Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

[- Bobb -]

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
Every month now Microsoft pushes a new version of this via "automatic
updates". Is there any way (reg hack etc) to NOT have this download and
run every month ?

My reason for asking is that I see family/friends/small biz owners have
autoupdate disabled. I would LIKE to select which occuring "updates" to
NOT have downloaded and tell them to then leave autoupdate on. As it is
they report things to me like " when I enable it sometimes my disk drive
is doing things when I'm not on there" or " I don't want it running
while I'm on there - it slows me down"

Everyone I know has antivirus sw installed and I see no reason for "an
average user" to download this and run it every month. MAYBE corporate
shops with lots of salespeople DO want to push this to prevent some
idiot who let his kid use the pc from infecting the company: I'd rather
opt out. So I update manually - defeating the purpose of auto-fetching
the security updates.

 

[Ron Sommer]

Control Panel, Automatic Updates
Auto update has several options:
download and install
download and notify there are updates to install
notify but do not download
turn off auto update

I would say to use notify but do not download, the do a custom update and
choose the updates.
--
Ronald Sommer

: http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
: Every month now Microsoft pushes a new version of this via "automatic
: updates". Is there any way (reg hack etc) to NOT have this download and
: run every month ?
:
: My reason for asking is that I see family/friends/small biz owners have
: autoupdate disabled. I would LIKE to select which occuring "updates" to
: NOT have downloaded and tell them to then leave autoupdate on. As it is
: they report things to me like " when I enable it sometimes my disk drive
: is doing things when I'm not on there" or " I don't want it running
: while I'm on there - it slows me down"
:
: Everyone I know has antivirus sw installed and I see no reason for "an
: average user" to download this and run it every month. MAYBE corporate
: shops with lots of salespeople DO want to push this to prevent some
: idiot who let his kid use the pc from infecting the company: I'd rather
: opt out. So I update manually - defeating the purpose of auto-fetching
: the security updates.
:

 

[- Bobb -]

Control Panel, Automatic Updates
Auto update has several options:
download and install
download and notify there are updates to install
notify but do not download
turn off auto update

I would say to use notify but do not download, the do a custom update
and
choose the updates.

Ron,

That's what I do on my PC but I'm looking to have this file skipped over
by remote family that has no clue about updating ( and doesn't care to
learn). You know how if you skip one of the scanned items it prompts
you to " never ask me again?" THAT's what I do , but every month MSFT
renames the file ( Aug, sept,oct,nov and now December) so that it is a
different file.So every month I have to elect to not install it. If a
reg hack gave me an option to "Never offer this monthly removal tool" -
then I could autoupdate - THAT's what I'm looking for.

 

[Rock]

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
Every month now Microsoft pushes a new version of this via "automatic
updates". Is there any way (reg hack etc) to NOT have this download and
run every month ?

My reason for asking is that I see family/friends/small biz owners have
autoupdate disabled. I would LIKE to select which occuring "updates" to
NOT have downloaded and tell them to then leave autoupdate on. As it is
they report things to me like " when I enable it sometimes my disk drive
is doing things when I'm not on there" or " I don't want it running while
I'm on there - it slows me down"

Everyone I know has antivirus sw installed and I see no reason for "an
average user" to download this and run it every month. MAYBE corporate
shops with lots of salespeople DO want to push this to prevent some idiot
who let his kid use the pc from infecting the company: I'd rather opt out.
So I update manually - defeating the purpose of auto-fetching the security
updates.

I know of no way to tell AU to not download that update every month.
Personally I don't use automatic updates. I visit once or twice of month.
Most updates come out on patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of the month. I
do a custom scan and choose which updates I want, download the update file,
burn a copy to CD for future use then install from my machine.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

As far as I know you can't since it is a new update every month.

As for your reasoning, the average user probably has far more need of this
tool than a corporate environment.
A properly managed corporate environment will have other means of preventing
most of the vulnerabilities removed by the MSRT.
It seems the average user has some malware on their computer.
Perhaps the people you refer are not average users.

Your only real option is to change your Automatic Update settings to Notify,
or other option as appropriate.

Also since the MSRT runs and effectively is not installed on the computer,
it is a great small tool to run monthly to catch the main culprits of the
month.
I have heard of few if any problems with that particular update.

 

[- Bobb -]

The write-up on it LOOKED to me to be the same file - checking for
MSblaster and those other ( OLD) worm apps. So this file DOES get
updated ? I thought they just renamed the same file each month to get it
onto any pc running autoupdate.

As far as I know you can't since it is a new update every month.

As for your reasoning, the average user probably has far more need of
this tool than a corporate environment.
A properly managed corporate environment will have other means of
preventing most of the vulnerabilities removed by the MSRT.

I agree that they SHOULD but I worked at BIG shops where most of the
workforce (sales reps) are remote and this is what they would do: ( I
couldn't believe it either which is why I left)
Remote salesrep boots up the PC, it would log them on in cached mode
(since server not available), they /their kids surf the web (who knows
where) and then salesreps write their email. THEN they would VPN to the
corporate backbone where NOTHING was checked ( virus updates, reg
settings etc) and then they were on the internal network. Since they
never booted their PC using VPN ( to get certified and updates pushed
down) they often had not updated ANY virus info in months/years. The
default liveupdate source was the corporate server and they didn't
connect long enough or EVER at boot time to get updates. so THOSE folks
would get ANY malware - connect to the office - send the infected
email - and logoff. 15 minutes later - MSblaster is corporate-wide. It
happened several times - months apart. It's for THOSE folks that I
thought this app was written - that way if they got ANY update, it would
check for those old worms.

At least for all the "average users" that have antiviral program
running, the app UPDATES it automatically - which is what I meant by
"they don't need MSRT run".

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Yes, and that is what makes it different.
Every month new malware is added and the old stay adding to the malware this
tool is able to detect each month.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org