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Microsoft Releases Malicious Software Removal Tool
DaHat writes "Hot on the heels of their release last week of Microsoft AntiSpyware, Microsoft today released their very own Malicious Software Removal Tool with the claim that it will detect and remove infections from specific pieces of malware, including those in the families of Berbew, Doomjuice, Gaobot, Msblast, Mydoom, Nachi, Sassier, and Zindos from your Windows 2000, XP or 2003 machine. Microsoft also promises to release an updated version of the tool on the second Tuesday of each month."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Will it remove firefox also?
Somehow a webbased scanner sounds too easy to exploit. Ie. infinite loop bye bye CPU. Oh well. They'll just have to update the tool to kill itself in certain conditions or something.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
and some already are but lets face it, to currently reach the masses this sort of stuff needs to be pushed out through windows update.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
If they are going to stick to the once a month update schedule.
People expect thier anti-virus and anti-spyware software to be updated at least weekly, if not daily if there is an outbreak.
God forbid people start relying on only them for security and system utilities.
Is that not a bit slow? Malicious Software could have nearly a month to spread before Microsoft get round to realeasing an update. Mind you, they might release them more often than that, it could be just a minimum.
They wanted to call it the iUninstaller, but Apple had already copyrighted the term.
Microsoft also promises to release an updated version of the tool on the second Tuesday of each month.
Does that mean we may have to wait up to 1 month for a fix for the newest exploit? Meanwhile a whole bunch of computers could be infected within 30 days...
hack a day
So I installed this via Windows Update a little while ago today... Here's what I had to do just now to scan:
1. Install via Windows Update
2. Go to tool website
3. Go to website again in IE, cause it doesn't like firefox
4. Temporarily allow popups from SP2
5. Go to website again to allow the popup for the scan tool to open
6. Accept the license agreement
7. Go to website again after I accepted agreement
8. Open the tool and have IE block the ActiveX control
9. Allow the ActiveX control
10. Go to website AGAIN to install the ActiveX control
11. Allow it to scan and tell me nothing is infected...
I sure hope it wasn't this difficult for anyone else. Did I miss something? I thought it was going to be a program on my PC to run and scan, but I can't find it.
I tried this a few days ago (beta). It tried to eat ont of our developers scripts. Then in ate VNC (several different versions). The real time scan is annoying as all hell.
Unless you love, dont use it. Your safer with... anything else (especially common sense)
snowulf.com
It took long enough. But on the bright side, maybe they really are ramping up support for thier product. I know alot of you are going to rip MS but hey they didnt have to do this, its not like they are losing thier desktop OS to anyone. If thier PR campaign ends up working well for thier users, i say good show.
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
note, btw, that this will likely have disclaimers where you agree to waive any liability of the site's operators, third-parties, etc. so if the tool is corrupted by exploit [large number] of the month in some way, you're likely SOL if you use it.
ed
And all other software made by vendors that have sued MS.... It also comes with a custom icon that portrays Bill Gates as Baby Jesus.
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
Microsoft is using their OS dominance to crush another market for their bottom line. When this tool gains 95% market share because it's packaged with the OS, who will be able to sell a virus scanner?
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
At least it's better than the usual "Microsoft releases malicious software"
Le français vous intéresse?
The malware removal tool is pretty simple. It installs, scans, gives you a clean bill of health or tells you what a dirty infected whore your PC is.
The auto-update features in both applications is nice to see too... Grandma and Grandpa Internet need something to spoonfeed them like this, and if Microsoft keeps them free then grrreat. Now if only we could get them to fix IE so it isn't such a steaming pile...
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
Why don't they just fix the damn crappy software, instead of putting buckets under the leaks??
Ahhh, finally introduced a quick OS uninstall program, did they?
Yes but can it remove the most evil malware of all... Windows! Inquiring minds want to know.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
How long before the tool itself needs a "critical update" because of a security hole?
The machine was still running Windows when it completed.
I suppose somebody's gonna whine that it promotes insecurity because you need admin rights to run it.
Can I bum a sig? I left mine at the office.
At least read the stuff about what the software does before you critize it. Saying that it does nothing? It's only made (so far) to protect you from 8 families of malware, so an anti-virus program will probably do everything thier stuff does.
That way when we can offer a GPL'd, Linux-based, Microsoft Software Removal Tool for free there may be more people looking at the correct way to secure their Personal Computing systems.
after all cigarette makers release niccotine patches and gum
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Malicious Software Removal Tool ?
