Spyware detections

General Topics
1

Has avast plan on releasing updates against spyware ???
Not that they can do any real damage they’re anoyig >:(

Thanks

2

Hello and welcome ;D

Well avast! already detects some spy/adwares :wink:

3

I know that but its more than minnor ,I am talking about the same level of detections as viruses.

4

Hi mouniernetwork,

Well not that all spyware or adware is just annoying, some can be a real pain in the neck. Better an ounce of protection, then a kilo of cure. Some can be cleared only with special tools, and manually and need some registry cleaning as well.
Special tools for browser annoyances is BHO cop and Toolbarcop.
Anti spyware programs can be added for protection and scanning against spy-/ ad-/ & scumware. There is the well-known free trio: Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D and SpywareBlaster, occasionally you can scan with a free tool called Spyaudit, this does not clean this malware, but give a good indication if your computer is free of traces of malware, persistent cookies etc.
A nice bundled program to keep your computer spyware free is Hitman Pro, a shell program by the Dutchman Mark Loman (all mentioned programs are there), it is in Dutch but there exists an English manual.

Surf malware free is the wish of,

polonus

5

Well I don’t know maybe someone from Alwil can say ::slight_smile:

But anyway you have a lot of great FREE software to fight with spy/adware - Ad-Aware, Spybot and … :wink:

EDIT: Wooww Polonus you were faster than me ;D

6

Never mind .:x:M:A:S:.,

For the same reason you could say I was interfering.
Sometimes it is also a good thing to run a heuristic scan tool. Of course our friend mouniernetwork knows the main rule in AV-scanning NEVER USE TWO RESIDENT SCANNERS AT A TIME.
This pays for instance when we are scanning for suspicious files that the big scanners only scan for when specially set to do so.
Why because this increases the risk of finding false positives. False positives when found in system files, and not followed by really evaluating, can bring you in serious problems. But a good old heuristic scanner is the F-prot for Dos (yes still around and with a special updater to have the latest definitions). It is old, but very good, well good old friend Miha found it for me. And of course I have put it to a modern purpose, I created a map in my Flash USB disk (Mem key) partition,named it F-prot, downloaded this Dos-scanner there together with the downloader, and now I can scan on the fly in Dos wherever I go. It will find archive bombs, and logical bombs even, e.g. for instance ICB.
All the best to you,

polonus

7

Thanks for the tips ,but I was wondering if it was one of avast goal to be a leader in spyware protection

8
Thanks for the tips ,but I was wondering if it was one of avast goal to be a leader in spyware protection

Ad-aware and Spybot are probably somewhere in that level. Even though it can detect some spyware, again Avast! antivirus is design mostly against viruses.

9

Yes … and we do not want Avast anti-virus to become bloatware! :o

Of course, if Awil wanted to do their own (but seperate) spyware program, that would be ok with me. :wink: