# MS AntiSpy Beta 1



## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Has anybody tried the new beta? I downloaded and ran it at lunch today and I was pretty impressed in the 15 minutes I got play with it. In a short smart scan it found 12 items that AdAware, Spybot, Yahoo AS and Norton AV completely missed. It looks like it has some really cool features like active protection and a nice user interface.

I'll boot up in safe mode tonight and run a deep scan and see if it fixes my current problem.


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## Danny R (Jul 5, 2002)

Like you I've used it as part of a coctail of antidotes against various virii and spyware and it definately finds things the others miss. 

Unfortunately despite being protected, one computer has a home page hijacker that as yet hasn't been fixed despite our best efforts (we are now forced to schedule a total hard drive wipe), so this isn't a perfect product yet either.


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## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

Just don't use it yet on a Windows Media Center PC with an Extender attached! Most folks find that their Extender won't communicate with the MCE after MSAS is installed. If you have the problem, just uninstalling the MSAS will happily do the trick.


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## JBKing (Mar 23, 2002)

Yep, tried it and it caught a few things that other software hasn't. I have it scheduled to scan every night at 2:00 AM. It hasn't found anything new since the initial scan.

Danny, I've got a browser hijack that I can't get rid of either. I plan to reformat every weekend, but keep talking myself out of it!


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## Scott Greczkowski (Mar 21, 2002)

Same thing here JB, it found stuff that the others didn't and since that time it hasn't found another thing.

Nice software from Microsoft for once.


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## Redster (Jan 14, 2004)

I also agree, it does seem to work better than the others. I also notice it does catch a newly loaded program trying to access the internet so the active protection is working.


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

The key thing here is that Microsoft didn't write it, they went out and bought it.


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## Danny R (Jul 5, 2002)

So that means its probably going to be a good product until it goes out of "beta"


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

Maybe they figured that they were better off with having a program that they didnt write. Are they going to start charging for this once its not beta anymore for those that did the beta testing?


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## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

Found stuff the others did not, thanks for the heads up guys...


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Well, for an update. I got attacked sometime late last week. Everything seems to work except for tools that I might need to clean this crap off, like msconfig, regedit, task manager and sfc /scannow. They all work in safe mode except for sfc /scannow.

I booted into safe mode and ran everything, AdAware, Spybot and Norton AV and this new MS antispyware. MS AS found a few new things the others didn't but it didn't fix my problem. Still, none of the above mentioned items work in normal boot mode.

So at least for me it's not an end all solution - but I still think it may still be a very valuabe program.



invaliduser88 said:


> The key thing here is that Microsoft didn't write it, they went out and bought it.


This is correct. MS bought it from Giant software. I noticed when I got task manager to work in safe mode with MS AS active, one of the running processes was an entry from Giant.

If any of you guys have a clue what could be causing my problem I'd love to hear from you. If I can't get this figured out I may try to run my XP disc in repair mode.

Robert

Edit

Oh yeah, almost forgot, system restore has been disabled too.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

I just installed spybot/adaware/spywareblaster and ran them a few days ago on a new computer. Installed antispyware today and it found one. However, this was from a site I had visited after I ran the others, so they might have picked it up as well. Of course on a new computer in the past week, I have spent more time loading programs and downloading updates from software vendor sites than I have spent surfing the net.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Just like with any newborn, you have to change a lot of diapers before you can go out and play "catch". :grin:


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

This is a very serious suggestion. Use another browser other than IE unless you have to. 

IE "features" are the current way that most of this malware crap get's on your system.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

invaliduser88 said:


> This is a very serious suggestion. Use another browser other than IE unless you have to.
> 
> IE "features" are the current way that most of this malware crap get's on your system.


Ahhh yes.......you'd be correct agin. Mozilla is a nice choice. I have it on my desktop but I always forget to use it and now I'm sorry.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Over the years, I have carefully and consistently avoided using MS products such as IE, outlook, messenger and any other external or add-on MS products. 

Too many security holes in the tech news almost every day. I patch ahd patch and patch, but the patching never ends. If I had a tire in that condition, I would have already replaced it long ago. :shrug:


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Nick said:


> Over the years, I have carefully and consistently avoided using MS products such as IE, outlook, messenger and any other external or add-on MS products.
> 
> Too many security holes in the tech news almost every day. I patch ahd patch and patch, but the patching never ends. If I had a tire in that condition, I would have already replaced it long ago. :shrug:


So Nick, what do you use for an email client? I have the option of using Yahoo's web based service with my dsl account but I like the interface, full service editor and contact list you get with Outlook.

I've heard of Eudora and some others but have no experience with anything except MS stuff (and in the early days AOL - please forgive me, it was a horrible sin)


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

ntexasdude said:


> So Nick, what do you use for an email client? I have the option of using Yahoo's web based service with my dsl account but I like the interface, full service editor and contact list you get with Outlook.


I use MS Outlook because it links with my PDA software.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

I Love it!!!

My Computer Guy Installed It On There For Me When I was Upgrading couple days ago.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

ntexasdude, et al. You might be infected with a new variant of CoolWebSearch. The CWShredder guys have a mini-killer that will nail it.


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