The makers of "Spyware Blaster" also have a free program called "Spyware Guard". It runs in the background and prevents the spyware from being installed. I've been running it for about a week and it seems to be working. See:
Yeah the SpyBlaster prevents the spyware from being installed also as long as you have the least definitions. I prefer to not have something in the back ground not running. So far Spyware blaster has prevented anything from being installed. I recall thinking that AdAware and SpyBot were not working properly as suddenly they were not finding anything after installing Spyware Blaster. I uninstalled both and reinstalled both. Still they find nothing.
I have a feeling it all has to do with how stable your system is to start with. I do not think SP2 is going to fix present problems.
When I installed the SP2 pack my computer operated very slowly for about 2 days.. Now, everything is back up to speed. I recall someone saying that it would be a day or 2 before everything seemed to be running at regular speed.
Oh, so now our computers have adaptive AI in them? 48 hour flu? A tank of bad gas? Actually, I have seen such inexplicable behaviour. Weird.
Dave,
I think you should seperate corporate network machines from home machines. Corporate networks really don't need the enhance security features of SP2. Most IS guys have blocked SP2 from their systems because they already have firewalls and protection. For home users, I think it's a different game. I updated mine two days ago and no problems, plus I like the new security features.
Bernie
Theoretically possible. It's optimized the new software locations on the disc after a few swaps.
A friends Dell did this, Dell responded, give it a few days and everything would be better. And it was.
Leon -- First, I do not deny to you any of this. But, I do read lots of on-line news every day about consumer/PC tech and have not (yet) seen this. I also went to some MS MVP XP websites and could not find mention of it. I'd love to see a press story w/ an official Dell/MS (or any PC-Co) explanation. In this thread, George mentions disk optimization. I am extremely skeptical about that in this instance. A single reboot I can see for reg revisions, but a *gradual* self-repair - like a white blood-cell defense to a bio virus? I'd be fascinated to see that this IS true. But I wait in special skepticism. Thanks for the additional post about Dell. -- Igor
Igor, there's a number of programs that monitor user usage and then adjust themselves accordingly. XP even in it's most basic, no service pack installed form, is capable of doing some of these tasks. If you're a user of XP, have you ever had it offer to clean up unused programs or perhaps, to get rid of little used icons on your desktop? It's just a time/dated routine that runs in the background and monitors when a program was last used.
When you write, "there's a number of programs that monitor user usage and then adjust themselves", do you mean add-ons or within MS? I know MS OSs have some such aps within, but they seem far from adaptive. More like taskmgr stuff. Then there are e.g. Norton System Works aps. BTW, as may be apparent, I am NOT an OS guy. Just an advanced user.
Restore or registry reversion, or a defrag (all of which I do manually, though I suppose they can be auto-done) can improve performance. But I have never had a series of blue screens, or even lesser issues, fixed automatically. I've never even had overall slow performance solved automatically -- unless you call a surprise crash (beyond blue sceen right to reboot) and a reboot an autofix. For example, I have an XP machine P2P to a 98 machine. When the XP machine lists files on the 98 machine, there can be a long delay. In the past week I found a registry tweak for this at an MS MVP (i.e., non-MS) site. Now, XP could have seen that it was taking too long (by some measure) to show a list of files via the network and looked on its own to the MS KB for the tweak. There is an MS article about it - and while MS apparently knows about the tweak they do not show it, IIRC.
Now, as I just finished that, I do realize that I have turned off error reporting (too many clicks to clear and not enough clarity as to what is and is not sent). So, maybe XP COULD do all this great stuff if I let it.
Anyway, this stuff would be great. I don't trust MS -- not because it is a monolith (notwithstanding Linux). Maybe I've missed it, but I have never seen MS issue a security patch that said, "We found a problem and here is the patch..." Have THEY ever paid a bunch of Russians to ty to crack Windows or the MS server? MS says it will start selling AV software. It's like buying insurance from Masterlock against the possibility that someone will pick your Masterlock lock. I want A to watch B, not B to watch itself. Anyway, sorry for the mini-rant. I do appreciate your taking the time to make the points you have. -- Igor
I was talking mainly from within the OS, but we're starting to see other programs behave in the same way. I do admit though, that there's a general fear, (and not necessarily unfounded) that if we let programs fix themselves without intervention, then we open ourselves up to unwitting manipulation from the technologically adept. Hell, we could even be on the cusp of self-awareness for all I know and the "Terminator" movies might not be too far off from reality.
I think as long as we get the option to turn something off or let it run at its inception, then at least we've maintained a modicrum of control. That control might very well be, probably *is* an illusion, but it's one that gives a semblence of comfort.
Found a problem on your system, or found a problem in general? If they came to you and said they'd found a problem on your system, then they could well be accused of spying on personal property. As far as finding problems in general, I think they do that all the time, at least in respect to improving system performance or capability. Of course that's open to discussion as to whether things are improving or just becoming more bloated.
I meant "WE [MS] found a security hole..." Every Windows security patch I recall has been in response to a security hole found by some non-MS entity.
That was information from a technician given to a friend. I took that into consideration when I installed SP2 on 3 Dell's last week. They all ran and "especially booted slowly for a day or 2". Now everything seems normal on all 3 units.
My guess would be the "Indexing Service" of SP2 has to reindex the drive. I keep this service set to "manual" and did not notice any slow down after installing SP2.
-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)
I'm starting to get more and more to the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" state of mind. My software is all running reasonably well (having trouble with Teranews, but that's not a machine problem); why mess with it? I really don't want to spend a day reloading stuff.
In big shops unless there is an urgent need nothing, including bugfixes, gets rolled out until it's been tested against the standard software loadout for that shop. On my own machines I install Microsoft's updates as soon as they are released, however to get work done I use Linux and Novell so if the Microsoft machines die it's no big deal.
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