Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1seems to find little or nothing...

[peanutwhistle]

Hello All: I installed M.S. AntiSpyware 1.0.501 soon after it came out.
I also have Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.05, SpywareBlaster 3.4, Spybot
Search & Destroy 1.3 and CWShredder 2.14. I am gama testing all of
them to try and find the least combination that will work for folks in
my work group. Lately, I have been letting MS AntiSpyware have first
try with manual scans. Of course my test XP Pro system is SP2 with the
latest updates of the moment, and hours ago I saw that the definitions
were "5717".

Though I surf just as much as the next person, this AntiSpyware Beta 1
has NEVER "caught" anything - ever. I have AntiSpyware set to run full
scans with all options checked.

I usually follow with a manual scan using Spybot S&D and/or sometimes
Ad-Aware. Spybot just found 34 and Ad-Aware found 14 + 23 negligibles.

In the beginning, I thought that M.S. just needed some time to
accumulate malware signatures through SpyNet but, this has gone on too
long. I also have AntiSpyware installed on 4 other updated/current W2K
Pro & XP Pro systems and only one system found one thing.

Is anyone else getting similar results like mine? What's wrong? TIA!

 

[Richard Urban]

There are things that MSAS does not check for in the beta version, such as
cookies and log files - which both Ad-Aware and Spybot do!. These are NOT
critical items. When MSAS makes it to version 1 (released) these items may
be checked for also.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[D.Currie]

Hello All: I installed M.S. AntiSpyware 1.0.501 soon after it came out.
I also have Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.05, SpywareBlaster 3.4, Spybot
Search & Destroy 1.3 and CWShredder 2.14. I am gama testing all of
them to try and find the least combination that will work for folks in
my work group. Lately, I have been letting MS AntiSpyware have first
try with manual scans. Of course my test XP Pro system is SP2 with the
latest updates of the moment, and hours ago I saw that the definitions
were "5717".

Though I surf just as much as the next person, this AntiSpyware Beta 1
has NEVER "caught" anything - ever. I have AntiSpyware set to run full
scans with all options checked.

I usually follow with a manual scan using Spybot S&D and/or sometimes
Ad-Aware. Spybot just found 34 and Ad-Aware found 14 + 23 negligibles.

In the beginning, I thought that M.S. just needed some time to
accumulate malware signatures through SpyNet but, this has gone on too
long. I also have AntiSpyware installed on 4 other updated/current W2K
Pro & XP Pro systems and only one system found one thing.

Is anyone else getting similar results like mine? What's wrong? TIA!

If spybot and ad-aware are finding that few files, you don't have much going
on to worry about in the first place. I regularly see computers with
thousands of hits.

And while I use both of those programs, and think they do a great job, both
also will pick up files that aren't problematic -- like those in the
recycling bin, in some cases. And cookies that may or may not be a problem.

I've seen a number of instances when Microsoft's program will find things
the other two miss. Even more important, when we're talking about unaware
users, is that MSs program will alert when something is trying to install or
change things, and the alert for "bad" things is in a lovely red, so it
makes it easier for users to decide whether to allow something to install or
not.

 

[Jerry]

Spyware forum:
http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp?ICP=spyware&sLCID=us

 

[peanutwhistle]

After further trolling, I found my version (1.0.501) to out of date by
version 1.0.509.

Along with the comments from the good folks above this post, I guess
I'll reserve final judgement till after the next major updates.

Thanks for the helpfull posts...