A Big Question About Anti-Spyware Program Updates...

I have a big question about anti-spyware program updates. How important are anti-spyware program updates? I know that it's important to regularly update your anti-virus software, but I would like to know if it's just as important to update your anti-spyware software. Also, as far as I know, free software programs update periodically, and in contrast to that, paid software programs update regularly, sometimes daily.

The reason why I am concerned about this is because I have the freeware anti-spyware program called SpywareBlaster installed on my computer. It has served me well over the past few years that I've been using it, literally zapping thousands of spyware and malicious programs from my computer. However, within the past 30 days, when I went to download updates for it, I kept being told that there presently were no updates available for the software. Before the present update that I'm about to download after I post this message, the last download was dated: 04/16/05. From that date I tried downloading updates for SpywareBlaster about once a week, but none were available. Because of posting on boards like this and because of my increased knowledge of the dangers and the pitfalls on the internet, I've become more conscious of spyware and keeping up to date in fighting it. But getting back to my SpywareBlaster updates, when I went to download an update for SpywareBlaster today, there was an update available which was dated: 05/10/05. Now my concern is that after I downloaded the update, there are now 8 items which have protection disabled. The "Type" for these 8 items are Active X. By the way, I don't fully understand Active X, but from the little that I've read about it, I know that it's bad news. As far as the "Item Name" for these spyware programs, I wish I knew how to post a snapshot of my SpywareBlaster console, but since there's only 8 items, I can go ahead and list the items(or at least some of them). I don't know if this information will be useful, however, my main concern is: How long have these programs been on my computer? Have they been hanging around on my computer for awhile now and was SpywareBlaster not able to detect them until the updates were available? But anyway, here are the item names for the spyware programs:

Trojan.Downloader.Wub32.Miewer.A - {FDCC1518-6A63-11D9-AAC8-...
OpenSite / Page Access - {ED2E4BB5-6OEZ-4624-9DE2-998E441C699B}
Electronic-Group Dailer - {9C020689-FA7D-4D8D-BE7E-DC263791CB29}
Yuupsearch - {BBBE1C1A-89F7-4AF6-ABD1-F8FBCFA47408}

and then there was one that was a Trojan.Agent.DQ and the other 3 were Trojan.Downloaders.

I know that this thread has been pretty long so far, but bear with me. I also have AOL Spyware Protection(which seems to be a very good program) and Microsoft AntiSpyware. Microsoft AntiSpyware provides automatic updates, which seem to occur just about every other day. AOL Spyware Protection updates are available about once a week.(I haven't actualy counted yet.) Okay, I have another question: If I uninstalled SpywareBlaster, would Microsoft AntiSpyware and AOL Spyware Protection absorb all the spyware programs that SpywareBlaster had in check? The reason why I ask this is because I think I would rather have Microsoft AntiSpyware and AOL Spyware Protection be in control of my spyware detection and removal since these programs have regular updates. Can anyone help me with my inquiries?

 

Re: SpywareBlaster 3.4

Chaslang, I already have SpywareBlaster 3.4. Also, would you have any idea as to how long those 8 spyware programs that I mentioned could have been on my computer which appeared after I downloaded the SpywareBlaster 3.4 updates?

 

Chaslang, I'm not sure if I have a problem with malware or not. However, I'll have to implement the steps that you gave me some other time. Also, I may be sending you a private message asking you for help with some things that I may not know how to do.

 

Okay, I'm finally ready to do this(I think), but I have a question. I just read the READ ME FIRST instructions and I'm a little bit confused on the parts that says:

"Download the following tools and save in your favorite download folder or create one,"

"Create a folder on your C:\ drive for the tools/utilities you will need to use. For example: Navigate to your C:\ folder and create a right click on a blank spot in the window > choose New > Folder. Name this folder Spyware Tools," and

"No installation required! Just unzip it to a folder."

To be quite honest with you, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to saving things in download folders and creating folders for my C: \ drive and zipping and unzipping and zip files and zip folders. Could someone please help me with this?

 

I'm still ckecking for someone to help me out in this thread.