How is that different than any antivirus, with just 10 virus signatures ?
It is just unbelielivable, what marketing dep of MS can think, to hide the facts and sell crap
The virus makers will release the updated virii the 2nd Wednesday of the month.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Malicious software writers promise to release an updated version of their work on the day after the second Tuesday of each month (which may or may not be the second Wednesday).
"What's this? It says it's a malicious software remover."
"I dunno. Try running it?"
"Okay." (click-click.)
"PLEASE WAIT."
"What's it doing?"
"Dunno... oh, here."
"PROGRAM COMPLETE. FIFTEEN PROGRAMS REMOVED. HAVE FUN FIGURING OUT WHICH ONES, BITCHES."
"Dammit."
The guy who started del.icio.us said that he bought the icio.us domain because it had lots of subdomain possibilities.
mal.icio.us is currently empty, but it would be cool to see something there!
When sentences that ambiguous slib through the cracks.
(I am not a Lojbanist, but every once in a while it does seem like a good idea.)
Le français vous intéresse?
I saw it get installed today via Automatic Updates, but I'm stumped if I know where it installed to.
Does it run in the background (not in scheduled tasks) or have I missed something obvious?
PocketGamer.org - For the gamer on the go!
Thanks for the bandaid MS. Can you work on the root of the problem now or would that interfere too much with your business plan?
Time makes more converts than reason
Which I just did, from Mozilla. 256kb download, woah, that'll break the bank.
How we know is more important than what we know.
I have rebooted. My initial impression is that there is no immediately obvious way to run the removal program. KB890830 points out the web version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool and says that "When you download the tool from Windows Update or from Automatic Updates, the tool always runs in quiet mode." The KB also has a url to download the tool. Whee.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yeah, it took me an extra second to parse as well. The funny part is that the editors could have gotten rid of one funny and twenty redundant posts simply by adding one word to the title and saying: "Microsoft Releases Tool to Remove Malicious Software"
No, wait, the funny part is I thought "editing", much less "clarifying confusing sentence structure", was something the editors here did.
The enemies of Democracy are
I'm unable to run the tool as I like my security enough to avoid Internet Explorer.
Yes, I am a smart ass; it's better than the alternative.
On second wednesday of every month:
1. Release rejiggerd version of MyDoom
2. ??????
3. Profit!
A summary of the next 100 Slashdot posts:
/. owners modding down anything disagreeing with the Slashbot secular, pro-Linux, uniformity.
1. Finally, a Windows XP uninstaller!
2. Finally, an IE uninstaller!
3. Jokes about the malicious/software wordplay -- is it a malicious tool to remove software or a malicious software removal tool? har har har
4. Does it run on Linux?
5. Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.
6. In Soviet Russia, software tools malice YOU!
7. In Korea, only old people run malicious tools.
8. Tin foil cap-sporting nerds complaining about WinVNC rumors.
9. ???
10. Profit!
11. Declare bankruptcy.
12. Bitch about MS.
13. Spell MS with a dollar sign.
14. Tin foil cap-sporting nerds complaining about how this is a MS chokehold attempt on the market.
15. Anonymous posters claiming they had sex with your mother.
16. Mindless slashbotting.
17. 53 offtopic posts.
18.
19. Some posts by the GNAA and/or Roland Piquepalle (one and the same)
20. One really long list of post summaries, to get modded down by angry Slashbots.
<accepting no karma bonus for this crap>
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
Good, that means you arnt infected with anything :)
But really, what in the world could be wrong with a web based scanning system? You trust Bill Gates, don't you? You don't think he would do anything unethical while scanning your computer across the web, do you? You don't think there's a reason that the headline of this Slashdot article used the word Malicious as the first adjective to refer to this software, do you?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Microsoft releases another malicious piece of software.
It's included in automatic updates!, I knew I should have turned those off!
Slashdot 1|0 Productivity
from your Windows 2000, XP or 2003 machine.
Or maybe not.
So you're saying that Microsoft should never write software for something that already exists? I'm sorry, but this is something that is VERY MUCH needed for Joe Average. Joe Average doesn't mess with Norton, or Trend, or AVG, or any of that. Joe Average does mess with Windows Updates. Get this and run it from WU, and the number of virii and malware gets dropped considerably*.
*This assumes that the software from MS works properly and does a good job at removing said software.
