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MS AntiSpyware vs Ad-Aware vs. SpyBot
An anonymous reader writes "Flexbeta.net compares Microsoft's new spyware fighting tool, Windows AntiSpyware, to Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D; the two leading spyware tools on the market today. The review sets up an infected PC using VMWare Workstation and scans the machine using all three tools to see which tool detects the most spyware. Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot."
So wait a sec Microsoft's product is actual good?
Signatures are so 90s
The new spynet feature is pretty blatantly spyware itself.
To be fair, "infected files" is a rather ambiguous notation (perhaps "malicious packages" would be a better way to count things).
I would also feel better if the submitter hadn't been anonymous. Though it's probably not astroturfing.
RD
Wait.. aren't we supposed to hate Microsoft? I'm confused.
Does anyone else think it funny that the advert at the bottom of this review is for Smiley Central, a well known piece of computer-invading crap?
A latent existence
that's all we ask. Microsoft is the most suitable candidate to find spyware infecting their product. Hopefully this is step one, followed by OS changes eliminating/reducing the possibility. Dream over...
Why wouldn't it surprise me that Microsoft would be able to find and remove everyone else's product on the box even if it is spyware.
Not having read the article yet, I do wonder what the scanner reports as spyware in order to get "twice as much results as Adaware" and "three times as much as Spybot".
I'm just sceptical about MS + Anti-Spyware mix.
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Wouldn't the MS product have an unfair advantage... after all, isn't the Redmond crew responsible for a lot of that stuff anyway?
Microsoft knows what holes they have in the OS better than anyone else. They just don't bother to fix them in a timely fashion because it's not profitable The anti spyware isn't really a change in direction for them if you think about it. They are still applying a band-aid to the problems rather than a real fix.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
The Real-Time Protection agent is awesome. It automatically informs you of any changes being made to your current settings; such as if your IE homepage is trying to be changed. It also warns the user if any spyware is trying to be installed.
So it has to be running first. Just what i want my computer to do, run more stuff.
Also, I kinda know when our homepage is hijacked, and this is why i switched to firefox.
Runnin' On Empty
I only took a curory glance at the article before it was /.ed, but I did not see any attempt at analyzing how many of the additional items found by MSAS were false positives. This seems like pretty vital information.
I think it has become abadonware. And after I donated to it, too.... :-)
Mumia Abu-Jamal is *laughably guilty*. Check the evidence.
It's kind of like the Mob offering protection services to merchants. They're the problem in the first place!
This kind of protection should already be in Windows, or least, make the OS completely separate from the apps and the data.
You should be able to click on any process running and see complete details as to what it is, why it is running and access it's startup options.
An Ad-Aware/FireFox combination has served my parent's computer well for quite sometime. My father's business exclusively uses the above combination with great results.
Ok, enough of the "MS should do better, they make the holes" comments. If you remember correctly, MS bought this code only a short while ago from Giant Company. About the only thing Redmond has done is repackage and rebranded it.
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
and apparently their detection of license keys has greatly improved... my key is invalid.
Anyone else have this problem using their obscure key of choice? SP2 installed fine a few months ago.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
isn't it odd that MS finds the most... perhaps they know all this issues with their software and know what should, and should not be there. :)
Considering MS's lax attitude to virus controls (at least until recently), it's about time MS did something to make up for the ridiculous amounts of spyware out there.
Note that I'm not saying they are entirely responsible - but they did set up a lovely fertile environment for it to flourish. And I wonder if it will be available for free to spyware infested Windows users?
Seriously though, congrats to MS though for producing what seems to be a good product - the world really needs something to rid us of spammers, and it's something I think we all need to work together on.
All together: "NO MORE ROLEX OFFERS! NO, I DON'T WANT YOUR CIALIS!"
"Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot."
I find it hard to believe that an MS Beta program could do so much better than the competition, unless maybe there is some inside knowledge shared between the Ad/spyware people, MS, and their antispyware developers. MS surely has the money to orchestrate such a feat. Why else would it be so much better than everything else that's out?
Okay, I know it's an acquisition, so it's not really MS developing it, so there is an outside chance that those ppl are really just that much better than everyone else at what they do. But isn't it highly suspect in a field when someone else advances so much farther in front of everyone else? Maybe they've sold their souls to satan or are unlocking the secrets of alien technology recovered from the ruins of a crash site?
Is this much different than what the results were/would have been comparing spybot vs the product giant had before MS bought them?
Has MS added that much value in a short time to make it head and shoulders above the rest? Or was Giant just that much better anyway (which is probably why MS would have bought them in the first place)?
creation science book
A lot of people, especially on the popular antispyware forums, have simply decided that Spybot and AdAware are the best that there can possibly be, and anything that differs from them in bad.
They just bought a company and rebranded..
Wait a few generations, then it will be a 'true' Microsoft Product..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Note, that was sarcasm.
Ad-Aware doesn't detect all those files from OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Mozilla, etc...
I liked how it politely asked if I wanted to validate Windows
"Before obtaining the requested download, please take a moment to validate your genuine Microsoft Windows installation. Validation assures that you are running an authentic and fully-licensed copy of Windows. Validating now will enable faster access to genuine Windows downloads upon future visits to the Download Center. Please see the Why Validate? page to learn more about the Windows Genuine Advantage program and why validation is recommended."
Obviously clicked no.
Anti-spyware programs wouldn't be very useful on a GNU/Linux system, since spyware is pretty much non-existent on a an entirely or almost completely Free/Open-Source operating system. Ah the beauty that is peer-review. (nVidia's drivers and Macromedia's Flash Player are the only proprietary things I've installed.)
I personally installed MS's new tool last night on my laptop and admittedly it did find more than Spybot, Ad-Aware or even a nifty one I sometimes use, SpySweeper. I can say that MS has come up with a winner.
Although, along with the real spyware, it found some "Adware Bundlers" such as KazaaLite, E-Mule and even TightVNC. This may mean that some of the claims of "twice or three times as many spyware files" should be taken with a grain of salt.
..did MS perhaps create some of these spywares themselves?
Besides the usual blind skepticism and pathetic attempts at trying to be funny, there has been no real discussion here. Then again, that's not new. The article says that Microsoft's product does a better job. Why can't people accept this? I am sure if the product was my Company X or Apple, people would fall on their knees and worship it.
Personally, I find it offensive that this company has designed software that is so poor that it may be exploited in this manner. I have just had a multi-hour session prying out some of the junk that my daughter naively stuck on her machine. And now the same company is offering me another closed system to fix their earlier closed system? No thanks. I think I will stick with OSX and SUSE where ever I can.
but when they compared this to spybot - did they use the included abilities - such as the teatimer or the ability to lock the homepage against hijacks (it doesnt just warn you from it being changed - it doesn't let it!) as well as locking the hosts file?
maybe they did - but that site is hosed.
Dudes, they made the problem, they left in the weak code, and now they are saying they can fix it best???
For some reason, I don't think I'll be trusting them to much.
Check out the spyware video (https://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware /video1.mspx)
and they'll explain you why M$ products are a piece of crap, it's quite funny how they manage security bugs to launch a new product.
MS never cheated: They DIDN'T wrote the software in the first place. Wait a few months before it's written from scratch by Bill's engineers!
Also, I neglected to mention in my previous post...
One factor behind MS AntiSpyware's successful may be the use of quadratic probing in a secondary clustering to traverse file patterns, which are stored in an acylic graph.
Fleischer and Trippen elaborate further on this technique in a Java implementation, which of course Microsoft did not employ. The rationale, however, is the same.
Let's see the real deathmatch: shop for spyware as a sleazy spammer, paying for the best spyware installer malware available, then run that against MSAntiSpyWare, Ad-Aware and SpyBot. I bet the malware mafia comes out on top.
--
make install -not war
Webroot's product used to be the best, but now Microsoft's free product is better. For now.
But until a bright line separates unlawful adware and spyware from lawful, no product is going to beat Spyware.
Contrast to viruses and worms, which with very very few exceptions, are entirely unlawful and do not financially profit anyone. It is hard enough for the market leader Symantec to stay only epsilon behind the virus makers; with Spyware, which is both legally ambiguous and highly profitable, even the behemoth Microsoft will succumb to the Army ants.
Moral, we cannot rely upon a single company to protect us. We need a combination of laws, profit and non-profit organizations and financial disincentives to control the parasites.
I tried clicking on the link from Firefox for the MS AntiSpyware crap and Firefox wouldn't allow without me allowing temporary access with a possibly invalid security certificate.
Anyone else having this happen to them?
How can we even begin to trust a company that can't trust itself?
Fix your certs MSFT!!!
Under TaskManager, it still shows as "GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe". No mention of Microsoft.
It's a pretty poor article offering at best a cursorary look at MS's offering. To sum it up in a few words : Yeah, Microsoft's new anti-spyware solution works; but you knew that without reading th earticle.
This was posted just to piss people off and give more publicity for M$. The application is from Giant, not M$, ok???
MS just bought giant AS and rebranded their product as Microsoft. As far as I can tell there's very little change to the program itself beyond the branding.
Giant has always been among the top antispyware products, as evidenced by Failing Grades for most anti-spyware tools so this "MS should know their own security holes better than anyone" stuff isn't strictly relevant. I think MS should foucus more on fixing the secuity problems in IE that are responsible for 90%+ of spyware infections rather than sticking plaster over the holes by buying up anti-spyware solutions. Is this even going to be free when it's released?
Personally I prefer webroot spysweeper anyway, Giant has always generated too many false positives for me.
thats all they'll do.