 

Okay, I finished the first part and created a folder on my C:\ drive and named it Spyware Tools. That was easy enough. Very similar to creating a shortcut icon on your desktop. So now it looks like I just need to download the list of spyware tools and place them in the folder. Some I have already. I'll be back in a few.

 

One thing though. Chaslang, you said, "For the items that do not need an installation, you can just extract the files from the ZIP file right into the folder you created for each of them." Could you elaborate a little more on that? I'm not familiar with extracting files from ZIP files, so, I'm really not sure what I'm doing.

 

Well, I'm downloading Ad-Aware SE. It's taking longer than I thought. It's only at around 38% done. I'm guessing that I was suppose to click on "Run" instead of "Save." I tried "Save" and I saw where I could have saved it on my C drive in the "Spyware Tools" folder I created, but I couldn't figure out how to create a subfolder in that folder, so I went back and clicked on "Run." I hope I did that right. It's at 63% now.

 

Okay, how do I get the Ad-Aware SE into my Spyware Tools folder in my C drive? Chaslang, are you still with me?

 

Okay, I went back and saved the Ad-Aware SE to my Spyware Tools folder on my C drive. I'll worry about subfolders later. Now I'm installing the Ad-Aware VX2 Cleaner Plug-In.

 

Re: SpywareBlaster 3.4

i'm a little confused, but maybe you are too

Spyware Blaster does not detect or remove anything... it simply blocks known spyware from being installed in the first place... so when you download an update, when it says, 8 unprotected items, that means the program downloaded the protection for 8 new spyware items, and you have to Enable All Protection to make sure your computer is now protected against them... right now i just got an update for 44 items, bringing the total protection for spyware related items to 3587

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/ANHEDONIC/SpywareBlaster.jpg


on the main Spyware Blaster screen, you want it to say "0 items have protection disabled" for all 3 categories...

 

Re: Major Question!

Major question! I'm coming up upon downloading SpywareBlaster which I already have on my computer. I know that when you download a new version of SpywareBlaster you're suppose to uninstall the old on first, however, since these tools that I'm downloading in my C drive folder are for the purpose of being used when my computer is in Safe mode and basically everything else on my computer isn't going to functioning normally, I'm guessing that having SpywareBlaster downloaded a second on computer in the C drive folder is okay. If I don't here anything from anybody, I'm going to assume that I doing everything right so far.

 

Okay, I think I'm going to call it a night right now. I'm downloading Spybot right now and it says it has 1 hour and 14 minutes left to download. I didn't think that everything was going to take so long, but I'm going to lie down and check on this later or in the morning. Chaslang, if you have any tips for me, please go ahead and post them. Good night everyone.

 

Thanks, Midget. I think I now understand how the SpywareBlaster updates work now. Thanks.

 

Chaslang, I got a message that said that MajorGeeks.com couldn't open the WinZip download page.

 

Re: NEW MAJOR QUESTION!!!!!

Okay, since I'm still up, I have a new major question. In the "DO NOT POST UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS" thread, in the "Getting Prepared; Steps to be sure your system is ready to be scanned" section, it says to, "Disable System Restore temporarily (WinXP & WinME only)." Okay, what I would like to know is, was I suppose to have disabled my System Restore(is that the same as being in Normal mode?) before I created my Spyware Tools folder in my C drive and downloaded the various spyware tool programs? Or was I suppose to bascially have disabled my System Resotre(been in Normal mode?) when I used those tools to scan and clean the System Restore directory when it was in an unprotective mode? Presently, I have not disabled System Restore and presently I have almost half my tools downloaded in my Spyware Tools folder in my C drive. Can someone clear this up for me?

 

Re: NEW MAJOR QUESTION!!!!!

It doesn't really matter. The reason why System Restore has to be disabled is because it backs up system files into a folder that antivirus and antispyware tools cannot access. This creates a problem when those system files get infected, because you will then have infected system files in your backup, which makes them unrepairable. When you delete the infected system files System Restore will restore the infected system files back for you automatically.

