My experience with MS Antispyware

[Panama Red]

Got a call from a customer today that he couldn't get on the internet. When he clicked on IE, it would open up a warning window suggesting he download some antispyware software. He had already run Adaware (found 32 critical items) and Spybot (zero problems found) and the problem persisted. I stopped to check the computer and found, as suspected, a hijacked home page. Reset the home page and went to Trendmicro/Housecall. That scan found 1 virus item and 6 Spyware items. This machine is running AVG antivirus and it runs a full scan every night. Once all these scans were completed I decided to also install MS Antispyware. A full scan with the MS AS was shocking - 16 critical or severe items found! I fully expected it to find nothing after the previous scans. Either it finds make-believe items or it really does work. I'm betting on the latter as I intend to keep using it.

[mairving]

They are all a bit different. Spybot and AdAware tend to spend too much time with cookies. MS Anti-spyware is pretty good but has a couple of problems. One is that the real-time notifications can be a pain. I mean if you manually go and change your home page it tells you about it. It also doesn't play nice in a corporate environment where you have to push things out to machines since it asks the user for permission for the change. The other problem is that most think that sometime later this year, MS will bundle their new AV with it and sell it on a subscription basis which means no more free versions.

[maxnik]

i read reviews on MS Antispyware in couple of magazines and they actually were not too bad. I keep it running and it finds 1-2 little problems once in a while. definitelly worth it for free

[als814]

I read this thread, and after Panama Red's positive experience with MS Antispyware, I thought I would try it out. I went to run ad-aware first only to realize that I didn't even have it installed. I have about 4 computers right now that I use, and it gets hard to keep track of which systems have what. After I ran that, MS Antispyware still came up with 4 pieces of adware for me to get rid of. Definitely worth the price for the additional couple of things it can pick up even if it isn't major.

I'd also like to point out that while I ran ad-aware, i was just eating some pasta, so I decided to watch it. The two people that use this computer are myself and my Dad. My Dad uses IE, but I use Firefox for the exta features, and I only use IE when things aren't compatable with Firefox for some reason. When it was looking though my section of files, it had come up with about 11 or so, but when it got to my Dad's section, it shot up to over 90. I don't know if this is just a coincidence or one of the benefits of Firefox, but I definitely use this computer more.

[ZeratulsAvenger]

It worked just fine on my computer, but I was also so lazy that it doing it's own thing was so much easier then loading Adaware or Spybot up and running them :)

[thefultonhow]

One is that the real-time notifications can be a pain. I mean if you manually go and change your home page it tells you about it.

You can turn off "allowed alerts" in the settings. That improves the signal-to-noise ratio, so to speak.

[TwoRails]

Thanks for the mini review, PR ! I'll have to give it a try.

[Panama Red]

The original Beta version expired July 31. If anyone has kept a copy for installing on other systems (like I sometimes do with a customer's machine) you'll need to download the new version. If you already have the first version installed it will prompt you to upgrade to the new version. But if you try to install the old version from a saved file it will no longer load.

[peekaboo]

MS antispyware just Giant antispyware which MS bought, or are you talking about something else?

i recently read that since MS started negotiations towards buying Claria, the MS antispyware no longer recommends quarantining Dashbar, Gator, PrecisionTime and Weatherscope (which it used to do).

[Panama Red]

MS antispyware just Giant antispyware which MS bought, or are you talking about something else?

i recently read that since MS started negotiations towards buying Claria, the MS antispyware no longer recommends quarantining Dashbar, Gator, PrecisionTime and Weatherscope (which it used to do).


Yes, MS's is Giant. No single antispyware removes all the undesireables. That's why most of us use two or three different products to scan with. ;) Read my first post again.

[peekaboo]

I'm just saying that something that was considered spyware by Giant is now going undetected because the company that makes the spyware has become part of MS.
That doesn't sound very good to me. Who knows what else it is puposely ignoring.
has any of the stuff that MS antispyware finds been verified as malicious?

[thefultonhow]

This theory has actually been debunked... MS AntiSpyware by default ignores all "Moderate" threats. It's not giving special treatment to Claria products.