That said, at least they are doing something, even if it is only buying something.
Of course using it to have people prove they aren't guilty of copyright infringement is a little scummy. At least people can click no.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I always thought my pc was well protected, mcafee antivirus, router, no porn sites (I'm a developer so it takes a lot to fool me) and yet ms antispyware found a file that contained a trojan on one of my drives. Last night when I was about to shut own my computer it gave a warning about the asus probe utility using "fishy" methods to ensure it run on startup
did you forget to take your meds?
Who here only uses 1 or the other of spybot and adaware? Most people know adaware and spybot pick up different things. Hence putting them together VS Microsoft would be a better judge.
I like muppets.
i know this sounds like heresy, and i'm embarrassed to ask -- but does anyone know how effective these tools are in relation to the one that comes with the new version of AOL?
the reason i ask is that, like many of you, i am the CIO of my family, and my family is at the lower end of the spectrum that defines excellent computer using. a few family members have AOL, so i'm curious as to whether it saves me time and headaches to use the AOL tool as opposed to another. because if i have to spend half my christmas fixing dad's xp home that my sister installed kazaa on, i'd like to get back to the egg nog as soon as possible.
go get it
I tested a test lab computer at work. No special attempt to infect it, just running a lot of test freeware and average junk.
The MS product found 3 problems: tightvnc, iMesh infecting every file in my Oracle client directory !!!, and a third one I can't remember. Spybot on the same computer found about 10 things, all different.
So in my little test, MS did pretty poorly. I'm sure that every file in the c:\orahome directory was not infected with adware. And it missed quite a bit that spybot found.
The best that can be said for the Giant/MS product is that it tells you if it finds vnc installed. If it tells you when it finds servU or other ftp products, it will be a useful tool, but I'll stick with Spybot too.
flexbeta.net has the most un-scientific, half-assed reviews ive ever seen, why is slashdot pandering to anonymous submissions from the website's own operator?
Thier last spyware review compared the number of files or components reported by each spyware removal application as the benchmark. The problem is each tool reports files and components in different ways. The end result is just comparing the number of spyware components each product "reports", not the actual number of spyware suites removed......complete rubish of a review.
I, for one, welcome our new anti-spyware overlords.
Seriously.
Yes, it would be better if all the security holes in M$ SW were fixed but guess what: they're not gonna be fixed tomorrow. A good anti-spyware tool is sorely needed. I've cleaned a large number of home and office computers using a number of anti-spyware tools and frankly none of the cut it. At best, some of them suck a little bit less than the rest. I find that at least 3 separate tools are needed to find, clean and keep clean a normal luser's puter. If M$ can come up with a tool that is efficient, free and automagically upgradeable I'd sure as hell cheer.
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
I wouldn't be surprised if somehow the MS spyware removal tool fails to fix anything Moz related.
Help fight continental drift.
>Ah the beauty that is peer-review
Yeah, that's why the root shell exploit came out this week.
There is a problem with the database that is preventing the site from working.
An email has been sent to the administrator notifying them of the problem. Please try again later.
They're letting us slashdot their mail server too?
Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
Glad MS Anti-spyware advised me of that. How come the other remote utility on my computer, Remote Desktop, wasn't detected too? Oh wait... that's right.
MS "anti-spyware" listed VNC as spyware with a horrible explanation of what it was.
It looks like MS is already labeling software they do not like / approve of as "spyware" which is unethical at the very least and illegal if you consider the anti-trust implications.
It even detected and removed Firefox and my Linux partition. Ad-aware missed those.
fisheye1969,
Are you giving your sexual partner what she wants?
A Call For A New Slashdot Moderation Level!
Did they finnaly decide that IE and activeX was spy ware or what?
God,root what's the difference? I read slashdot, there for I errr... am stupid?
MS leaves fixes to 3rd party. WAAAA!! why doesn't ms fix their own shit
MS releases patches to fix their product. WAAA!!! this patch broke my already broken system.
MS release tools to detect and fix malicious apps that ruin their product. WAAAA!! a lot of spam companies will go out of business
damned if you do, damned if you don't
did you forget to take your meds?
Your point being? MS never hid the fact they purchased Giant's software. Many applaud this as another proactive step MS has taken in order to help the common user avert infection by malicious developers. Oooh, all the spyware and viruses are probably a Linsux community conspiracy to degrade MS software and thus promote OSS crap.
Until companies pay off Microsoft to allow their spyware to be installed?
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
I intentionally infected my work XP machine with spyware about a month ago. Why? well, the amount of requests I was getting from friends, landladies etc to "just take a quick look" at their dell to see why it had gone so slow and IE takes forever to load pages etc. When I get there to take a "quick" look, it inevitably ends up with an OS reinstall and reinstalling office etc... then there's the, "but I had Office2k+1", "Where's the cd?", "well it was a friend that put it on for me! Why isn't it there anymore, what did you do?", "I told ya you'd lose whatever I didn't back up!", "But can't you just put it back?", "Well, you know, you don't have a licence...", "Yeah but no-one does, can't you just put it back? *wink*". Grr.. do someone a favour... Anyway, I'd prefer to just remove the spyware. S&D and Adaware just don't cut it. I was wondering if stopping startup items with msconfig and silentrunners would be enough... but anyway to cut a long story short. My work PC got worse and worse, seems some spyware was installing others, D/l'ed the beta of MS Antispyware yesterday and after about 30 mins IE was working ahgain everthing looks clean and its now my antispyware of choice, even if it is still in beta. I'll be deflecting my friend's friends with "download this , install and run and see you later"
>Yeah, that's why the root shell exploit came out this week. No. That's why it was fixed so quickly.
According to this article on Full Disclosure you better have your credit card within reach in case you are planning to use this product.
Nils
If the MS Windows OS vould be coded right we vouldn't need anti spyware tools in first place...
Things in a rear mirror might be behind you
Exactly, my antivirus (Panda Antivirus) has a simular feature: you can send suspicious files to them.
I'm pretty sure that Microsoft uses the information to tell whether the recommended action should be ignore (like for MSNger Plus! - not spyware, just contains an optional adware toolbar for a "sponser") or remove (for pretty much any software that is a true security threat).
Now... when it becomes self aware and causes a nuclear war in 1997, then we'll get worried.
I just went to download this software to try it out. It took me about 10 minutes to be able to read the product ID off the side of my Dell computer (which is under my desk which is extremely dark). At least the MS jerks that came up with that product ID could've kept out zeroes (which look like O's) and eights (which look like B's).
I guess Microsoft's commitment to keeping the Internet safe from spyware stops when their profits are concerned.
I'm a big tall mofo.
With the number of recent Linux local root exploit, perhaps such a tool is needed ;-)
I just tried it--it didn't find a thing, which I suppose is good!
Wait wait wait! Microsoft is going to charge for their program?
Maybe I haven't been following the story very closely, but that seems like a stupid move. "Our operating system and browser allow this stuff in the first place, now pay us to remove it."
Keeping that in mind, I'll stick with the FREE AA and SB.
step MS has taken in order to help the common user avert infection by malicious developers
:) Medicine has evolved pretty much in the last couple of hundred years you know, so you can easily get pills for your delusions :)
conspiracy to degrade MS software
Good heavens
Well, the ignorance part is harder to cure, 'cause it's more up to you then doctors.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Will it automatically remove Windows XP for you?
;)
If so, this might be one of the few good products to be sto^h^h^hReleased by Micro$oft.
So this is how they are going to promote their new search engine.
Ok, I know spyware/adware/viri are a blight on our wonderful internet but here's what I find fascinating about them:
Computers are becoming analogous to small ecosystems. In my mind I often compare the idea to leaving a loaf of bread in my back yard to connecting a fresh windows XP install to a cable modem, maybe surfing a few shady websites and letting it sit for a few months.
In my backyard all kinds of organisms will appear to utilize the bread's resources, birds, insects, bacteria, mold, and who knows what else. And also on this hypothetical computer again all kinds of organisms will be drawn to use up all of the computer's resources (processing/bandwidth) including spyware, adware, virii, worms, etc. I just find it really fascinating how a natural phenomenom like this is finding its way into a manmade system like the internet.
My prediction along these lines is that we're going to see some amazing instances of AI coming from these 'weeds' of the internet (spyware,virii, spam, etc) since they're most 'organic stuff' in the internet system.
Discuss, discuss. (I hope I could express this idea well enough, the analogy seems so clear to me.)
Was your oracle client actually infected, or was it a false positive? I got the same results when I ran giant on a system with the oracle client installed.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you're worried about Viruses and spyware, get a Mac, problem solved.
Silly Windows...
Releasing crap cleaners instead of solving the problem. If they enforce the use of non-administrator accounts like every Free *nix OS out there does it can get much better.
There's a service called "Secondary Logon" which allows you to run with different priviledges, just like sudo. I've tried to install a screensaver armed with BargainBuddy under a limited account and I couldn't, so it can improve security a while. Combine a non-root account with anti-virus, spyware detection, Firefox, Thunderbird and Gaim and your Windows security gets much better.
Add a free firewall like Kerio, deny incoming packets, permit only known packets, and it's even better.
The main problem in Windows is now it's users and developers culture: even image viewers require administrative priviledges to work (Picasa for example). But the are free alternatives for Windows that don't.
My Windows got safer with those habits, and I didn't need to install SP2 on XP to do it.
PIII-850 w/ 192 MB RAM, SP2 slowed it a lot.