--DrH, the Sandwich with the Ph.D.
It'll start removing "unsigned software" because it's not safe right? I remember that article and hence why I'm switching to Mandrake in a couple of weeks time.
Thanks for pushing me away from Windows, MS! I'll remember to pay you back some day.
I like muppets.
I was about to take the slashdot editors to task for their ambiguous use of 'Malicious' in the title. I suspected that it was a not-so-clever bash at Microsoft.
Then I realised: that's the name Microsoft gave to it. Man, we knew couldn't write good software, but now they seem intent on proving they can't write proper English either.
Quick, someone, explain the concept of the adjective to the MS Marketing dept.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Am I the only one who read the headline as "Microsoft Releases Malicious Software"?
Do I get eggroll with that?
--- Ban humanity.
When I got to the PC it had finished scanning.
After rebooting, several pop-ups appeared, including one that was recommending changing the user's Hope Page to www.msn.com.
Keep in mind that this is supposed to be an ANTI spyware app. We use a specific intranet page for the Home Page for all the users here, so the page was NOT, as this app suggested, a 'possible indication of an unauthorized change ib the Onternet explorer settings' or some such nonsense.
I suppose that since Bill Gates didn't actually grant us permission to use our own home page, I can inderstand why a MS product might see it as 'unauthorized'. It also, of course, wanted to make the default search engine search.msn.com.
I feel really sorry for the home users out there who computers are attacked by adware and spyware, and end up going to Microsoft to be rescued.
I also can already see the next round of anti-trust lawsuits getting fired up.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
When I read that headline, I thought it meant Microsoft released a malicious tool for removing (non-MS) software. I don't know if that's a result of my own prejudices or just the kind of thing I've come to expect from Slashdot headlines....
I wish they would just concentrate on fixing their current software, instead of trying to take over every other niche market.
Nashville Computer Repair http://www.pcdude.com
fdisk!
Mod parent up!
I wonder if cracks for their software would be considered malicious. I can just imagine hundreds of people running this, and then finding out that Office doesn't work anymore and they only have another 28 days in which to activate Windows XP before it'll only boot in safe mode. Don't have a cracked machine to try it on, unfortunately, but I think maybe MS missed their chance by allowing everyone to bypass windows validation before downloading the anti-spyware. Perhaps this is another chance to rid the world of a few 1,000 pirates. Or perhaps I should get more sleep and/or consider Occam's Razor a little more..
As microsoft pushes more and more of their crap like this to using ActiveX will it be used as a way to hinder the usage of Firefox? For me I don't really care if I have to load 1-2 webpages in IE, but for some "average" users this could be a real bother.
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
Will this finally mean there's a realiable way to get rid of Realplayer?
On that note, there is some software out there that lets you play Realmedia files without installing that evil tripe onto your Windoze box. Behold Real Alternative
It's either as you say, or the french version.
Rednecks may wish to rename it freedomer and feel proud to have it infest their PC as they do their bit for the war on terror.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The first time you run it, you'll notice that Firefox has disappeared from your system! (added to the list of malicious software by Peter Torr!)
Is there a Malicious Malicious Software Removal Tool Removal Tool?
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
All joking aside, would Microsoft's marketing of a spyware removal tool constitute acknowledgement of critical design flaws in their product which they have no intention of fixing? (He asks as he fires up his LawSuitOMatic...)
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It's apparently a result of MS flunking out of their English-syntax classes. The title of their page clearly states that their software is "Malicious" (and it's refreshing to see them freely admit that). It also claims to be a tool that removes software, though the title doesn't tell you what kind. Judging from the text of the rest of the page, the title should have been this:
Malicious-Software Removal Tool
A dropped hyphen often makes a big difference in the meaning of a sentence.
..wayne..
And yet, when Microsoft does nothing, people like you complain that "Microsoft is doing nothing because their 95% market share of OS dominance allows them not to care."
If people want to use Norton, they'll still use Norton. Nobody's holding a gun to people's heads.
Microsoft up to its old tricks. No way for an OS provider to behave.
Has to be said though, McAfee and Norton largely exist only thanks to the failings of Redmond's OS.
Say, that sounds like a good name for a euthanasia device...
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
OH NO! One the heal of the finest spyware removal tool, Microsloth comes out with YET ANOTHER top notch tool. And what do all the Slashdot Talking Heads have to say? Oh, nothing....