So with regard to disabling System Restore, it's never too early, just make sure to do it before running any of the tools.

 

hardrive, do you understand about what SpywareBlaster does now? You didn't comment on my post trying to clarfiy it for you...

 

whoops sorry, didn't see that this thread spilled over into a second page =]

 

Re: NEW MAJOR QUESTION!!!!!

Okay, I guess the thing that confused me was that I thought that when a person disabled System Restore, that person couldn't do too much of anything. I thought that if I hadn't downloaded everything(like what happened to me since I have dail up), I'd be stuck in System Restore and wouldn't be able to do much of anything. Unless, of course, I re-enabled System Restore until I was able to come back and download the rest of the tools. Also, is Disabling System Restore the same as going into Safe Mode?

 

Re: Finished Downloading Tools

Well, I finally finished downloading the tools. However, as far as 'just unzipping' the 3 tools to a folder, I got totally lost. The thing with the WinZip had so many options and so many places to "Zip" and to "Add" and so forth, I got really lost as to where to put what. It just wasn't as easy as it was stated that it was. I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound dumb, but I just need more help with this zipping business.

 

Re: Finished Downloading Tools

If you are using a relatively recent version of Winzip on Windows, the easiest way would be to right-click-drag the zip file to a newly created folder, select Winzip->Extract to here.

Otherwise a more generic method is to, after opening the zip file, select all the files and folders, click Extract, enter a directory path and click Extract.

 

Re: NEW MAJOR QUESTION!!!!!

System Restore and Safe Mode have no direct relation. For some information about the concept of System Restore, try looking at this article:

Use System Restore to Undo Changes if Problems Occur

For some insight on why disabling System Restore should be the first step in removing malware (as well as instructions on how to do so), try looking at this document from Symantec:

Disabling or enabling Windows XP System Restore

EDIT: If it interests you at all, hardrive, those two links were found by simply going to www.google.com and searching for "System Restore".

 

Re: Almost ready

Well, I'm almost ready. I finally created zip folders for CWShredder, Kill2me, and about:Buster, which are ready to run and/or be updated. Now all I need to do is disable system restore and then follow the 4 steps. Also, I see in step 1 where Windows XP users are suppose to boot in safe mode. I now see that I was getting safe mode mixed up with disabling system restore. Two different things. However, though, I'm going to need to come back at another time to complete the rest of the steps.

 

Re: A few more questions about 3 of the tools

I have a few more questions about Ad-AdwareSE, Ad-Aware VX2 Cleaner Plug-In, and CCleaner. I went to my C drive Spyware Tools folder, and out of curiousity, I opened Ad-AdwareSE and clicked on "Run' to see if it would work okay and I got a dialogue box that said:

"Cannot initialize installation. File size expected=2853080, size returned=56865."

I did the same for Ad-Aware VX2 Cleaner Plug-In, but I got a Microsoft dialogue box which said:

"Ad-Aware VX2 Cleaner Plug-In.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

For CCleaner, I got a NSIS Error dialogue box which said,

"The installer that you are trying to use is corrupted or imcomplete.
This could be the result of a damaged disk, a failed download or a virus."

Spybot, SpywareBlaster, McAfee AVERT Stinger, CWShredder, and Kill2me seem to be working okay. So, does this mean that the above tools also will not work when I disable System Restore?

 

Re: A few more questions about 3 of the tools

I must be asking too many questions.

 

Re: A few more questions about 3 of the tools

I just saw chaslang's post. Well, let me see if I can answer your questions.

Why are you try to run the file that you downloaded to the C:\Spyware Tools folder. These are the installation files, not the actual Ad-Aware SE, VX Cleaner, or CCleaner programs. I though you already installed the programs awhile ago.

Nope, I never installed them before. And it appears as if I'm not able to install them.

What is that you are trying to do?

I wish I knew.

Have you ever finished going through the whole READ ME FIRST yet?

