has
not damaged anything (AFAIK), but I'll still be running PestScan on
occasion. Oh well.
When installing Yahoo Toolbar, be sure to have a good registry monitor
running. The most recent Yahoo Toolbar tried to replace my default home
page as well as changing the IE search bar. I don't remember an earlier
version trying to do both.
Yahoo recently released v1.6 of Anti-Spy. I noticed that their reporting
system includes an entry for v1.7 so I presume it will arrive soon.
PestPatrol was acquired by Computer Associates. I hope that PestScan
continues to be supported. It is definitely on my "100 most useful sites"
list.
BillR