Both Ad-aware and Spybot are popular and estabilished, which means that newer spyware/adware knows them, knows how to hide, avoid them or even completely disable them, even if they're frequently updated. So it isn't surprising that MS AntiSpyware performs better now, but that doesn't tell anything about how it will perform in few months from now.
People who like this sort of sig will find this the sort of sig they like.
It's fun seeing everyone freak out because Microsoft bought and improved a decent program
Face it, no OS is perfect, and MS is adding more protection to theirs; that's a _good_ thing. They have a massive support crew, and can do a good job, indeed they have here. They catch more cruft, so use it. If anyone seriously thinks MS is generating false positives to look good, they have seriously warped worldviews.
puts ("Python r0cks\n");
The MS utility fonud some Dutch porn dialer that was on my system since 2003. AdAware never found it.
But what wowed me were the useful utilities in the "advanced tools". I was finally able to disable a few annoying system tray icons(totally forgetting how to do it in Win2k). I still can't get the Nvidia driver utilities off, but MS is not to blame in that case.
The tracks eraser functionality goes way beyond a simple "url cleaner". You can clear the document history, etc for TONS of apps. I'm wondering when the anti-MS zealots will be yelling that it will be a useful tool for child pornographers(heh).
The GUI is a bit shoddy. I wish I could keep the heiarchial list of stuff when I'm inspecing the startup apps, etc, and there's no + to collapse/expand. Either way, I love the advanced utilities alone, and could probably clean out TONS of spyware, etc if I run this on my dad's PC.
I have problems loading the page, so I wonder if the things it found were "just" cookies since the object count was so high.
The first Ad-Aware scan revealed 1309 infected objects and a second scan immediately after a reboot resulted in 291 more infected objects reported. After removal of those objects, we ran Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta. AntiSpyware's scan revealed a whopping 1,877 infected files left over by the Ad-Aware not to mention the nearly 3,000 registry locations infected. One of the files which Ad-Aware failed to detect was WinTools which is suspected to be a Trojan with a maximum threat level.
It was time to pin Microsoft AntiSpyware against SpyBot S&D by first scanning with SpyBot then checking to see how many files SpyBot had left behind. SpyBot's initial scan resulted in 358 "problems" detected. After running SpyBot a second time to make sure it did not report any other "problems", we ran Microsoft AntiSpyware. AntiSpyware was able to detect 659 infected files on the machine with 2.223 registry keys infected.
So, to begin, Ad-Aware found 1,600 infected elements total. AntiSpyware found 4,877 more. Total: 6,477
SpyBot finds 358. AntiSpyware finds 2,882 more. Total: 3,240
Can anyone explain this? Even if the programs are giving false positives on spyware (and, considering that even having malicious spyware installed, 6,000+ detected compromised elements makes false positives almost a promise rather than a hunch), why would AntiSpyware inconsistently return false positives depending on what program scanned the PC first? Doesn't make any sense at all.
SpywareBlaster is freeware that prevents spyware from installing in the first place:
h tm l
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.
Since I've started using it in addition to continuing to use Ad-Aware and Spybot, I've noticed that Ad-Aware and Spybot no longer have any spyware/adware to report.
I was looking for the Linux version of Microsoft's Anti-Spyware (Beta) and this is what I found on their website:
Before obtaining the requested download, please take a moment to validate your genuine Microsoft Windows installation. Validation assures that you are running an authentic and fully-licensed copy of Windows. Validating now will enable faster access to genuine Windows downloads upon future visits to the Download Center. Please see the Why Validate? page to learn more about the Windows Genuine Advantage program and why validation is recommended.
Now what am I supposed to do?
I ran the MS spyware program. It took half an hour and it didn't find shit. I decided to run AdAware and see how it measured up...it's been running for all of two minutes and it's found a new file.
I recently ran the tool and it detected a "CnsMin (Browser Hijacker)". Not thinking about it too much I ran the repair and it reset Internet Explorer to my default Browser instead of Firefox.
Makes you wonder what MS features will end up in the final release of this tool.
I'm mostly amused by the fact that after I installed the MS Antispyware program, the first pop-up warning it gave me was "Windows Messanger is Running."
Well, it seems like unxtools qualify as spyware. Makes one wonder how they determine the signatures of files they believe are spyware.
Let's see:
"Minimum system requirements for Windows AntiSpyware (Beta):
-Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server(TM) 2003"
Nope not for me.
There was a recent review published, where a comparison was made with these different products. Perhaps it was CNET. I personally use Pest Patrol (for Windows) and have found it to detect a lot of crap these other tools miss. SpyBot is good, but it could be a lot better.
Running this on my parents' PC, I find that it has, in fact, found spyware that neither adaware nor spybot has found.
Only problem is that it's TightVNC. I can understand that -- I mean, someone could use that to access your computer! The weird thing is, it didn't flag Remote Assistance as spyware. Totally missed it.
I think I'll submit a bug.
Well the MS Antispyware is really just Giant Antispyware which is whom they bought out to get the program. The interface and everything looks the same which is probably why it works so well, I have been using Giant Antispyware over Adaware for awhile since doing my own testing Giant worked better. So its Giant's own work that's makes it really good!
a good way to end spyware (at least for now) is use linux...
Use safari.
They even detect their own crap!
Is it me, or is the link to the Microsoft Anti-Spyware fishy? I got all sorts of security warnings from Firefox, and it comes up as an https:// page.
But if I go there from the Microsoft home page proper, it's a non-secure URL.
wtf?
i can testify to MS AS's effectiveness....i used to run adaware scans every few days and found nothing, but with one scan of MSAS, got about 14 infected files the first time, and 5 more the next day. and since its in the beta stage, it will hopefully only get better. this program is definitely worth using, or at least trying.
I tried to teach a guy how to hunt down and remove his own stubborn spyware..
check processes, and end'em, search for them on google, run msinfo and uncheck boxes.. I thought he could handle it- really,
you don't want to know what was left in the c:\windows folder when I got back to him- you really don't- mebbe 50 files....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The site seems to be /.ed already.
There is a problem with the database that is preventing the site from working.
An email has been sent to the administrator notifying them of the problem. Please try again later.
This administrator is going to get a lot of emails...
-- This SIG will self destroy in 3 seconds... 3.. 2.. 1.. blast!
I have to give credit to Microsoft purchasing the company who made this AntiSpyware program. Yesterday I went to a client site and their server got infected (surfing on a naughty site I'm sure) and AdAware and Spybot removed a few but the machine was still hosed. I was unable to double click on any icon on the desktop - I would get a GPF. I went in safe mode with networking, downloaded the MS AntiSpyware tool, went in regular mode to install it (LUCKILY that worked, not sure why), went back in safe mode to run the tool, and it wiped out over 20 different spyware signatures and over 100 files, much more than either of the other tools. After a few hours, the machine was running perfectly with the icons allowing to be double-clicked on.
Many applaud this as another proactive step MS has taken
LOL! Give me a break! That's like saying the guy who gave you poison, then took you to the hospital is your friend.
Among the things MS Anti-Spyware found on my system (which is actually well-maintained, so perhaps not the best test-bed) none was a real hit, they were all false positives.
It even managed to warn against registry settings put in place by SpyBot to ensure a malicious site runs in internet explorer's restricted zone!
Also, it reported with glee that TightVNC is a dangerous hacking tool. I happen to use it to help out people, exactly the kind of people who are likely to remove it if AntiSpyware complains about it (e.g. my mom).
Then a load of DLLs that are actually dummy DLLs shipped with the "lite" version of a (once upon a time) popular ad/spyware ridden app - again, it's detecting its competition!
And then there are the residual files/empty directories/registry settings that adaware/spybot didn't remove some months ago when I tried an app that came with ad/spyware. No active components at all.
Another thing I don't like about it is that it's user interface doesn't scale properly when you've adjusted your DPI settings.
Also, its on-access scanner (for want of a better word) comes with an enormous performance hit, and is mostly concerned with Internet Explorer hacks. Those are a minor concern for me since I use firefox, and besides, Microsoft should fix IE, not ship cycle/ramhungy monitoring applications for it (though that's hardly GIANT's fault).
In other words, I'm underwhelmed.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
I just ran it on my system and got 0 infected files; so it's probably not jus padding itself for the sake of padding itself. (I don't install lots of crap, so I'm not surprised it didn't find anything.)
paintball
Yeah so the MS Product gets the most false positives! This methodology sucks. Don't get me wrong I hope they get it right! Windows needs defences!
In 1995, Microsoft Windows decided that all third party TCP/IP stacks were "viruses". If they detected that someone had installed an alternative WINSOCK.DLL or WSOCK32.DLL (which was the entire point of a non-MS TCP/IP product) then Windows would automatically delete it and replace it with its own.
Microsoft stopped doing that a year later, after the DoJ stepped in, but not before they had wiped the major competing TCP/IP stack vendors off the face of the earth.
Watch for them to do the same thing with their anti-"spyware" product. How can they resist?
It detected my "TightVNC" installation as possible spyware, but didn't say anything about the Windows Terminal Services service running ....
I earn my living cleaning out Viruses, Spyware, Scumware and other noxious creatures living in the bowels of Windows OSs. So it was with high hopes I tried the new package from Giant...opoohs......I meant Microsoft. I am happy to report that on my first couple of test machines; that happened to be own by somebody else, MS's software was able to find and to correct malware that had been missed by AdaWare and SpyBot. It picked up fragments of programs long gone from the machine; Limeware, Grokster, Kaaza, etc. In addition it picked up trojans the other two passed over. This is not a surprise as an independent report form Eric Howes highlited the fact that this software picks up what falls thru the cracks with AdaWare and SpyBot. I was going to buy the commercial version, but MS bought the company.....Thumbs Up. I hope they keep it free as MS owes it's customer base on this issue!!!!