Yep, and I remember reading something about how some people skip steps(or "only do bits and pieces"). Well, maybe what I'm going through is shedding some light on the reason why. Unfortunately, I think that most people who get computers, get them to do searches, e-mail, post on message boards, have fun, or whatever. The majority of people are not educated in how the actual computer works and many people that I've talked to in my personal life don't have a clue about spyware and computer protection, etc. Unfortunately, most people don't have the patience or are not willing to take the time to learn about the stuff that this site teaches, and that's unfortunate because people really do need to know how to handle their computers. I really appreciate the help that this site gives, but for the average person like me, most of this stuff is confusing, intimidating, time consuming, and it's not fun. I'm doing the best I can to fully understand everything and to not skip any steps. I don't think that can be said by everyone.

 

Re: A few more questions about 3 of the tools

See my 06-07-05, 6:30 post. I didn't see chaslang's post at first.

 

Re: another problem along the way

I guess I'm getting "installed" mixed up with "download." I downloaded all the tool programs that I needed into my C drive Spyware Tools folder, but it seemed as if I was having a problem installing them from my Spyware Tools folder. Where do things stand right now? Well, after taking a little break from this thread, I was going to just go ahead and follow the instructions in the READ ME FIRST BEFORE page and Disable System Restore run the spyware tool programs and go into Safe Mode when I needed to, however, I encountered this problem which is posted in this thread in the Software forum:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=595428#post595428

I guess I'll wait until I get an answer to my thread in the Software forum before I proceed to follow the rest of the instructions in this thread.

 

Re: another problem along the way

Okay, what I was going to do this morning was go to the READ ME FIRST PAGE and just start to follow the instructions. However, when I went to Disable System Restore, the instructions said:

For Windows XP:

1: Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and select properties.
2: Click on the system restore tab.
3: Check the box that says "Turn off system restore on all drives". Click OK.
4: Click Yes when you are prompted to restart the computer
5: To re-enable System Restore, follow steps 1-3, but in step 3, click to clear the Disable System Restore check box.

I followed step 1-3(although, my computer just said, "Turn off System Restore"), however, step 4 didn't happen. I turned off system restore, but I was not prompted to restart my computer. So, am I doing something wrong? Also, as far as my computer skills go, I don't think that my computer skills are too much worse than any other average person. It's just that when I start to follow these instructions that you all provide, some of the stuff just doesn't happen according to how your instructions say they're suppose to happen. And yes, it is taking way too long for me to go through these steps; I keep getting inconsistent and confusing results. One example is that above, you said, "Most people do not need to use msconfig to boot into safe mode," however, chaslang, in a private message, you are the one who gave me the symantec.com link which had the instructions which recommended using the System Configuration Utility method to get into Safe mode. However, I will try the F8 method.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...2001052409420406?OpenDocument&src=sec_doc_nam

 

I'm now in the process of...

If anyone is still interested in helping me, I'm now in the process of following the instructions on the "DO NOT POST UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS" page:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

The quote above is from the "A Big Question About Anti-Spyware Program Updates" thread, which I've decided to give a rest to. However, after getting to step 4 under the Getting Prepared; Steps to be sure your system is ready to be scanned section, I'm having the exact same problems as I was having before, as described in my quote above. I've already been at this for about several hours now, as I will now be getting off my computer and will come back to this thread another day to see if anyone has any answers to the problems that I encountered with my C drive Spyware Tools. Also, I will be going back and Enabling System Restore and reversing the steps in number 3 concerning "Enable viewing of hidden files and folders and extensions." Good night. Over and out.

 

Re: I'm now in the process of...

I think you misunderstood what I was saying, chaslang. What I was referring to was putting my system back to the way it was since I had decided to discontinue with the steps that I was in the middle of. Once I attempt to follow the READ ME FIRST instructions again, I will reopen my protected systems again and disable system restore again. Also, when I do decide to follow the instructions again, I plan to follow the steps all the way through until I get to the end of them. And if I have to stop again in the middle of the instructions, for whatever reason, I'll put everything back to the way it was again until I am able to come back and complete all the instructions. But right now, I would like to know what I can do about the problems that I am having with my spyware tools in my Spyware Tools folder as described in my quote a few posts up.