MS AntiSpyware ineffective at best

[janice]

I was very glad when Microsoft came out with this program,
and I installed it when it was first available, Since
then, I have had a number of experiences with infections
in both my computers and I have to say that this beta
program misses more problems than it detects. I attempted
to send a message to this effect to MS, but the program
itself doesn't provide contact information, or even a
process by which I could send them a report of detected
spyware logged by alternate programs after Microsoft
Antispyware detected none. Has anyone else experienced
this type of frustration? Having five antispy applications
in one computer is a bit of a pain.

 

[Andre Da Costa]

Yes, I know, its still in its infancy though and will get better over time.
The current beta 1 release does not detect cookies/dataminers. Such
functionality will hopefully be implemented in beta 2.
--
Andre
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

 

[Stu]

It is important to remember that MSAS is a beta product
and therefore no product support will be forthcoming from
MS. No software company does this with beta products which
is why these newsgroups were established to obtain
suggestions and feedback which will be evaluated and
incorporated in subsequent betas. In that way MSAS will
improve as it has done since being released earlier this
year. As for the infections. It would be helpful if you
could be more specific. If they were cookies then MSAS
will not detect these in its current beta format. This is
intentional at this stage as I believe more attention is
being paid to dealing with the nastier things lurking on
the internet. In any event cookies can be dealt with quite
adequately through your browser settings and personal
firewall if installed. If on the other hand if the
infections were more serious then you can submit the
details on here and they will be passed on to the MS
developers for analysis.

Hope this helps

Stu

 

[Andre Da Costa]

Well said Stu, it is really up to us to help make this product great
especially in early stages where its a work in progress.
--
Andre
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

 

[Stu]

Thank you Andre. I feel much better for getting that off
my chest.

 

[Guest]

I think every antispyware application I've used detects some things others
miss, so that doesn't particularly worry me. The fact is I don't have
problems with any of the things they detect, but I run antispyware software
anyway just because it seems like the right thing to do.

The problem I have with all antispyware programs is that they're too
aggressive and intrusive. Written by people who are paranoid about privacy.
They want to remove harmless and helpful things. I thought Microsoft's was
the least offensive I've seen so far, but I may have changed my mind.
Positive: it's probably the first antispyware app I've seen that doesn't
detect Alexa. And I was thrilled to see that it doesn't bother me about
cookies (I'm horrified to find out that that feature might be added in future
releases). But it did want to remove Casino On Net because it was advertiser
supported (it's not). My real problem came when I noticed that Microsoft
AntiSpyware removed an entire folder of my IE Favorites. It took me a while
to notice this, then a bit longer to trace it to Microsoft AntiSpyware. It
removes any IE Favorites folder called Gambling, and anything in that folder,
blaming it on a high-risk threat called iLookup. I was pretty upset that it
removed an entire folder of favorites I've spent years accumulating. And
apparently there's no restore in this program. I think most of my other
antispyware apps do have a restore, but I've never had to use it (good for
them). So Microsoft AntiSpyware proved to be the most offensively
overintrusive antispyware app I've ever used. The others waste my time
bothering me about cookies, Alexa, bookmarks, and such. But at least I can
ignore their warnings. Microsoft AntiSpyware removed my bookmarks without me
having any clue it was doing it.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

Janice - does Tools, Suspected Spyware report not work in your particular
installation of Microsoft Antispyware?

Microsoft values feedback about items it isn't catching--and that reporting
mechanism is one way that such feedback is solicited.

Unfortunately, a bug in the beta1 product doesn't allow some users to submit
these reports. I expect this to be fixed in beta2, although that may be
little consolation.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I absolutely agree that this detection is outrageously oversimplified, and
I'm surprised that the default action for such a section in favorites, is
not quarantine. However, if they were not quarantined, I know of no way to
get them back. This particular detection, or some simlar ones relating to
folder names in Favorites, have come up before. This could be done better.