It's not done by clicking (though there is nothing that prevents writing a little GUI frontend), but combination of ps, lsof and a package manager (rpm -qvf , dpkg-query -S) gives a pretty good idea, what the executable is, and what it is doing, or who is accessing a particular file.
And if someone wants to find out, what a program is doing right now, there is always strace (there are countless cases when I had to merely run
strace -fp <pid> 2>&1 |grep open
to find out, what is missing or broken).
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
oh yes, i can't wait until microsoft finally decides to release an OS. surely the linux zealots will be crushed by such an awesome piece of software. oh wait...
If Microsoft ever offers a crapware detector, that will kill then delete two birds with one stone.
No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
Talk about the fox in the henhouse.
The MS program doesn't actually count the number of FILES it detects as spyware, but the number of SIGNATURES it detects. This means that one file can result in several detections. Ad-Aware does the same thing. To me the biggest advantage of the MS products is that, for now, it is free and has a resident program to deny access to malicious code. However, it seems like the stuff it detects is the same stuff that SpyBot's TeaTimer stops. I am not impressed with how far along the software is considering the time, because it is built on a well-established program. Just look in the task manager and you can see that they didn't bother to change the file name.
"Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot."
Maybe because M$ puts most of that spyware there in the first place?
/ somewhere in the m$ mothership Bill cackles evilly as he drains his customer's back accounts without their knowledge
A co-worker ran it on his system and afterwards his network stack is trashed. Last I heard he still did not have it working. To quote him "I thought if it was from Microsoft it would be safe to run"
1) Buy a quality third-party ad removal product
2) ????^H^H^H^HBundle product and destroy competition
3) Profit!
4) Add useless features and security holes
5) Profit! some more
Couldn't resist
Rather than releasing band-aid hacks like a spyware scanner, Microsoft needs to start promoting safe and secure computing habits. Microsoft's code is getting more secure, but it doesn't mean anything if the user can accidentally infect themselves by simply visiting a website and being suckered into installing some random spyware app. Microsoft, more than anything, needs to start discouraging users from running as a superuser account all the time. This would greatly reduce the amount of damage a virus or worm could cause, and almost eliminate the spyware problem, all without needing to run Yet Another Program.
I dont.
So I'm looking for a job, does Gator give you good benefits? ;)
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Why do you think they bought it? M$ will let it be good for short term and then kill it. Right now fucked up computers choked with spyware is driving people to buy new machines. Fix it too good and sales are hurt. Not addressing the problem is also harmful to M$ bottom line. This way they look like the hero while eventually perpetuating the problem.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
The software was bought by MS anyway, so it could have a chance of being good.
University of Washington
Student
I just attempted to install Microsoft AntiSpyware on a machine from which Internet Exploder had been mostly removed via the utility Win98 Lite. It refused to install, insisting upon the presence of Internet Exploder 6. The machine in question uses Mozilla, with which we're quite happy. It appears that Microsoft is tying yet another product to the use of Internet Exploder 6, probably in violation of the recent DoJ Consent Decree. Will the Bush Justice Department do anything?
Linux will succeed becuase you have many groups contributing to computing some free some not so free but it creates a economy around it of sorts.
Microsoft however cant stand for some reason to be the OS that great things are built on like Linux can and is being today. They try to take their OS and adapt and squeeze out what they consider competition. Then they take the products that other companies make to run on Windows such a Ad-Aware, Norton Antivirus, Lotus Notes and a myriad of other programs out there and try to build them into Windows. Netscape employeed people who designed, maintained, and supported their browser. Microsoft rolled out IE and tied it into their OS sparking a controversy that eventually landed it in court. Yes the consumer has suffered but what about those Netscape employees? Did Microsoft give them jobs making IE better and supporting it? Hardly those guys were muscled out of the marketplace. Now I'm sure they got jobs elsewhere but what and where are they doing things.
This can go for any number of companies that are threatened becuase Microsoft refuses to make windows as good and secure as it can be they only want to add the next cool feature into their OS.
Symantec, Mcaffee, Real, and many other companies employ many good people with ideas and not just the engineers and software hackers, there are secretaries, janitors, and guards that also are employeed and probably buy Windows. Once they lose their jobs becuase Microsoft muscled their company out of business then they probably wont be buying as many computer products anymore.
Thus Microsoft sits there and kills their own bottom lines.
Of course were all eventually damned in that robots and smart computers will replace our jobs. Just look at those poor bastards that are being replaced in the Toyota autoplants here soon. This will spread to all auto makers across the world and it will not stop there. Productivity increases due to these robots will put strain initally on supply lines becusae those humans cant keep up and then one company will pick up the slack by having robots do that portion of the work and other companies will have to do so to keep up.
From there it's basically a self feeding reaction that eventually will nullify every job we have or can move to in the next 50-100 years.
Oh and governments would step up to help you?
That "Dutch porn dialer" was cat.exe, a Win32 port of the Unix utility "cat". Hope you don't use shell scripts!
'Nautilus has no viewer capable of viewing MicrosoftAntiSpyware.exe' :-)
*grin*
Btw, microsoft's certificate is invalid, according to FF.
Talkin' about support, Win 98, 98SE and ME are all unsupported, and they are still being used on large scale. A bit of an arrogant 'go to hell' mentality if you ask me. There is no real technical reason why it can't work at a 9x system.
Dissapointing...
It used to be pretty easy to get rid of spyware.
0. Get all Windows updates, patches, etc.
1. Get both programs (Spybot and Adaware)
2. Update both via downloading the newest signature files.
3. Reboot in safe mode. (press F8, etc.)
4. Run both programs.
5. Optionally open msconfig (not available in Win2K) and/or regedit and check to see what is still running and track down each item at http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm or similar.
6. Reboot.
7. Optionally take a look to see if any items you removed in step 5 recreate themselves.
8. Optionally install firefox, etc.
Heh heh. Re-reading this makes it seem not so easy, but everything is easy when you know how.
I have noticed newer spyware variations doing two VERY BAD THINGS.
1. Preventing adaware, spybot, norton, etc. from working. Via the hosts file or otherwise.
2. Modifying system files so that they can not be removed. I turned one friend's computer (running XP) into a paperweight. Because the program was manipulating winlogon.exe. Adaware removed it and the computer would logout every time you tried to logon. I had to extract the file from an XP boot disk.
OK. So the point of this post was that since Microsoft knows their files the best, one would assume they could check file checksums and file dates, etc. and prevent these sorts of shenanigans.
They have had a program called System File Checker sfc.exe since the windows 98 days. I always thought an adaware program combined with this would be nice.
Although I have never figured out how these spyware programs can circumvent "system file protection" when it is a royal pain for US to do so.
..just guessing..
Usually results like this are hatches only in one nest.
No more I say.
I got an ad saying my computer may be infected with spyware...but then it switched to some girl in panties so all was okay.
this sig deleted by another sig
Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot.
I'm pretty sure that people get tired of anti-Microsoft types bashing the beast, but I still believe that there's good reason to question this - given Microsoft's past actions.
One has to ask the question:
Is this performance because of knowledge Microsoft has, that other companies don't have access to?
Was the software just re-branded, and the software was this good before Microsoft got its claws on it; or did Microsoft tweak it in a way that only Microsoft would know how to?
We all know about APIs, and how in the past Microsoft products have outperformed those of the competition due to 'hidden information'.
Could Microsoft's understanding of the inner-workings of Windows give it an unfair advantage?
Linux/Open Source/Anti Microsoft News
I know that the two business plans are hard to distinguish at first glance, but be patient and eventually you'll see the differences.
Microsoft has a huge advantage here.
Your typical Slashdot company's business model, call it TinFoilHatCo:
Step 1.) create / release spyware
Step 2.) create spyware removal
Step 3.) ????
Step 4.) Profit (??)
Microsoft:
Step 1) create / release buggy OS
Step 2) Profit.
Step 3) Profit.
Step 4) Profit.
Step 5) Profit.
Step 6) Dance like a monkey
Step 7) Profit.
Step 8) Profit.
Step 9) Profit.
Step 10) Update buggy OS in a way similar to adding a third story to a building with a foundation designed for one story. Leave many holes for spyware.
Step 11) Profit
Step 12) Profit
Step 13) Profit
Step 14) Profit
Step 15) Profit
Step 16) Claim to be a hero by releasing an 'Free' piece of software that only cleans up half the problems you created in the first place.
Step 17) Profit
Step 18) Profit
Step 19) Profit
Step 20) Goto step 1
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
One flaw in the review cited in the article above that it compares the products by noting the number of items they reported. By this metric, the best antispyware program would be one that reported each bit of each spyware file or registry entry individually..... "160 million bits of PUS [Microsoft's own acronym, which stands for "potentially undesirable software] found!" Needless to say, it's better to compare apples to apples.
This a band-aid approach to the real problem. That being home users login by default with Admin access. Users should use a non-Admin account that is unable to modify the OS, drivers and security software. Also, the c:\windows folder should be off-limits for adding or changing files except for Microsoft and security software.
How about attaching your claria.exe text file to all your outgoing emails, sending your emails out with a subject of "I'm not selling Viagra , Cialis, or Rolex Watches!!!!" and see what kind of false positives you get from anti-spam and anti-virus filters. It's not a precise science, so I'd expect false positives when you make a concious attempt to fool the program.