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
No doubt we will start seeing malicious software under Windows begin spreading on the second Tuesday of each month (or perhaps the first Wednesday after the second Tuesday of each month if the sources want to be on the safe side).
I wouldn't be suprised at all to start seeing complaints about legit software being removed. If Microsoft decides they don't like a competitor, it's "Death by Windows Update" for them.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
(Now, I know that these two releases don't actually make all of the security issues all go away. I'm not saying that MS products are suddenly, magically secure. I'm just saying their record might rapidly get a lot better, enough to weaken our assertion that FOSS is safer/more secure in the eyes of the end user.)
I'm rooting for FOSS, but you have to admit that this approach (and the software behind it) makes the argument for switching away from Windows a little tougher for the average end-user. What if MS starts beating the FOSS community in response time for fixes?
The FOSS community has long claimed that peer review of code prevents many security flaws before they happen. But many flaws (certainly the high-profile ones) are found after release, whether the code is open or not. If Microsoft uses their corporate advantage in resources and organization to beat us (or appear to beat us) on security response, it undermines one of the fundamental justifications for FOSS.
6. Audible Alarm (not shown)
-from a Cuisinart product owner's manual.
Does it remove LOP? Please tell me it removes Lop...
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Why is this software removal tool more malicious than other MS software?
Does MS admit it's malicious?
<g>
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
i posted a brief description on wormblog earlier today. conclusions: decent start at a tool, not comprehensive and in no way a replacement for continually running AV software.
i have only one problem with this program. MS with their utter disdain for the free exchainge of information, has bundled all P2P based programs into the "malicious files" title. even when you opt to "always ignore threat" it will still find a way to nix the files when you're not looking. once it does remove a file, there is no way to undo the damage. other than that, it seams to be a great program. very thorough. perhaps a bit too thorough.
Excellent spyware removal software can be found here.
Also note from that same article, at the very end, how to disable its reporting your infection status back to MS.
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
Are you sure it's "spyware removal"? All what MS has done before were "spyware catchers"...
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Microsoft has spent a lot of effort integrating everything to the point that its almost impossible to turn something off.
This may seem off topic, but how many users would have been spared malware if Outlook allowed you to disable HTML rendering? How many spammers would be at a loss because just by downloading your mail, you can ping a mining image?
IE is a totally fubar because anyone can insert a bit of interception that's darn near impossible for the average user to get rid of.
How about NOT defaulting to advertising / HTML inside of Media Player?
But also people should lay blame where blame is due... the real evil are people who piggyback spyware with useful apps. I stopped using REAL because of this... almost stopped using LimeWire...
Anyway I digress.
M$ should stop integrating everything with IE because its the source of most evil.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
Microsoft Releases Malicious Software Removal Tool
Or even:
MS Releases Tool For Removing Malicious Software
See? Not so hard.
Good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!
The infestation I'm working on now already knows about the address to MS' removal tool and redirects you to their "portal."
I feel like ranting about their attempt to dethrone AdAware. MS' tool detects 6 threats, half of which are VNC. The "unclassifed BHO" comes back on the next reboot. AdAware can't clean it either, but at least Lavasoft isn't tagging legitimate software as malicious.
But not supporting all the unprotected, unpatched Win95-WinME systems out there that mom and dad and grandma run, they've missed the mark. Except for XP Home, people who run W2K and XP pro and 2003 server all want to know what's going on. I want to know exactly what files it thinks are bad and wants to remove, and why, and then be prompted whether to go ahead or not, not just a tool with a dum-dum-only mode.
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
No, that's hardware. Software isn't so squishy.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I have rebooted. My initial impression is that there is no immediately obvious way to run the removal program. KB890830 points out the web version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool and says that "When you download the tool from Windows Update or from Automatic Updates, the tool always runs in quiet mode." The KB also has a url to download the tool. Whee.
So one person out of maybe 10k slashdotters runs out to DL this, can't figure out how to use it, then gets modded as "Informative". This should be +5 Funny, if anything.
Click the green Go button, silly.
It reports RealVNC, TightVNC and eDonkey2000 as spyware, including Donkey's temporary files.
Joosep-Georg Jarvemaa
Maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't this news posted less than a week ago?
Antivirus?
Is Microsoft trying to slip an antivirus under the name of "Malicious Software Removal Tool" or is it just me?
The solution to antitrust?
Fat lot of good this software will do for a pc that can't even boot into windows. They need a version that you can burn onto a cd and boot from.
