Windows Defender Won't Block or Detect Spyware

[Guest]

I have had WD for months and get successfully installed updates nearly every
day. It has never blocked nor detected upon scan, any spyware at all. After I
scan for spyware with WD, I check with Ad-Aware, Spybot and/or Zone Alarm and
they will always detect spyware that WD did not block or detect. I have no
idea why this product does not work. I have un-installed and re-installed
twice and it does not change the problem at all. Does anyone have some
suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Hello Tim,

Are those detecting cookies or spyware.

Can you mention the name of the detections?

Windows Defender don't detect cookies.
-

INNS
A tavern is a house kept for those who are not housekeepers. -----Chatfield

 

[Dave M]

If you want to test to see if Windows Defender is protecting your system
from spyware in real-time, try EICAR the harmless test file...

This is from Joe Faulhaber [MSFT]:
"We've had EICAR in our definitions for about two months now, which also
means we're not communicating the content of the definitions very well, but
that's another issue.
For those of you who want to know what we're talking about, the EICAR group
came up with a harmless file detected by antivirus products so you can
safely verify the product's working. If you haven't seen Windows Defender
detect something, visit http://eicar.org , download the 68 byte file
eicar.com.txt, and copy it to your startup folder. Your AV solution (that
you should be running *IN ADDITION* to Windows Defender) will also pick it
up."

 

[Vanguard]

in message

I have had WD for months and get successfully installed updates nearly
every
day. It has never blocked nor detected upon scan, any spyware at all.
After I
scan for spyware with WD, I check with Ad-Aware, Spybot and/or Zone
Alarm and
they will always detect spyware that WD did not block or detect. I
have no
idea why this product does not work. I have un-installed and
re-installed
twice and it does not change the problem at all. Does anyone have some
suggestions?

You don't know what are cookies. They are not spyware. Since you never
bothered or you decided to hide what was actually being reported by the
other anti-spyware scanners, it is likely that they reported some
cookies and you haven't clue how they work. WD doesn't bother with
cookies because cookies are not spyware.

There are many security products that already include cookie management,
popup blockers that include cookie management, and cookie managers all
of which provide white- and blacklisting. Even your browser provides
cookie management along with white- and blacklists. Only your laziness
results in cookies getting created or remaining that you don't want on
your host and only your ignorance makes you scared of cookies. YOU are
supposed to understand what is being reported to you, but you don't.
Don't use tools that you don't understand, or take the time to
understand them.

Have a read at:
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=246
http://www.xblock.com/articles/article_show.php?id=64
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/answers/goodcookie-badcookie.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

I bet you NONE of any anti-spyware tool that you use has yet to report
the cookies (.sol files) left behind by Flash. Ooooh, cookies, the sky
is falling, I'm m-e-l-t-i-n-g, oh, what a world, what a world.

 

[Guest]

What kind of "spyware" did the other programms detect? Which kind of settings
in Spybot scanner did you use, for example?

 

[Guest]

Were you born a total rude jerk or did you have to work at it to get that way?
You are the one that doesn't have a clue or manners of any sort. I suggest
you get a life! I won't even bother to tell you how wrong you are re cookies
and spyware!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response. Most all of the spyware detected by Ad-Aware for
instance are tracking cookies of a number of types and varieties. These are
mostly level 3 in significance as rated by Ad-Aware. I have gotten a couple
of 10 ratings which were in the register. These turned out to be false
positives. There are always the tracking cookies like doubleclick, Atdmt,
fastclick,live365, etc..probably harmless but defined as spyware nonetheless.
Most of my scans are "smart" scans, but occasioally I do a deep scan.
You asked about settings in Spybot. Spybot has very little in the way of
options other than "check for problems", but it, as well as Zone Alarm finds
the same items as Ad-Aware & all refer to them as spyware. If WD does not
include tracking cookies as spyware, then so be it. My prior discussions with
Microsoft does not bear out that WD does not consider tracking cookies as
spyware.
Again, thanks for the response.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Dave. It is good to receive responses from people that want to help
out. I have used Eicar in the past but not for checking out spyware. I used
it as a virus detection tool a couple of years ago. I will try it again.
An aside...do these newsgroups often get jerks like "Vanguard", another
responder to my question. That guy needs to get a life and lose his computer!
Regards, and thanks.

If you want to test to see if Windows Defender is protecting your system
from spyware in real-time, try EICAR the harmless test file...

This is from Joe Faulhaber [MSFT]:
"We've had EICAR in our definitions for about two months now, which also
means we're not communicating the content of the definitions very well, but
that's another issue.
For those of you who want to know what we're talking about, the EICAR group
came up with a harmless file detected by antivirus products so you can
safely verify the product's working. If you haven't seen Windows Defender
detect something, visit http://eicar.org , download the 68 byte file
eicar.com.txt, and copy it to your startup folder. Your AV solution (that
you should be running *IN ADDITION* to Windows Defender) will also pick it
up."

--

Regards, Dave

I have had WD for months and get successfully installed updates nearly
every
day. It has never blocked nor detected upon scan, any spyware at all.
After I
scan for spyware with WD, I check with Ad-Aware, Spybot and/or Zone Alarm
and
they will always detect spyware that WD did not block or detect. I have
no
idea why this product does not work. I have un-installed and re-installed
twice and it does not change the problem at all. Does anyone have some
suggestions?

