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Anti-Spyware Products Don't Live Up to Promises
John Wells writes "In the December, 2004 issue of PC World, the author of an article titled Poor Defenders concludes that most commercial anti-spyware software is ineffective. In tests using a fresh install of XP and 6 typical spyware infections the commercial software failed to stack up against freeware competitor Spybot Search and Destroy. Four out of seven commercial products failed to remove any of the infections. One product even installed 57 spyware files itself! Conclusion: Use freeware products like Spybot and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal."
So where does this guy get his "paid" spyware removal applications? Clicking on popups? Oh... wait...
many of these utilities use aggressive marketing tactics in pop-up ads, spam, and keyword ads appearing alongside Google search results
Though I suppose this is how they sucker a lot of people and some people expect results if they pay for a utility, I would probably do at least a LITTLE research before paying for any app like that. The thing is, I would hardly consider this "most commercial anti-spyware software." So as far as this "test," he might as well do an article about Virtual Bouncer and how it removed his parasites for him.
Why didn't he test something like Spy Sweeper or Giant AntiSpyware? Those are paid ones that I would probably recommend if someone did want to pay for a program. At least that way, people would see that not ALL commerical products are crap - it does almost sound like that.
But really, Spybot isn't even cutting it anymore, IMO. AdAware is still doing well, but I've actually been more impressed with the other two I mentioned above - worth a look if you haven't checked them out - both have free trials that you would have no problems doing a removal with.
Nathan Shafer, answering our e-mail message to Spyware Stormer, challenged our test methodology. Shafer wrote that Spyware Stormer detects "over 20,000 variants of spyware and adware," and that its performance with the six applications we chose was therefore "hardly representative in any way."
They are absolutely correct here although there are only four programs you should ever install for combating spyware: Adaware, SpyBot S&D, SpywareBlaster, and a good software firewall package (preferably one that tells you when something is trying to connect out to the Internet like ZoneAlarm). You need to keep these programs updated on a regular basis and you need to make sure that they run regularly. Unfortunately only SpyBot S&D runs w/o user intervention if you set it up to do so.
SpyBot, while being a great program, isn't updated nearly as often as AdAware and doesn't find all those pesky cookies that AdAware does. SpywareBlaster is good for keeping those pesky cookies from getting onto your machine in the first place.
We were unable to reach NoAdware, but the Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York reported that it had received 22 complaints about the company, which is not a member of the BBB, by early October. Network Dynamics has a clean record as a member of Southern California's BBB. The BBB's complaint database contained no record of complaints for the remainder of the companies whose products we tested.
The BBB has fallen into worthlessness in recent years (I don't know about years passed). They have little to no pull and sometimes they even go so far as to ignore complaints against their companies. I would ignore any comments in regards to BBB related businesses.
Basically you need to research what you are installing on your machine. That means using google, word of mouth, and your own deep digging before you put any "cleaning" program on your machine. You also need to do some research into making sure that you are using what you can to combat Spyware.
Sadly, most people out there don't know, care, or care to know. That's why they end up w/it in the first place. If people DID care about what they were installing on their computer AND took the time to do a quick google search they would find out exactly what they need to know.
It has gotten to the point where I seriously believe that MSFT is doing this on purpose in order to show the public why they NEED to use "protected computing".
hijackThis seems to find all the stuff that others leave behind, and it's free (as in beer). Almost everybody I know uses it too.
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
install firefox
???
profit
really if you are still using IE you are bringing it on yourself, i loved IE, but it has become garbage
Folks, I'm telling you, I've used Yahoo's new Spyware program that sits in the Yahoo toolbar and the thing works BETTER than AdAware. I'm serious. I had to fix my parents' and my inlaws' PCs, both with XP2. I've used AdAware and a few other freebies on both, but they still ran slow. So, for the hell of it, I used the new Yahoo thingy and it found TONS of stuff the others did not, including a trojan spam application. I have yet to see anyone talk about this app (even Ars Technica's latest Spyware article neglected to talk about it).
NoAdware "removed some stuff, but it also deleted something on the hard drive so the computer couldn't reboot," Smith says. After reinstalling Windows, Smith sent multiple messages to NoAdware requesting a refund, which she received four months after her initial request.
They actually gave her money back. That's good right? Sure they took four months, but they did it. She should shut up and stop complaining. They could have just blamed her for it since she really couldn't have proven anything.
manda
I use Adaware SE and SpyBot which I run manually once a week, each. I have Webroot's Spy Sweepter which stays in memory and provides a good level of "live" detection. Between the three programs it has been a long time since I've had a adware/spyware program on my desktop. However, it has only been through the use of all three that I have gotten to this point. I haven't found a program that will accomplish this by itself, either free or for fee. PC Magazine ran a comparison of spyware removal programs recently and came to about the same conclusion. They did rate AdAware SE as the best program, though.
A couple tips for removing spyware from windows. Run both ad-aware and spybot - search and destroy. after you run them you might still have some spyware. If this happens turn off system restore (at your own risk)and then reboot into safe-mode and run the checkers again. This can remove some of the hangers on. Also a great utility is www.doxdesk.com. It shows you how to manually unregister DLL files and also does a web based check for some common spyware.
AVG Anti-Virus, we use it at my work (an ISP) and reccomend it to all of our customers. Check it out at www.grisoft.com
Home of the midwest loser - www.say-10.net
Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus. Make sure you get AVG 7.0 because support for 6 will end with 2004. No complaints, but I only run it now-and-then because the idea is to stop them before they get installed.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
try clam a/v, or if you're on windows, clamwin a/v. the interface isn't great, but it does the job.
The advantage of paying for AdAware is to get AdWatch, a live detection program which blocks registry modification, browser hijacks, etc. as they happen. It is very customisable and can react autonomously or can prompt for action. No burning desire, just a good product. (No affiliation)
As to this douche installing programs advertised by popups, what does he expect? If your advertising strategy is popups, you're selling crap. If your purchasing strategy is popups, you're buying it.
*blinking cursor*
Ad-Aware runs on a BartPE Boot CD. I've heard Spybot also runs on BartPE, but I don't think there are handy instructions for adding it to the image.
I run a small computer company in my town of about 50,000. Constantly I am getting people in here who are complaining about their computer slowing down, displaying popups, or not working at all. Then they'll go on about how they bought some program from Staples thats supposed to remove spyware. But, you'll never guess what the problem ALWAYS is: Spyware! As a technician, the first thing that I ALWAYS do is uninstall commercial Anti-Spyware. This article summs it up: install Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware (as well as Hijackthis). They remove 99% of the products I deal with. There are always a few out there that NO anti-spyware programs can remove, and I'll have to do some manual digging through the registry, but thats to be expected. Speaking of freeware, just for kicks, uninstall your expensive Norton Antivirus and go get AVG Antivirus.
Electrons are free; it is moving them that becomes expensive.
besides the usual .. use firefox..
/pid [proccess1] /pid [proccess2] /f
.dll and can't delete it because some proccess is using it.. or want to know which process is using it.. try "tasklist /m [dll_filename]"
... so every now and then i get cmd.exe windows.. until adaware releases a fix for what i have :)
the other night my laptop got a spyware infestation and this was the most serious one i had come across..
adaware and spybot couldn't detect anything.. yet i kept getting IE popups.. I booted to safe mode but guess what.. an IE popup while adaware is running (network was not available) in safe mode!
so i back to windows normal mode, pull up sysinternal's processEx to see which process starts the IE process.. and i was surprised to find that the IE popups were from winlogon.exe! later i found out that the sypware had also modified my winsock files..
anyway.. to the tips.. sometimes you have two processes that monitor each other, so when you kill one, the other process respawns the proccess you just killed. unless you are lightining fast with taskmgr... you can kill both at the same with taskkill
if you find a
the "[" "]" don't mean optional parameters.. i couldn't use the less/greater signs
the sypware that i got installed was hosted at rackspace.. so i called up rackspace (@3am CST).. bitched about it and they contacted their spyware client.. you would expect then to stop hosting the spyware.. instead rackspace sent me a link for a utility to download (utility provided by the spyware client).. which removed whatever i had but installed more spyware!!
In the end, i renamed iexplore.exe and put a copy of cmd.exe as iexplore.exe
God is real unless declared as int
The answer is clear, don't use Windows to surf the web. If you have to then use mozilla/firefox/netscape.
-- main(s){printf(s="main(s){printf(s=%c%s%c,34,s,34