That's not to say they can't make it more accurate, but they may be trading off accuracy for speed (filename match rather than file signature). If I was designing it I wouldn't be real concerned with trying to correctly deal with bored users trying to fool our program by renaming their important documents to "claria.exe".
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
AdAware detects well over 50% adware out there. Microsoft beats them by at least twice the amount... how is it possible?
"The suspect files are known spyware from a known spyware companies:"
SPY._ff_mz (firefox.exe)
SPY._mz_mz (mozilla.exe)
SPY._gn_gmp (gimp.exe)
"The following software is extreme security risk spyware:"
SPY._uv_vnc (vncserver.exe)
SPY._pt_pt (putty.exe)
"The following image files on your harddrive contain dangerous spyware:"
SPY._ko_lnx (vmlinuz in knoppix.iso)
SPY._gn_bsh (bash in knoppix.iso)
.... and so on...
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
christ on a crutch
Funny, I always thought Christ was a crutch.
SpyNet?! Sounds more like SkyNet. The "intelligent" Microsoft product will soon learn to detect spyware on it's own using AI, eventually leading towards Microsoft Product Self Awareness.
ZX2C4
I nearly choked when it almost immediately popped up a window, the contents of which were on the order of "Holy Sh*T! You've got Windows Messenger on your machine! Everyone knows that piece of crap will cause you no end of grief. Can I delete it for you now?" Someone on the "change everything from 'Giant' to 'Microsoft'" team is going to get a stern lecture from Bill and Steve soon...
That said, I was fairly impressed with the software, but considering Giant won a recent antispy test, I'm not surprised. Slick package and has caught a few things Spybot S&D and AdAware missed - although it doesn't appear to find any cookies (considering I use Firefox in a pretty strict constrained way, maybe there just weren't any).
Another useless application...
...
:)
If Windows were to ASK the user during startup what services and programs to autostart (except for the well known and checksummed original, MS, services), most of the spyware wouldn't even start!
Some will say that users will answer "yes, start that too" to all programs, but that's mostly depending on the GUI used for the asking process:
* Perhaps all processes/services should by default not start automatically
* Each have a (short) warning text.
* Only one place for all autostarts! Not HKLM, HKCU, Startup,
* Figure out more stuff here yerselves... I don't work at MS and I don't want to invent stuff for them for free!
Since most users believe that they need to buy a new computer because the old one is slow, but it's due to spyware (are Intel/MS supporting the spyware creators to increase sales?), which clings to the OS like a spider in all of it's autostart places...
I have 1 Gbps Internet access@home
Of course a Microsoft product can be good...
BillG always buys the best he can get...
Just be patient and give them some time though. Software is complex. If you want the calibre of software MS is more commonly known for, it'll take a team of hundreds of MS developers two or three new releases to really foul it up during the "product integration" process. I mean, look at Hotmail--it took them a couple years after they bought it to introduce service disruptions on the scale only Microsoft could achieve.
are better anyway.
I worked on a system that was infested with spyware and adware. I ran both Spybot and Adaware on it. I still wasn't certain that the worst was gone, so I downloaded Trojan Hunter and there were numerous trojans found on the system. They were listed as adware trojans.
It labeled emule2k spyware. So I guess open source is spyware now?
I went to the activex controls bit and it came up this: Microsoft Windows Update Control Engine This is an unknown ActiveX File path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\iuengine.dll Description: Windows Update Control Engine Publisher: Microsoft Corporation seem microsoft can't recognise thier own software as safe.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
It can't be very good, it didn't find any spyware on my Windows 2000 computer :)
The truth or interpretation..
To be fair to Microsoft, their software picked up things on my PC which I knew were "dubious", but I knew were safe (e.g. Kazaa Lite as opposed to Kazaa, etc).
It's obvious that this software is aimed towards the uninformed masses in the same way SP2. I'd wager that most non-techie people barely know what spyware is, let alone how to find spyware-free "lite" versions of software, assuming they exist.
Also, the real time agent kicks serious ass. I'm amazed that people have even tried to criticise that (simply because its MS) by saying "oh great, yet another TSR program to run in the background, way to go M$!". When I installed the latest Sun JVM it informed me that a Browser Helper Object was installed and that it was "safe". A nice touch.
In other news, how come there hasn't been a front page story on these serious flaws in Mozilla and Firefox ? Double standards? I'm all for bashing MS when appropriate but lauding every single IE flaw with a seperate story and ignoring something like this doesn't exactly paint the site as unbiased.
This is essentially old news. Microsoft's Anti-Spyware software is just Giant's rebranded.
All three failed to detect and remove the spyware on the system. This is particularly depressing when you realize that nothing uncommon was installed on the test system, this is just the crap everyone and their sister is infected with.
Am I the only one that considers this piece of software the worst implemented software of Microsoft ?
I am yet to understand WHY anybody (excluding Microsoft) ever uses it, when there are free and open-source alternatives.
I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
I'm cleaning up a clients laptop, and decided to use the new microsoft spyware beta. I ran it first:
5 infected files
1 threat (real vnc)
Then I ran spybot after running the microsoft program:
12 files found
including valueclick
advertising.com
avenue a, inc
double click
DSO exploit
fastclick
mediaplex
and finally I ran adaware:
25 critical objects found
All of these programs had the signatures updated. Spybot and adaware collectively caught 37 more files than the microsoft beta did...
But it is still in beta I guess.
"Sometimes the most intelligent statement is the one that is left unsaid"
In any case, I uncheked the "install real time protection agents" option during installation, but after running the scan I ran through the options to see what other features it had. Surprise, RTP was enabled. Oh the irony of MS AntiSpyware behaving in the same shady fashion as Spyware apps. ;)
So if you do install it but don't want the RTP agents, make sure you hit up the options before quitting.
Freedom to fear. Freedom from thought. Freedom to kill.
I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
I just downloaded it and ran it and it did the same thing to me. Just about everything was re-enabled after I specifically un-checked it during the install.
It also made my PC run slower than before.
It found VNC as "spyware", but it set the "remove/ignore" option to "ignore" so that wasn't so bad.
Other than that, it didn't find anything. But I run FireFox with adblock and both spybot and ad-aware so I wasn't expecting anything to show up.
I've uninstalled Microsoft's anti-spyware and it left the directory and log files on my PC without giving me any uninstall warnings.
It's typical Macro$loth to extort money out of it's victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcustomers by making them subscribe to a "service" that covers security holes in their products rathar than fix the problems in the first place.
You know what else this tells me? It tells me that Macro$loth know they will never be able to security the pile of crap they foist of on the public as an operating system.
I did not experience this behavior, nor did several other readers. Please mod parent down.
It came, it scanned, it erased, it crashed.
No synthesizers
...as a free lunch.
...but where's the 'e' come from?
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
If Microsoft attacked a problem head on, Gates and Ballmer would be unemployed. Covering up a problem with another program doesn't solve the problem of sloppy code since they have contracts to PC makers to sell Windows on every PC. No competition = monopoly = variant of communism.
Sorry, didn't do this to me either. Homepage on IE is still google, and the hosts file appears to have been left alone.
So all I have to to is make an unsubstantiated post about a M$ program doing evil things to my machine and I get modded up? Oh yeah... this is Slashdot.
I'd agree with the first part of your point.... but when you go on the political rant by saying "you'll always be sorry the Democrats didn't stay in power long enough to break Microsoft up" - you lose me.
Why can't people get it through their heads that Microsoft's problems are part of the natural course of free-market economics? They didn't start out a huge business, placing their OS on everyone's computer. They *earned* that position through superior marketing and business deals. Now that they've become so huge, they're running into the problems that ALWAYS plague the "top dog" in a given market. They start slipping... failing to innovate, and resort to buyouts of other people's products. The mistakes they made years ago (bugs in products, security holes, etc.) come back to haunt them 10x over, because their products are in use by so many people now. The old "too many cooks spoil the soup" addage comes into play, because too many hands are involved in the production/updates of their software products.
Eventually, Microsoft will become a recipe for failure from the *inside* - and someone with more competitive edge will emerge as a new market leader. There's no need for Democrats to break this business up, and frankly, suggesting it's the "best way" to handle the problems they've caused seems truly un-American to me.
Apparently it can't tell the difference between Kazaa and Kazaa Lite.
Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot.
Yeah, but AntiSpyware doesn't work on 98/se, Ad-Aware and SpyBot do. I and a whole lotta other people are going to hold off buying XP as long as we can.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
Holy crap, what world do YOU live in? Netscape may have started off as the superior product, but it degenerated into one of the worst pieces of software into deployed. Until the Mozilla project got going, IE was far more usable than Netscape.
So I get to pay Microsoft for software that fixes security problems that they created by not fixing their OS to begin with?
I think not.
r
It doesn't seem to like MsgPlus. I know MsgPlus has some sort of spyware it likes to install, but it's completely optional. And I didn't install the spyware, and it didn't detect it, but it still detects MsgPlus as spyware. Is this just because MsgPlus is licensed?
Portland, North Dakota Puppies
Pest Patrol is by and far the best out there, and wasn't even included..what a bunch or turds...
They think that the number of gotchyas will count, intead of what's really out there...
Take it from a tech with 200 private clients...
Pest patrol, sybot+spyware blaster.
We haven't gotten screwed yet...never will either.
Nuff said..
I wonder if Microsoft are illegally leveraging their OS monopoly here... after all it's only Microsoft who can send an internal memo to all staff saying "hey, did any of you guys stick something called grstblbflo.dll in Windows, and if so, what (if anything) is it doing?"