The fact is, the code wasn't designed to be secure. I realize its not hip and cool to like Lotus Notes, but compare it Exchange for a minute:
Notes has roughly 50% of the installed and in use corproate email market in the us, more like 60% in Europe -- though seat counts are nearly impossible to validate for Microsoft at this point.
That means, just as many targets. However, since 1991 when most of the world first saw Notes, it had built in public/private key encryption and authentication certificates and was inherenly designed for security. Mearly stamping a name on a document (a "Note" technically) prevents anyone else from seeing it. Period. In all the years since, there have only been a few denial of service attacks, and as far as I know, only 1 reported incident of potential data loss. Today, the current version can open and use the data files from the original version.
For years, Notes (and rightly so) had a horrible user interface by comparison, yet it still did well in the market. Why? It has been secure, stable, and operating system agnostic from day one.
so much for the 'monoculture' arguement. The truth is, hacking windows is low hanging fruit and makes for a fun target because the software was never designed to be secure.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
They'll release updates on the 2nd Tuesday of each month?
I guess that means that the 2nd Monday (or thereabouts) would be the ideal time to unleash any malware that you want to inflict on the world.
At least you get a month of free reign, before you have to mutate.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
Am I the only one who has noticed that Microsoft seems to be lacking in the program-naming department? First they introduced Microsoft Anti-Spyware, now they've introudced Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. Come on Microsoft, get creative!
... the part where it states it reports home to MS?
Apparently it reports information about what sort of infections it finds, but... they link to a bulletin containing information about the update, and you can find this page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891716 has information on a registry key you can add to disable this 'functionality'.
That's something I don't get. Microsoft posts a link not to a download, but to a download launch page. And that doesn't have a download link but a 'Download' button. This something for a utility which updates monthly. Not that I run MSFT's cr*p, but getting paid to clean up after 'em's a sidelight, and being able to wget updates is helpful.
Not sure if Microsoft's planning on moving the link, but the following URLs should work at present:
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
So, which is it?
Does it remove spyware or anti-spyware?
???
...don't any releases from Microsoft qualify as a "Malicious Software Installation Tool". Look, they're even sending a subliminal message with their product's name: Malicious Software = MS. Coincidence? I think not.
Mr. T pitied this fool on 27 July 1992.
Finally, some Microsoft software gets an apt name.
Must be truth in advertising laws taking effect...
Or perhaps it's a ruse for the software to get on the inside of the malicious gang that has taken over your computer before it whacks them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Microsoft also promises to release an updated version of the tool on the second Tuesday of each month
and every second Wednesday of each month they'll release a security patch to fix the update released the day before.
Microsoft also promises to release an updated version of the tool on the second Tuesday of each month
and every second Wednesday of each month they'll release a security patch to fix the update released the day before.
(fixed the formatting)
There is no go button.
There is no *anything* In fact I'm beginning to have doubts this tool actually exists. You'd think they'd put an icon in program files or something.
It's not in add/remove programs either so once it's in your system (presumably) running in the background you're stuck with it. For this reason I recommend *not* downloading this app as I don't trust MS to not remove firefox or something.
This is not my sandwich.
Sprechen sie sassy?
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Does it remove Mocrosoft's own Alexa spyware?
Oh well, what the hell...
It probably would if they weren't the government's pet. :P
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
- Avast Antivirus
- Ad-aware
- Spybot S & D
- HijackThis
- MS AntiSpyware (Giant)
- MS Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
It would be helpful to have a meta-scanner to run all of these at once.It looks like it creates a program called mrt.exe ( This is according to the Microsoft KB Article Deployment of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool in an enterprise environment ). I've looked at the C:\Windows\Debug\mrt.log file which indicates that it ran, and have searched my drive for the mrt.exe file to no avail. It must run, look for spyware on your machine, and then remove itself.
You can extract the mrt.exe file from the release by running :
Windows-KB890830-ENU.exe /x
And you can get the release from the link in the story.
Then you've got access to it and its command line parameters.
To be more specific, how many variants does it handle?
As far as I'm concerned, CoolWeb is the most notorious and noxious piece of malware today -- way worse than Gator was a few years ago.
