How good is MS antispyware?

[CKent]

I got a hold of my cousin's "Hell Dell" again. I've given them explicit instructions on how to keep it clean, yet every few months I get it back worse than before. Last time spyware was eating up 100% of the cpu and it wouldn't even run in normal mode; it would try and try, and eventually bsod after 5-10 minutes of churning. Had to clear it out in safe mode first. Not sure which is worse, my cousin's wife who gets every email smiley program she can find despite me telling her not to, or the 12 y/o son who does god knows what. This is why I got out of IT... :| But I have to clean this thing up. My cousin himself doesn't even use it, thank god, so that's not a problem.

I've never had the need to use MS Antispyware, but I hear some good things about it, do you guys think it'll help? My usual take on this PC is to boot to safe mode and update & run AVG and trendmicro's online Housecall, then adaware and spybot... last time all this wasn't quite enough though, and I gave it back to them ~99% cleaned but with coolwebsearch still installed, which of course is harder to extract than Michael Jackson from a cubscout meeting. Will adding MS's product result in a clean PC, or is this beyond hope? If beyond hope as I suspect, how would I go about performing a legal Windows reinstall?

 

[Spydermag68]

If you can get your hands on the orginal DELL Recovery disk you can reinstall the OS.

If you are not going to reinstall the OS then try all of these programs.

Text

I just cleaned off two computers that had over 70+ spyware programs each. Spybot and Ad-aware both shut down during the scan, so I went for MS Anti-spyware and it cleans off most of the spyware. I was then able to run Spybot and Ad-aware. I also had to run the Winsock program to fix the internet connection.

 

[mundane]

It might help you clean some of the issues; can't hurt, if its your only option outside of reinstalling the OS. For any of the tricky stuff left over, I've had good luck just googling the name of the malware and finding instructions online detailing how to remove them.

As for using it regularly - I've been using MS-AS for some time now, and for my purposes it is perfect. However, it's the kind of program that will prompt John Everyman to either permit or block potentially harmful actions, leaving the possibility of the user either a) blocking soemthing they need or b) allowing some harmful action. You're trusting your user base there to be able to make those decisions, and you'll be just as likely to get a call saying Jane can't get program X to work even though she installed it as little Mike installing Bonzai Buddy again, even with this additional protection. Oh yeah, and instructing them on Limited Account usage might help your cause.

BTW, do they play games on it? If not, you might be able to get away with installing an alternate OS (some flavor of Linux).

 

[CKent]

I asked them to bring any and all CDs that came with it, they... brought none. I thought Dells had the windows i386 files on a separate partition? I'll have to check, been putting off starting on this monster... Linux isn't an option, they play a few games and are incapable of browsing the internet without AOL for Broadband's handholding :frown: Either way, I'm thinking I'm going to give them all user level accounts - explicitly written instructions on maintenance and things not to do haven't worked. Is there anything specific I should know about doing this?

 

[mundane]

Originally posted by: RBachman
Either way, I'm thinking I'm going to give them all user level accounts - explicitly written instructions on maintenance and things not to do haven't worked. Is there anything specific I should know about doing this?

Just that they will need Admin access sometimes to install certain applications (somtimes games). Since it sounds like your cousin doesn't mess it up, maybe provide strict instructions for him to keep the admin password to himself =)

 

[Tikloos]

i like, it not bad

 

[alm4rr]

Originally posted by: diegoalcatraz

Originally posted by: RBachman
Either way, I'm thinking I'm going to give them all user level accounts - explicitly written instructions on maintenance and things not to do haven't worked. Is there anything specific I should know about doing this?

Just that they will need Admin access sometimes to install certain applications (somtimes games). Since it sounds like your cousin doesn't mess it up, maybe provide strict instructions for him to keep the admin password to himself =)

how bout all guest accounts?

 

[FOBSIDE]

Microsoft AntiSpyware is actually pretty good. If you can get your cousin Symantec Antivirus 10, it has a pretty good built in spyware scanner as well.

 

[Mutilator]

MSAS seems to be able to stop/remove spyware that other programs leave behind... I like to think it's because it's a MS program and they know how to stop things running on their OS.

BTW you needed to use CWShredder to get rid of that CoolWebSearch, pretty sure this is on the Housecall website now.

 

[xgsound]

The MS program has a function where it tries to block malware activity. I have a relative with 2 teens , constant visitors, AOL dialup, and the adults are computer illiterate. The setup that got them some level of fuctionality for the past 1 1/2 years is as follows; 1. Kerio 2.1.5 firewall 2. BHO demon 3. Spyware blaster 4. MS antispyware. This seems like the minimum setup for a target rich enviroment.

For more detailed excellent advice see http://www.theflyingpenguin.com/penguin_blog.shtml#spyware-removal . I've found "Startup Control Panel" and "Webroots Spysweeper" to be particularly helpful and efficient in my adventures repairing relatives machines.


Jim

 

[daniel49]

works pretty well I found a 30 day trial of kapersky on top of it is real helpful too.

best way to curb bad habits is to quit doing it for free.
Might also consider after cleaning it up to make a clone of thier drive since you have no recovery cd?

 

[montag451]

It seems unfortunate that MS closed down Giant Antispyware cos it seems, allegedly, that MS breached Giant's copyright.
So, the easiest option for MS is to buy the co.

Giant was fantastic.
boohoo

 

[montag451]

Sorry =
should have added,

MS antispywareBeta was based on the Giant engine

 

[CKent]

Well, I put it off for a while, but finally started. It's really a sight to see, they even got firefox spyware. There isn't much of that, props to them for going the extra mile :roll:

The last two times I cleaned this monster up I found around 2500 instances of spyware each time. The first time, around 1200 trojans/viruses, but fewer the next time. I've decided it's beyond repair and to reinstall. I know Dells have the recovery stuff (eg. windows install files) on a separate partition, but I'm not quite sure how to access this partition - I've never owned a Dell nor had to clean up such a badly infected PC. I want to reinstall windows legally, of course, but is this possible without the recovery CD? How would I go about doing it?