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Unfortunately it seems that NONE of these software can remove VX2 :( :(
Ahem, has someone forgotten the reason for the antitrust suit? Anti-competitive tying and such? Have you forgotten the conviction? And then, just as the punishment phase was to begin, a new administration came in and told the DOJ "drop it".
Your other points are valid, but this was very obviously a political decision to drop the punishment of illegal use of monopoly power.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
It is all a matter of trust. We don't have access to the source code so we have to trust the provider or not use it. Rockerfeller said you can trust a man to be himself. I trust Microsoft to be itself; a greedy monopolist that will stop at nothing, legal or illegal, to advance itself and its control.
I use Microsoft products as little as I can. And older products and versions rather than newer.
One fish to another, "Look its a REAL worm this time! Not like the last fake one with a hook in it." Other fish "Then what's the line back to the fisherman for?"
There is no doubt Microsoft is providing this as a fishhook for computer users. If you think you're smart enough not to get OWNED, well, so does every fish that was ever caught.
i ran ms anti spyware on 2.4ghz p4,256mb ram and it had trouble handling it.Besides the download itself is 6mb compared to the near 2-3mb of adware n spybot. :-p
If you run it on a badly infected slow pc, wonder what will happen to the poor machine.It will die of the anti spyware instead of the spyware.
Lord of the Binges.
Did anyone else notice the lovely bubbly MS icons in the top-right of Flexbeta.net's home page? Seems to me like the review could have been biased...
MS leaves fixes to 3rd party. WAAAA!! why doesn't ms fix their own shit
MS releases patches to fix their product. WAAA!!! this patch broke my already broken system.
Instead of fixing Internet Explorer for all it's OS's and untangling it from every part of the OS, 3rd parties are left to create tools to remove malicious apps that exploit IE's poor design.
MS modifies IE but only for XP, not 2K, 9x or any other variant. Wahhh!!!! I only bought Win2K a year or two ago, yet why won't they fix their crappy browser?
Instead of fixing the problem at it's root (ie fixing exploits, blocking popups and disabling ActiveX, untangling IE from OS), MS buy a crappy Spyware vendor and sell their shoddy software to suffering MS customers as if it was created by MS. Even when the FREE alternatives are better products.
Conclusion:
MS win at every level. They don't have to fix their crap, and they sell a band-aid to customers for profit!!??!!!
I always thought the best solution would be to require them to open their secret file formats, APIs, and network protocols, and invalidate their software patents. The market would take care of the rest from that point.
LRC, the best-read libertarian site on the web
after running the program on my laptop it came back and told me that vnc was installed, and it was a potential risk. it went on to say that if it was knowingly installed or installed by an administrator it was probably ok.
i think it went a bit far, as vnc is not installed as a service and is otherwise not running.
Yeah works great, I ran it on a client's PC and it uninstalled Windows. :)
reado wtopic =68395
http://forum.emule-project.net/index.php?sh
while its seems like bug or wrong item in db, its strange how eMule could be indenfified as edonkey2000.
-- Technology for the sake of technology is as pathetic as eschewing technology because it's technology.
Yea, but adaware and spybot both complain that cookies are spyware, and they complain about MRU lists as well depending on setup. That's somewhat debatable. How many of the 37 files were cookies?
Isn't this like giving painkillers to a man with his hand stuck in the door. How about creating a simpler, less vulnerable product in the first place? It's like an automaker claiming to have great customer service because they repair new vehicles for free, when they could have just produced quality vehicles that do not need repairs.
"Something unknown is doing we don't know what." - Sir Arthur Eddington
Whether you think the anti-trust case was a good idea or a bad one, you have to concede that Microsoft might well have been broken up by now if Al Gore had won the election. Pointing out that fact doesn't make me a partisan.
Again, your memory needs refreshing. MS's dominance of the OS market is pretty much an accident. That actually got into the business against their own will. They wanted to sell development tools for the new IBM PC, but that meant that IBM had to adopt an OS those tools would run on. Which is why they steered IBM to CP/M. When that fell through, they hurriedly licensed a CP/M clone from Seattle Computer Products, which became the basis for MS-DOS.MS-DOS is one of the biggest abortions since the rise of modern technologies (find me a single OS expert who will give it high marks). Yet its very flaws created such a high level of lockin with the PC platform itself -- which was also pretty flawed. Since compatibility soon became the name of the game, clone computers had to reproduce all of IBMs mistakes. And since their biggest mistake was choosing MS-DOS, computer makers ended up paying a tithe to Bill for every box they sold.
But even if you were correct, and Bill achieved his success by technical brilliance and plain good business -- so what? He got his reward when he became the richest dude on the planet. He did not earn the right to destroy the very marketplace that made him rich. Microsoft's role in the current marketplace is bad for all of us -- including Microsoft. Calling me ideological names isn't going to change that.
It also felt the need to alter my hosts file for me. It didn't like the fact that I had "ads.msn.com" pointing to 127.0.0.1 (as well as over 100 other ad domains; the only one it cared about was MSN!)
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
I mean how does anyone know MS is not simply playing the numbers game, again?
What I mean by verification of the findings is that of the anti-spyware results. Are the findings really actually items of spyware nature?
Or is MS simply counting any competing product to their kingdom?
It's no surprise that Microsoft is better at detecting spyware, most of it is their fault.
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Without a God, life is only a matter of opinion.
--Douglas Adams
It is able to detect twice or three times as much as AdAware/Spybot because it includes things that are not spyware or malware. For example, it included all of the files in Flashget even though AdAware/Spybot already cleaned off the adware it installed, and also TightVNC, which has no spyware in it.
In addition, it detected leftover files (.ini and uninstall.exe) from WhenU and another spyware app that had already been cleaned out by AdAware/Spybot.
Suffice it to say I'm not all that impressed. At least AdAware and Spybot use surgical precision in order to keep from fucking up your system. MS's anti-spyware seems to just delete everything it sees, with prejudice.
However, if I had wanted to remove leftovers, then this would be the perfect tool to use. I'll probably scan with it occasionally, but I'm going to be very careful to read what it is doing. And, I think most people should take its results with a grain of salt or two.
Having said that, I think that the SpyNet is a great idea. However, I'm very wary about running Agents in the background, especially the "Hundreds and hundreds" it claims to install.
The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to give the government the power to halt corporate activities that were, like Microsoft's, unAmerican in nature and impossible to handle by market forces or any other means. True competition is the essence of a capitalist economy, but Microsoft is the antithesis of competition. Sure, no large corporation lasts forever: Microsoft is no exception and will eventually fall of its' own accord. That will take some time though, so the question is really whether this company should be allowed to continue its illegal activities until that happens (doing a fair amount of damage along the way.) The antitrust lawsuit instituted by the Justice Department was well-conceived, and never forget that Microsoft was adjudged an illegal monopoly. Furthermore, that verdict was upheld on appeal. We'll never know whether or not rescinding Judge Jackson's breakup order was the right thing for the appeals court do have done (and remember, they didn't reverse that decision on the facts of the case, only because there was "an appearance of impropriety" in Judge Jackon's interaction with the press.) Microsoft has done more to hold back the promise of the personal computer revolution than any other single organization, and certainly has earned penalties far in excess of those few that were actually applied. Are Microsoft's marketing and business strategies brilliant? Certainly. Are they legitimate? According to the legal system, no.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I tried it, and it identified one spyware program...incorrectly.
It tagged the C:\WINDOWS\lhsp\tv\tvenuax.dll file as a spyware program, even though it is really the "Lernout & Hauspie TruVoice American English TTS Engine Wrapper", published by Microsoft! If I had just accepted it's recommendation, it would have caused a problem on my system.
Format itself?
Visit www.doc2pdf.net for a free, no need to register,
Let's just agree that's a very good thing that we've moved into an age of superior browser codebases like KHTML and Gecko.
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/08/1 96234
I clicked on the link to M$ AntiSpyware and Firefox told me that www.microsoft.com is not a trusted site. Hmmmmmm.........
Intersting, repoted VNC on mine aswell. I know my machine is clean [well....] but was wondering if anybody is daring running remote assistance and if that is detected as 'spyware/hacing tool'? Also was the VNC signature in the db before microsoft bought their souls?
I stopped using SpyBot & Adaware a long time ago.
They're most admirable projects, however, neither are comprehensive.
Often times, you have to run both to try to remove something, and there is still spyware installed.
Neither offers a preemptive system either (filtering web, watching the registry etc)
The *most* comprehensive program I have found is webroot SpySweeper.
It is incredibly thorough, has staff dedicated to finding new spyware strains, the ability to report suspicious files, the works.
Will the Bush Justice Department do anything?
No.
I tried copying an Ad-Aware SE installtion from another machine onto a Windows 95 box that has IE3 (since Ad-Aware SE refuses to install on 95) and it "requires" several dlls from IE4 and up. For this very reason alone, I have abandoned Ad-Aware SE. I will not bother to go beyond Ad-Aware 6.0 since I despise IE4 and up with a passion. (It's a long story that I don't have the time to get into.)
MS-DOS is one of the biggest abortions since the rise of modern technologies (find me a single OS expert who will give it high marks).
Require said OS expert to run it on a machine with 32K of RAM for a week before listening to him, though. Then allow him to run whatever other OS he chooses on the same platform.
That was a target machine with PC-DOS 1.0.