From its behavior it seems that it's a "run once" kind of thing, maybe it will run silently every time you run windows update from now on. Brilliant, if so. The downloadable version prints a status dialog when it runs unless you suppress it with /q
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Frankly, there wouldn't be as many issues with Windoze if sys admins weren't so lax in applying the patches MS develops. Yeah, once a month patch availability is ridiculous, but also ridiculous is rampant worm propogation a month after a patch has been made available. Lazy sys admins blame MS because it's an easy out. Note how many of them don't really want to migrate to a *nix platform because typically they lack the skills to properly administrate *nix platforms. That is MS's fault, the mills that create paper MCSE's...a direct result of MS's attempt to certify people without any skill but can answer test questions as competent create situations where we have sys admins who can't do their jobs.
good call.. I found the mrt.log
no mrt.exe anywhere.
An anti-spyware that deletes itself? Wierd...
it could be something more than a non-event if stinger wasn't available for a long time and didn't remove more malware..
Due to the fact that English grammer is a mixture of three different languages, there are multiple ambiguous ways to order the words and parse the words. There are sometimes great statements that have a completely different meaning than intended.
I read this headline with the wrong association the first several times I saw it.
Instead of:
(Microsoft Releases) (Malicious Software) (Removal Tool)
I read it as:
(Microsoft Releases) (Malicious) (Software Removal Tool)
i.e. a software removal tool that is malicious.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
...Somebody may have flunked basic English grammar, but it wasn't "MS". "Malicious software" is not properly a compound word, nor does it belong to any other category of construct requiring hyphenation. Hyphenation in this case is not only unrequired, but would in fact be awkward -- and, arguably, ungrammatical.
SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
This tool reports to MS when it cleans. The reporting is anonymous, it says in the EULA.
T \DontReportInfectionInformation as a DWORD, and set the value to 1.
Those of you who detest automatic vendor notifications can disable this function. I just followed a tortuous string of buried references from MS to find out how, so to save you all the hassle, here's the thing:
Using regedit, create registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\MR
Any word on whether it can remove Internet Explorer. It's harder to get rid of than Cool Web Search.
Sometimes at night I imagine the darkness is filled with horrible things with too many teeth, like Julia Roberts.
It's called the European commission and it's forcing MS to give us XP without Media Player
Tell the whole world you will be releasing updates every 2nd Tuesday of the month and take a guess what day malware writers will pick to release their little pets?
Or did anyone else also read it as 'MS releases malicious, software removal tool?' Hey Pop, come look at the amount of free space we got suddenly!
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
so I can run it under Knoppix.
(Hmm.. actually, a DOS version of it would do too)
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
Interesting posts. They confirmed what first thing which came to my mind: Oh! One more pest!
Seriously. No later than yesterday I ran VNC viewer (without install) on a win box. The "pest patrol" software reported VNC as a pest. The machine was slow to death, crimped with soooo many anti-anti-plus-plus-ad-on-little-nice tools.
I don't use pest removers. I look at what starts up, which services, use safe-ish Internet browser, use my brain and I have no pests.
Zijus.
I don't use IE since Firefox 1.0 were released and since this date my machine runs WITHOUT spywares.
I use this program, seems good, but, I don't use IE, then I don't need spyware removal tool.
[]s
---
http://www.getfirefox.com/
It must run, look for spyware on your machine, and then remove itself.
Brilliant.
will it work in Linux?
So THAT'S what that means!
The problem with Microsoft is that they don't release the details of the underlying operating system. They therefore have a significant advantage over the other anti-malware developers. Were they not a monopoly, this would present no problem. However, because they are a monopoly, your analysis is flawed.
That's my interpretation of things at any rate. IANAL and all that.
Guns don't kill people -- people kill people.
But the guns seem to help a bit. (apologies to Eddie Izzard)
So, the phrase doesn't need to be a compound word to be hyphenated--it forms a compound modifer, and thus needs to be hyphenated to convey the proper meaning.
..wayne..
The importance of using hyphens in adjectival phrases used attributively:
Microsoft Releases Malicious-Software Removal Tool
Microsoft Releases Malicious Software-Removal Tool
Microsoft should not be allowed by law to SELL any network security, antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-adware, products!!!! It is their poor programming (bugs and vulnerabilities) that caused the NEED for everyone to have to buy all this extra software. If they are allowed to SELL any of these products, where is the incentive for them to make RELIABLE, and SECURE operating systems, if they can clean house (financially) by selling the tools to fix the errors and vulnerabilities in their software??? They should NOT be allowed to profit from their major blunders. Anything that ALLOWS them that, is pure corruption of the software industry.