It’s been out for a while now but, since I use Firefox, I’ve had no real use for it. However, my sister uses IE and has had a lot of spyware on her system for a while now; I’ve just not got around to helping her remove it.
Yesterday I got exasperated at her constant demands on my time which was being spent, very importantly, playing my X-Box. I gave her the google search string, talked her through the download and told her she should be ok from there. I snickered as I hung up the phone and got back to running from, and occasionally gunning down, the police in Driv3r.
Strangely enough I didn’t get the expected phone call fifteen minutes later. I rang her back and she said that it was still scanning. Today when I spoke to her she said the computer was fixed. No more pop ups, running faster blah blah blah. All the hallmarks of a computer running free of spyware.
I decided to have a look at this miracle cure myself.
I must say, it looks very swish. Looking in the process manager made me smile though; I spy, with my little eye, a process called GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe!
After going through the tools that the program has and the apparent efficiency of the actual scan itself the more cynical of us (i.e. me) would say that it’s a decent piece of software mainly because MS haven’t been able to wreck it yet. I think the only thing they’ve done is slap their MS looking front end on it.
Never fear, there’s plenty of time for them to break it yet.
The Advanced Tools section is very handy, especially the System Explorers. It lists all activex components installed, programs that start at boot, IE’s BHO’s and settings… everything really. It even has stuff that I think I may have found useful once ever in my career with an editor for the windows host file and a list of LSP’s. Overkill on all but the most persistant malware.
All in all I’m impressed. I sincerely hope that microsoft don’t do too much to it as it does the job admirably as it is. I’m sure that they won’t feel right without releasing a product without at least some bugs in it.
Basically MS need to look at the real problem. The boat has a lot of holes in it, the hold is filling with water, and instead of patching them they hand you a bigger bucket. The bucket is handy and even welcomed, but eventually you’re still going to want to jump ship.
Wedge13.com | 29-Jan-05 at 7:15 pm | Permalink
Score one for us unread bloggers
“It’s been out for a while now”:http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx but, since I use Firefox, I’ve had no real use for it. However, my sister uses IE and has had a lot of spyware on her system for a while now; I’ve just not got around to helping her remove it.
Yesterday I got exasperated at her constant demands on my time which was being spent, very importantly, playing my X-Box. I gave her the google search string, talked her through the download and told her she should be ok from there. I snickered as I hung up the phone and got back to running from, and occasionally gunning down, the police in Driv3r.
Strangely enough I didn’t get the expected phone call fifteen minutes later. I rang her back and she said that it was still scanning. Today when I spoke to her she said the computer was fixed. No more pop ups, running faster blah blah blah. All the hallmarks of a computer running free of spyware.
I decided to have a look at this miracle cure myself.
I must say, it looks very swish. Looking in the process manager made me smile though; I spy, with my little eye, a process called ‘GIANTAntiSpywareMain.exe’!
After going through the tools that the program has and the apparent efficiency of the actual scan itself the more cynical of us (i.e. me) would say that it’s a decent piece of software mainly because MS haven’t been able to wreck it yet. I think the only thing they’ve done is slap their MS looking front end on it.
Never fear, there’s plenty of time for them to break it yet.
The Advanced Tools section is very handy, especially the System Explorers. It lists all activex components installed, programs that start at boot, IE’s BHO’s and settings… everything really. It even has stuff that I think I may have found useful once ever in my career with an editor for the windows host file and a list of LSP’s. Overkill on all but the most persistant malware.
All in all I’m impressed. I sincerely hope that microsoft don’t do too much to it as it does the job admirably as it is. I’m sure that they won’t feel right without releasing a product without at least some bugs in it.
Basically MS need to look at the real problem. The boat has a lot of holes in it, the hold is filling with water, and instead of patching them they hand you a bigger bucket. The bucket is handy and even welcomed, but eventually you’re still going to want to jump ship.