 

[Vanguard]

in message

Were you born a total rude jerk or did you have to work at it to get
that way?
You are the one that doesn't have a clue or manners of any sort. I
suggest
you get a life! I won't even bother to tell you how wrong you are re
cookies
and spyware!

Yeah, I see your so-called "pests" were cookies. Sigh, another user
that doesn't understand the tools they use.

 

[Guest]

Hello Jim,

I'm using Defender with the Real Time Protection on. In Internet Explorer,
you can have user cookie settings (Internet options-Privacy)
- set off automatic cookie to allow first-partie cookies and session
cookies, not allowing third partie cookies.
I'm using Spywareblaster too.
There is another interesting tool for cookie management, Ccleaner for
keeping important cookies on board and delete the others after every internet
session.

 

[Guest]

Most all of the spyware detected by Ad-Aware for
instance are tracking cookies of a number of types and varieties. These are
mostly level 3 in significance as rated by Ad-Aware. I have gotten a couple
of 10 ratings which were in the register. These turned out to be false
positives. There are always the tracking cookies like doubleclick, Atdmt,
fastclick,live365, etc..probably harmless but defined as spyware nonetheless.
Most of my scans are "smart" scans, but occasioally I do a deep scan.
You asked about settings in Spybot. Spybot has very little in the way of
options other than "check for problems", but it, as well as Zone Alarm finds
the same items as Ad-Aware & all refer to them as spyware. If WD does not
include tracking cookies as spyware, then so be it. My prior discussions with
Microsoft does not bear out that WD does not consider tracking cookies as
spyware.

There does seem to be some confusion here. From what you say (and
discounting the AdAware false positives) it does seem that every detection
you've experienced is a tracking cookie. As I understand it, and as others
have pointed out, these raise a privacy issue but not a security issue, and
Defender simply ignores them, partly for that reason, and partly because it's
a simple matter for any user to remove and/or block them. Cookie detection is
often an unhelpful distraction from the very real threats that are lurking on
the web.

If you surf the web safely and are sensible about what you download, then
the real reason that you haven't had any alerts from Defender is probably
because you haven't actually been infected with any malware. That's something
to be pleased about.

With regard to Spybot, you can in fact make considerable changes by
switching to advanced mode and selecting 'Settings'. If you click on 'File
sets', for example, you can disable/enable cookie detection, if you wanted
to, along with a heap of other things. (I'm not recommending that you change
any default settings - just pointing out that you can do so.)

 

[Guest]

I have what I think is excellent cookie control with Zone Alarm Security
Suite. Options there on any given site that ZA identifies is to block session
cookies, persistent cookies and third party cookies. I block all third party
and only release if it is needed on a particular site for that session only.
I do likewise with persistent cookies. This would appear to do the same
function as cookie control in in Internet Explorer. There are some sites,
like Schwab and even Ebay that certain level of cookies must be
allowed...doubleclick for instance which is a tracking cookie and likely
innocuous but nontheless identified as spyware by many spyware software..
It seems there is a difference of opinion as to whether some cookies are
spyware. I can only comment that all the Spyware programs that I use;
Ad-Aware, Spybot and Zone Alarm all classify tracking cookies as spyware.
Perhaps only WD does not.
I'm familiar with Ccleaner as a registry cleaner but not as cookie control.
Thanks again for being helpful.

 

[Robinb]

in my opinion, it is more important to get rid of spyware/malware and
trojans then to get rid of annoying cookies.
Yes a lot of cookies are set to track your were abouts but they do not cause
the damage that spyware/malware and trojans do. I believe that is why
Microsoft preferred not to have WD take out cookies. You can use CCcleaner
to remove cookies, you can use Superantispyware and AVG antispyware to
remove cookies + malware/spyware and trojans, too and both are free programs
or you can buy the pro versions and one them do it in realtime.Or run a
weekly scan to remove cookies. Only an antivirus program will remove
viruses and some trojans depending on the program.

Also I do not see Vanguard being rude unless I missed a post- just his
opinion and alot of his opinion is based on fact. Everyeone is entitled to
their opinion in here, right wrong or indifference as long as they are
respectful to others.

robin

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Alan D-
I did find the Spybot settings. I hadn't really paid attention to that
aspect. I think we are all on the same page now and appreciate yours and
others responses. I do pay very close attention to keeping my computer clean
and have never had a virus infection or malware via spyware. I do think WD
info could be better presented to the user because it seems distinctly
different from other spyware software.
Jim T

 

[Guest]

I do think WD
info could be better presented to the user because it seems distinctly
different from other spyware software.

That's a valid point. A lot of people criticize Defender because it doesn't
seem to detect anything, while their other antispyware programs keep on
grabbing the cookies and making a lot of fuss. If the other programs were
finding SERIOUS malware that Defender was missing, then that really would be
something to make a fuss about.

This discussion comes up so often that I'm surprised the Defender team
haven't come up with a prominent notice somewhere on the GUI explaining the
cookie issue. But even if you type 'cookies' into the search box under
'Help', there's no response. I don't think that's helpful, given the
confusion that really exists on this issue for many people.