New Microsoft Anti-Spyware Tool

In article , Joel Kolstad wrote: [...]

The NT-XP line of windows is better than the 98-Me line. XP is the first one for the home user where there is any real protection. Even there it still isn't very good protection.

Windows wants to keep all sorts of unrelated stuff together. The whole registry concept is an example of this. Another is the tendancy to put the data files in the directory structure as the software. This makes it a lot harder to fix a broken system than it would be if they didn't mix stuff together.

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kensmith@rahul.net   forging knowledge
Reply to
Ken Smith
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bullshit. I doubt 5% of all windows users do their work as a limited user and I doubt even 1% of linux users do all their work as root. Most distributions won't even allow logging into the gui as root and put up a huge warning.

Reply to
TCS

Uh huh, virus and worm writers are only interested in commercial opportunities.

Yeah. Sure.

Reply to
TCS

I think you are drawing conclusions, and they're valid--in your case. Anyone who knows anything about spyware knows that it's insidious and that 1 tool isn't enough to keep up with it. BTW, tracking cookies are fairly benign.

Reply to
JeffM

If you liked SpyBot, try Scan Spyware. It found MANY more than SpyBot.

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

(Like mold or a fungus? :> )

If one thing mungs the registry, the registry for everything is munged. Since it is a binary file and many of the settings are "enum" type, once it is munged sorting the wheat from the chaff is very hard. Since it is one big file instead of a seperate file for each application you can't chop out part of it my just renaming a file to see if a given application is the problem.

Give me the ".fooRC" files any day at least then there is some how of restoring things. On my wifes computer, I had to destroy the registry and reinstall Me and then reinstall the various software packages because the registry file got corrupted.

Except now everything for every project is in one big jumble in the "My Documents" directory. Didn't these guys ever hear about creating sub-directories?

Most of the applications are in \bin \sbin \usr\local... and the data goes in subdirectories off the user's home. If the user installs some new program, it usually done as two subdirectories from the home. One is for the code the other for the data. I usually over-ride this data directory because I perfer to put the files for a given project in one directory tree (in subdirectories from) regardless of the program that makes the file.

I also do this under windows. The tree looks like this:

SpaceRocket The project directory

SpaceRocket\SpaceRocket.HTML A HTML simple file for notes to boss[*]

SpaceRocket\Engine Where the engine stuff goes

SpaceRocket\Engine\Mechanical The drafting drawings

SpaceRocket\Engine\Model The models for the sim

.... etc ...

[*] Just in case, I get sick or step in front a bus, there is some info to help someone pick up the project at the point I left off.
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kensmith@rahul.net   forging knowledge
Reply to
Ken Smith

You are, like many people, too focused on hacking. Look wider. People who want to make money by using other people's computer choose to attack the weakest link: the user. Now think again about my posting and you'll see I'm right. Linux is as bad as Windows on this point.

Hacking into a computer is not interesting at all. Complete waste of time. Being able to _use_ a computer is interesting, but this doesn't require absolute control over the computer. Why try to hack into the computer of a bank if you can easely install a piece of software on the computer of their clients which simply transfers money into your account? Why try to hack the system of a provider to send spam? Complete waste of time. Millions of people will install your software to turn their computer into a spam source if you wrap nicely.

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Reply to nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
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Reply to
Nico Coesel

That's not because it is technically impossible, but it is commercially not interesting.

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Reply to nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
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Reply to
Nico Coesel

I downloaded the MS software and ran it. It found nothing. Then I ran Spybot and it found 7 tracking cookies.

I'm not drawing any conclusions, just reporting my experience.

John

Reply to
John Smith

No, I'm really not drawing any conclusions mainly for the reason you mention... that tracking cookies are relatively benign.

And to Jim: thanks for the pointer on Scan Spyware. I may give it a try.

John

Reply to
John Smith

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