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
it seems to work reasonably well...
hopefully the final product will fit into M$'s standard AD management strategies...
if you can push it out as an msi, control it with GPOs, and run its updates through SUS (or WUS) i'll be a happy little admin!
a big problem in the anti-spyware arena is that theres nothing with any decent enterpise management built in, even in the expensive licenced products (that's why mcaffee has such a huge share of corp a/v - even if its not the bee's knees in scanners, it has by far the best managabilty)
One guy I talked to refused to even concede that MS-DOS was an actual OS, since it didn't have most of the services that an operating system is supposed to provide. He characterized it as a "program loader".
- Apparently they're not interested in bringing pirates into the MS fold, it only runs on "authorized" installations. Hmmm..
- It asks me if I want it to run at 2 AM, I click "no", then later it reports it's set to run at 2AM. Hmmm....
- I click on Manage 2AM runs, and I see no option to turn them off. If you deselect all runs, it complains that you havent selected any runs. Hmmm...
- Screen is a dog's breakfast:
- non standard panel borders that trail off, looking like a bad screen update.
- The app name appears several times, in different fonts and sizes. One instance is clickable, and takes you to an unexpected summary page. The next text isnt.
- There's a cacophony of active items. There's menus. There's clickable text. There's a separate area on the top right with BOTH icon-like things and clickable text.
- If you click on the things in the upper right, it immediatel;y and irrevokably cancels the current scan. Nice. Not only does it do something unexpected, it doesnt even ask if you want to do it, and you can't back out or continue. Sweet.
- Like many of these thingies, it feels it has to put up the name of every file it is scanning, and update the file totals. And run a dumb little static animation that really makes no sense, as it isnt moving files at all. This is not only useless and misleading information, it slows down the scanning process, especially with older video cards.
- It did find one registry key, but AFAICS it doesnt bother explaining what it is and what the ramifications are. And the button to remove it is inadequately labeled "Continue", which requires some extra text by it explaining what it really does.
I wouldnt call this a Beta, I've seen better preliminary prototype mock-ups.OK, I totally disagree with this post, but the moderators who labelled it "flamebait" are total idiots. The author is spouting a certain party line, but then so is everybody else around here. An honest opinion isn't flamebait just because you disagree with it.
>...
>I think not.
Clearly.
i think that this could be a little missleading. I gave microsofts antispyware program a go and found that it tagged tightvnc as spyware. I can only wonder what other programs it has tagged as spyware
It's probably just harder to hide your spyware from the people who made the OS you're trying to hide it in.
"An honest opinion isn't flamebait just because you disagree with it."
Was this an honest opinion? The poster pretended that Microsoft's PROVEN violations of the law didn't exist. If it was an honest opinion, it was an extremely uninformed opinion.
Since Giant Anti-Spyware was -already- that good to start with.
Helloooooo, is anyone out there?
First, keep in mind that this is indeed "beta" software (that was born out of a mature non-M$ product). It was pretty good, then Microsoft got their hands on it and now it is "beta" software.
First I'll give Microsoft some credit. They are trying something. Then I'll dis 'em a bit and observe that it has by and large been their poor concept of security that has led to all the virus, worm, trojan, and spyware problems. Finally I'll suggest that anti-spyware should have the same kind of "spyware summary" as anti-virus software typically gives access to. If all of the anti-spy companies did this, it would be downright easy to see who is better at what. It would seem to me that these librarys could be great selling points!
For now, I've added Microsoft's anti-spyware to my arsenal. I'll see what it does and doesn't do. It did find something on my computer that Ad-Aware and Yahoo Anti-Spy missed so I'm at least partly pleased. But I've also read the warnings and will be careful at what I let it kill off.
The real time protection is really good... for me, I was using firefox and visited a site, and it installed a spyware which AntiSpyware came up and- get this- actually ASKED ME what I wanted to do- it didn't go and make a decision for me!
Here a simple solution to the problem:
A) Run firefox
B) have a brain (dont download bs like crack.exe, etc)
That simple.
That's why I'll always be sorry the Democrats didn't stay in power long enough to break Microsoft up.
And yet, it was under the Democrats that we got the DMCA.
That's evidence of a short memory, not intentional deceit. Standard for political discussions these days.
Use my crappy browser so you can see how much my new program is! Forcing you to have IE 6 seems like shooting the cows after they left the barn to make sure they dont leave again. I mean if your going to make this prodict, why dont you get immuinization like most of the antispyware programs out there? I wonder if this detects the spyware aol installs, becuase that could end up with a interesting lawsuit
Like the saying goes, never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes. -Pyrotic
Anyone know when the *NIX / OSX port is comming out?
Fuck a cock! Fuck a cock!
and it wouldn't even install.... I double clicked an' everything... My Powerbook doesn't have any virii or adware that I know about but I sure would like to find out if it does....
Maybe it's not for Macs? Do I need to run VirtualPC to use this new miraculous anti-software?
Well, I've never had any of the problems my friends tell me about every other week or so, so maybe I'm okay.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
"Ad-Aware and SpyBot offer great performance for free, yet when Microsoft debuts its AntiSpyware application, it will require a subscription fee."
A subscription fee?! First, they produce an OS that's just open to all manner of spyware one can imagine, then they actually charge to have it removed?!
Wow! I need to get into this business!
Beetle B.
AdAware (latest defs, latest version of app) missed a bunch of stuff which was installed on my system. Not even sure where it came from, since I haven't installed any software on my system in weeks. But this morning, all of a sudden, I'm getting popups and of course simply running the uninstall app does nothing.
AdAware flagged 201 files as adware/spyware/malware, but missed a bunch more, and in any event does not appear to have been able to remove the offending software. MS has caught a lot more, and what's more actually seems to have rooted out the worst of it, crapware from 180searchassistant and from bullseye-network. I'm going to send these assholes a bill for the time it's taken to cleanse my system (and I know I'm going to have to reinstall windows to be 100% certain it's actually gone). I think $150/hr sounds reasonable.
I've been battling a VX2 variant on the family PC for a few days, and saw this slashdot item,
so, I downloaded and tried out this "New Microsoft" antispyware - nope, it can't even see the VX2 beasty running.
Adaware can see it but fails to kill it (when adaware pulls the trigger, explorer.exe reloads, and the beast is right back in action).
Spybot can't see it, neither does avast.
I have my kids trained to avoid risky computing
behavior, but my neices came over last week and....
Sigh...
Bavarian Purity Law of Rice Krispie Squares: Rice Krispies, Marshmallows, Butter, Vanilla.
You could probably leave the "everything else" (games, etc.) software with Windows, or give it to IE so that it has a chance to survive.
My guess is that Office might be the strongest monopoly. However, it would be difficult to illegally leverage the Office monopoly on to other markets, which was really the problem in the first place.
The
[x] Run Microsoft AntiSpyware Now
checkbox's label wasn't clickable. I clicked on it several times before I realized that the thing was borked and that I had to click on the actual checkbox.
Professionals these days.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Just FYI, MS Anti Spyware does report false positives. It believes that TightVNC is spyware. Hmm.. I guess it competes with the MS remote assitance tool. :-) It kinda makes you wonder how it finds "finding twice as many infected files", eh?
DouglasK Do Justly. Love Mercy. Walk humbly with your God.
It probably uses IE in its interface, it wouldn't know how to use Gecko for it.
I have never had a virus, trojan nor spyware. I do nothing special - I don't run adware programs, I don't run av, the only thing I use is a basic old version of Kerio which is primarily to prevent phone-home apps, rather than inbound packets. I download anything and everything. I browse the dodgiest of sites. I only recently started using Firefox: the "hole-riddled" IE managed to survive for something like 5 years without bringing down Armageddon upon my computer.
... of course not. It is really Microsoft's fault and they'll tell themselves that next time they hornily click "Open 'Ann4 K naked##%.vbs'".
It is therefore remarkable to me that the apparently "expert" slashdot community can suffer from so many of the aforementioned. With my rudimentary, almost non-existent precautions, I survive and yet they, feverently anti-MS, pro-linux types, need to disinfect regularly.
Could it be that they're really, despite all the hyperbole, grandstanding and other nonsense that goes on here, not all that competent at all? A little stupid and lacking in common sense? That it is actually trivially easy to prevent that sort of occurrence? Could it be that their feverent anti-ms platitutes were in fact misdirected, and should more properly have been aimed at the eternal weak link, the shortcomings of the end-user, whom they seem to be able to closely identify with?
No
I think you hit the nail on the head with "too many cooks". Committees make poor products, driven individuals or small teams of driven team members make the best products.
I suspect that the only think keeping Microsoft up there is weight of (really quite recent) history.
when Installing , I happened to read the first page, you know the one with the copyright crap etc. ( strange, and unusual for me and i expect most /. 's ).
:)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is seemed to say patented under U.S. copyright law, I thought the 2 where exclusive i.e you can't have both it's one or the other , or has something changed in the land of the free?
at least it means nothing here as you still can't patent SW in the EU yet
Of course the Microsoft software will come up with more matches... they have a better understanding of the internal workings of the Microsoft Operating System.
Wait until they run the competition out of business and then it'll be a totally half-assed app that ignores certain solicitations depending on how much money businesses pay to Microsoft.
Although I will admit that the likelyhood of running free software like Spybot out of business is going to be nearly impossible... which once again shows the value of Free Software.
blah blah blah... i'm tired of writing the obvious.
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Ray Raspberry
raspberry@b3l33t.org
If you watch the video on their web site, it makes a big deal of blaming you if you installed spyware and didn't read every word of the EULA before you installed the software - and actually gave them permission.
I'm curious what % of people read the EULA agreement for the antispyware program?
