Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
February 19, 2006

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Volume 1, Number 36 — Sunday, February 19, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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7.  Microsoft Anti-Spyware SNAFU

In last week's email newsletter, I had an article "BREAKING NEWS."

WARNING -- If you are using Microsoft Anti-Spyware and are also using Norton Anti-Virus, you may have a problem.

Read the "Microsoft Anti-Spyware Deleting Norton Anti-Virus" article at the Washington Post's Security Fix blog.

I don't use Norton Ant-virus and can not confirm this."

Howard Willman, one of the subscribers to my free email newsletter, wrote to say:

Terry – I can confirm the problem, but it doesn’t seem to happen in all instances. All of my systems run Microsoft AntiSpyware and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition. On Friday, a regular MAS scan detected the “PWS.Bancos.A” password stealer program. There were 320 entries by it in the registry. Stupidly, I went ahead with the “remove” suggestion and immediately SAV went crazy. I solved by restoring to an earlier point (a lot easier than editing the registry). I tried another scan, and got the same result, but this time I chose to ignore the “problem.” The weird thing is that only one of my 25 systems came up with that scenario. Thanks for all the great work. – Howard

Thanks for the confirmation, Howard. I almost wished that the report had been wrong, though.

It's funny how these things happen on some computers but not on others. While I did not have this problem (I use NOD32 antivirus), I saw a different problem last week.

One of the Windows Updates did not install on one of my three computers. Fortunately, when I installed my updates on that machine, others had already discovered the problem and published the steps to resolve it -- basically, these steps were (1) make a note of the update number failed (KB913446), go to www.Microsoft.com, plug it into the search bar there, go to the detail page (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS06-007.mspx) about that patch, download and install the patch.

How do you know if an update has been installed properly? Start Windows Update or Microsoft Update. On the lower left (in Microsoft Update) is a "Update History" link -- which will tell you which ones you've installed and whether they were installed successfully or not.

"SNAFU," for those not familiar with the term, is an acronym for "Situation Normal - All Fouled Up."

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8.  Firefox (and other programs) on Drive C:

Reader Ian Hulland from the Island of Malta wrote to say:

Hi Terry,

I had wanted to try Firefox for years, but it simply refuses to install. I contacted them at Mozilla / Firefox fora, but never had any replies. ( I use Thunderbird quite happily too !)

It seems Firefox either doesn't like my Network or hates NOT being allowed to install on drive " C" --All I have ever had over the years is " Firefox has encountered an unexpected error and will close" so over the years I have tried ALL of the browsers ( as far as I know) and have had a lasting love affair with Net Captor, which, for me, is sooo fast and easy to use--easily scores 10 out of 10 for me.

Just my 2 cents but if Firefox won't install then I can't even try it out ( and follow your recommendation)!

Thanks for a very interesting newsletter too.

Ian.

I know what you mean about drive C:. After years of trying to do all my program installations on other drives, I gave up and let programs install on C:. I finally had to change my boot manager on my desktop -- it could not handle a C: larger than 14.5 GB, so you know I hung on to that program for a long while. I keep my data on D: (or E:, F:, G:, H:, K:, L: and M: on that particular computer!), though.

Thank you, Microsoft, for teaching all those programmers that there is no drive but C:.

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10.  Windows Defender, formerly known as Microsoft Anti-Spyware, Beta 2

Microsoft has released the beta 2 of the renamed Microsoft Anti-Spyware program. Consistent with previous announcements, the program is now called Windows Defender.

All users of validated copies of Windows XP should be able to run Windows Defender's beta 2 version, which will run until December 31, 2006.

Installation was straight-forward and uninstalled/overwrote the earlier Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta 1 with no difficulty.

Previous settings in Microsoft Anti-spyware Beta 1 were apparently discarded in the upgrade to Beta 2. I realized this because I run the remote control software RealVNC on my home network. While I had previously told Microsoft Anti-spyware to ignore RealVNC, the new Windows Defender beta 2 discovered it and flagged it for a decision.

I don't like one feature of the new interface, though. I had to click on a link to see what it had found. However, from the main window -- without looking at the detail -- I could tell Windows Defender to do whatever MS had set as the defaults for each application found.

There was another setting about which I want to warn you. Windows Defender is set to automatically scan daily. The setting that concerns me is the "Apply actions on detected items after scanning," which is checked by default.

I want the scan to wait for a choice by the user -- whether it is to change some of the actions or to blindly accept the default recommendations. Any other action would leave you open to problem such as the Microsoft Anti-spyware removal of Norton Anti-virus — and you would not know why you had a problem! Go into the Tools, General Settins, and uncheck the "Apply actions..." checkbox.

As I expected, WD only found RealVNC, so I don't know how it recommends handling some of the adware and spyware out there.

Hopefully, Microsoft has changed its ways. This staunch defender of the EULA (End User License Agreement) was reported to recommend "Ignore" on adware whose long, boring, seldom-read EULA informed the user that it would be installed. With the outrage this created in the technical press, perhaps Microsoft has reconsidered that decision.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Volume 1, Number 36 — Sunday, February 19, 2006
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Copyright © 2006 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.