3 of things it reported on my system are software used by radio stations to push ads at you when you access their streaming audio feeds. The description of course says that if you want the service and the software is required to use it, don't worry about it. Does Microsoft offer a competing streaming software solution? Hmmm...
While Giant might have gotten away with calling some program "infections", I think Microsoft is inviting big time legal problems if they label competitor's software as an "infection".
Final 2006 "Proof of Global Warming" US Hurricane Count -> 0
I tried it and was underwhelmed. The heuristics seem far too simplistic for this thing to actually do any real good for the inexperienced user.
For instance, MS antispyware claimed that I had a key logger on my system (despite Sophos, adaware and spywareblaster giving it a clean bill of health). The file it question was a text file full of release notes.
A bit of experimentation showed that creating an empty text file in c:\program files\coding workshop was enough to trigger this alert! It seems there is a keylogger by a group called Coding Workshop but also a ring tone editor by a company of the same name. MS Antispyware will be advising people to remove parts of their applications.
The tool also pointed the finger of blame at an exe in system32. I don't know what it is but suspect that if it really was a downloader trojan as claimed that Sophos would complain. So given that I *know* that the MS utility is trigger happy do I delete or not? Risk leaving malware on my system or risk deleting something important?
I'm sure it will find and remove spyware but I think it will do so much collateral damage that many users would be better off either using a different tool or just living with the malware!
Ian
Acording to the law, they have to use thier anti competitive behavior to obtain thier monopoly to merit the breakup. Microsoft had already had the monopoly and just used it to stiffle competition and steal ideas being put forth by others. I know thisa isn't going to be popular with most here and i would like to agree with all the microsoft bashing going on out there but there is a time when we go too far and sound like incompetent zealots. It is not ilegal to have a monopoly in the united states. Several companies do. It is how you use that position that can make legal troubles.
After Installing MS Anti-Anti-spyware. No other anti-spyware works on my system! Both still run and detect but once you try to remove anything nothing happens.... MS is castrating other anti-spyware!!!
I'm really glad that Microsoft is addressing this problem, even if it is by buying up a little guy and redressing him. Right now, using spyware removal is borderline illegal (!) because you probably agreed to a click-contract that may have damaged your legal ability to remove it. This is why Dell support is not allowed to talk about adaware or others. The real benefits Microsoft brings to the fight are:
1- Legitimacy. No longer are those programs random dubious things- they now compete with something that will soon be an OS feature.
2- Fight the monkey, spyware guys! Right now spyware disables anti-spyware existing on your machine, and sometimes interferes with the ability to run it. Very virus-like Let's see how these cute tricks work against 500 pound gorilla Microsoft, hmm?
I think that Microsoft is ultimately the right call for this product- it's addressing control over programs on your machine, and is properly an OS feature rather than an add-on.
I use Linux, but I often get dragged to anti-spyware duty for my less tech-savy friends. This will make that much easier, eventually.
i have tried using ad-aware and spybot in a machine and recently the beta version of microsoft's anti-spyware. i had problems with spybot with regards to the removal of spyware files. it is able to remove them but the next time it scans the system, the same type of spyware is again installed in the computer. microsoft's anti-spyware was able to remove the files and didn't show up after in spybot. i was quite impressed with it.
Live your life each day as if it was your last.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/s oftware/requirements.mspx
"Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta): System requirements
Published: January 6, 2005
Minimum system requirements for Windows AntiSpyware (Beta):
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher
A 300 MHz or faster processor with at least 64 MB of RAM
Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server(TM) 2003
At least 10 MB of available free space on your hard disk
Internet access with ao(ast a 28.8 Kbps connection to use SpyNet(TM)
The MS product finds more stuff in the registry and other hidden crapware then the other 2 could find.
Perhaps it's because MS knows its own products best?
I mean, wouldn't it be a gigantic failure if other companies are better at protecting Windows then MS?
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
CP/M (CP/M-86) was available for the IBM PC. I have a boxed original set on my bookshelf. It failed miserably in the marketplace, though. Most people thought 'IBM' when they bought DOS for their PC, not Microsoft. Granted, it was because no third-party developers wrote apps for it that CP/M-86 faded. That and it was a lot more expensive than PC-DOS.
And you just finished calling MS-DOS a direct copy of CP/M. Now you're going to maintain QDOS was an inferior copy? It wasn't annointed by Kildal, or something, so it's inherently inferior?
You blew it, anyway, when you didn't mention that UNIX ran well in the early days, on 32K machines. A 32K box was a BIG box that would support multiple users well. These puny 'single user' systems never matched up to that.
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
Damn right I'm claiming QDOS was an inferior copy. As I understand it, the authors had no understanding of how an OS was supposed to work, and simply implemented as much of the CP/M API as they could. Their only source was the CP/M documentation. The complete functionality was never there, just a bare pretense of compatibility.
Ok, the MS product finds a larger quantity of items than AdAware or SpyBot.
The real question is, does it actually find a larger percentage of significant items, or is it padding it's find with a bunch of meaningless cookies that nobody needs to worry about?
Does it actually dig out real spyware and effectively kill adware, or is it just doing a bunch of busywork that makes it look good?
Giant AntiSpyware has been the leading spyware removal tool that apparently no one ever heard about. I was using it a few months before Microsoft BOUGHT the company over. ALl Microsoft seems to have done, basically, is rebrand the software. THe interface, icons, everything looks and functions exactly the same as the Giant Antispyware software that I have currently installed on my home machine. Giant Antispyware was rated the best AntiSpyware tool by an independent review months ago, and that review came to these same conclusions: It detected far more Spyware than the other leading AntiSpyware products.
-Gel214th
Whose deep pockets invested in Giant?
The software didn't refuse to install on the system because it was running Windows 98. It refused because the system was not running Internet Exploder 6. Of course, one shouldn't put it past Microsoft to refuse to support machines that are still happily running Windows 98. Gotta force customers to upgrade their OS (and pay more money), even if the hardware isn't up to running the latest bloatware....
So where is the link that doesn't want to "validate" my windows? My windows is valid, but they don't tell me what their "validation" is going to collect and transmit and dicker about on in my computer.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
I think Spybot S&D also lets you roll back home page changes if they were made before the monitor started, but maybe I'm confusing it with HijackThis (another great, but not quite so idiot-proof, utility).
Why can't people get it through their heads that Microsoft's problems are part of the natural course of free-market economics? They didn't start out a huge business, placing their OS on everyone's computer. They *earned* that position through superior marketing and business deals.
Again, your memory needs refreshing....
Indeed. I would also point out that Microsoft it, in fact, a *convicted* *monopolist*. Period. The election and subsequent settlement occurred during the penalty phase after MS's guilt had been established.
Here's a link to a timeline for the interminably lazy.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
On the other hand, if we talk about how Microsoft's domination of their marketplace is affecting how we all live, work, and do business, maybe we can get some practical changes in place.
So I have already found three errors in the "beta" but there is (apparenty) no address or form which a user may use to report such failures.
This isn't a "beta", its a promotional stunt.
Error 1: When I click the cygwin icon on my desktop it runs cygwin.bat. The real-time protections pop-up a dialog box which "floats up" to just above your taskbar. If, however, your task bar is not on the bottom of the screen but on the left side of the screen (try it there, autohide, with the "desktop toolbar" btw) then the dialog box will float right up off the screen and cygwin will not run.
Error 2: so you move the start bar back down to the bottom of the screen to snag the dialog box so you can click "yes". And you click "yes" to let the "script" run. The window you receive when cygwin is started isn't possessed of all your settings for such a window. [e.g. I run cygwin in a 140x40 width/height window, the window that opens doesn't have these properties.] {If you click the "always run this" checkbox, the *next* and subsequent time you use the icon it will end up in the correct size window}.
Error 3: I can no longer run windows update. (Yes, my system is properly licensed and validated and such. When I run windows update I variously get IE Errors or, on one occasion, IE went on to open Mozilla for no apparent reason.) I suspect that one of the "restore IE Settings" actions, which I didn't perform, does some darker mistery thing.
Note 1: The MS anti-spyware has yet to detect anything on my computer that wasn't detected by *current* spybot and/or AdAware.
Note 2: When it complains about things you have installed (RealVNC in my case) don't select "Ignore" select "Always Ignore", as "Ignore" is really "Ignore Once". I would rather "aprove" which would approve of only those items in the current detected set of settings. "Aproval" is different than just ignorance.
In general, I am unsatisfied after one day of use.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
I don't disagree with the fact that the DOJ found MS guilty of being a monopoly. That doesn't mean I agree that it's correct, or even that the Sherman Antitrust Act isn't subject to some question in and of itself....
From that standpoint, the Republicans coming in and basically tossing the issue aside isn't necessarily a bad thing at all.
This (obviously) gets into complete subjective opinion here -- but the way I see it, government interference in the interest of "saving us from monopolies" hasn't ever really been proven to accomplish much good. Look at all the government regulation of public utilities and the fiascos that have come of it afterwards. We seem to always end up crying for deregulation at some point, and often that causes more "cans of worms" to open up because we dump what was long little more than another govt. agency back into the pool of truly competitive businesses, and wonder why it doesn't function smoothly.
Most of the issues MS was tried on were of relatively little consequence anyway. The whole "bundling the browser with the OS" argument was superfluous at best, IMHO. Every major OS picked a specific browser to bundle around that time. OS/2 Warp had "WebExplorer/2" and Netscape with it. If OS/2 had marketed itself better around the time of Warp 3.0 and 4.0 - maybe MS would be crying about Netscape's market dominance instead?