[RED CLOUD]

Dear Friends,

I have recently installed Version 4 of Spyware Blaster and my operating System is XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2, with all current updates. I use Internet Explorer 6.

When I download all updates for Spyware Blaster I get the following message .

Protection Status

Some protection is not enabled, you should enable all protection.

Internet Explorer - Protection enabled

Restricted Sites - Partially enabled, 16 items have protection disabled.

If I click on "Enable all Protection" at the bottom of the screen, the operation takes some time, but it always then shows that 16 items still have protection disabled. Despite several attempts I have never been able to "enable" these 16 and I wonder whether anyone else has met this problem ?

Thank you for reading this.

Red Cloud

[t bone]

hi
i don't have that problem but, have you ever tried clicking on the "16 items have protection disabled" and manually checking the ones unchecked to see if they stay enabled.

also i'm using ie7 (don't know if that has anything to do with it, prob. not)

are you running some kind of "always on" protection that could be blocking the changes.

[golferbob]

i also have had no problems with it. did you uninstall the old one first and restart your computer ?

[mreddys10]

hi
i think t bone is right. after i updated my spyware blaster, even i had a similar problem, but i manually checked the unprotected items (in red) and enabled them. its worth a try

[hewee]

Did you do a clean install of spyware blaster?
Did you unprotect everything on spyware blaster version 3.x before uninstall because that is how it should be done because all those things are listed in the registry. Then reboot and install spyware blaster 4.0
Also if you got Spybot - Search & Destroy and after any update you should immunize. But also go to spyware blaster and check and redo the protection there.
Both programs can put the very same thing in the registry or take it away. Like if Spybot did away with blocking site 666 and it was also listed in spyware blaster it would now be unchecked in spyware blaster. This works both ways so when ever you update one of them you should also check the other to see if you have update and or to reprotect things.

[RED CLOUD]

Dear tbone, golferbob, mreddy10 and hewee.

Thank you all for your kind replies.

I uninstalled the previous version before installing the new version, however I did not "unprotect" on the old version before I uninstalled it. I do have Spybot Search and Destroy Version 1.5.2. and always "Immunize".

I am a computer illiterate and am struggling with this, but would it be worthwhile uninstalling the new version and then starting again with a fresh install ?

Thank you,

Red Cloud

[RED CLOUD]

Dear tbone and mreddys10,

Further to my reply above I checked those items shown in red and then ran "Enable all Protection" but at the end it still is showing that 16 items have protection disabled.

On the Spyware front I use Spybot Search and Destroy, Windows Defender, Spysweeper and XoftSpySE. I am honestly not sure whether any of these are "always on" but I believe that Spysweeper may be.

Thank you

Red Cloud

[t bone]

if your spysweeper is set on realtime protection (or whatever they call it) that's prob. causing the problem.

is the spysweeper icon in your system tray (on the bottom right, by the clock)
click on the < to show hidden icons as well.

if it's there rt. click on spysweeper icon and select "turn off realtime proctection" or whatever they call it (or shutdown the spyware sweeper prog. all together.)

if for some reason defender is on shut that down too, as well as xoftspy.
(if the "tea timer" function in spybot is turned on it may be causing the problem too)

for now start with the spysweeper shutdown and the others if they should be on

then open up spyware blaster and update, enable all protection and see what happens... if you are successful you may get a warning from spysweeper that your settings have changed the next time you reboot, if so allow the change.

[hewee]

I would not even trust using xoftspy.
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Do as t bone said.

Also you could undo the "Immunize" protection in spybot and close it down and unprotect all in spyware blaster and close it down. Then open spyware blaster and add all protection again.

It is funny how things are because others that use the same things in there list can show up in the other program list.
Like when I installed spyware blaster and open it up and updated it I looked at the list before I added the protection. But there were some that were in the list marked as protected. This is because it was seeing the very same thing spybot had.

[RED CLOUD]

Dear tbone and Hewee,

Thank you both for your replies. It is fairly late now in the U.K. so I will look at this in the next 24 hours and then re-post.

Thanks again for your kind help.

Red Cloud

[RED CLOUD]

Dear Hewee and tbone,

I am very pleased to report success !! I had already disabled Tea Timer on Spybot some time ago. I temporarily shut down Defender, Spysweeper and XoftSpy and then updated Spyware Blaster and then "enabled all protection". Lo and behold on "Restricted Sites" all protection enabled ! Thank you so much for your invaluable help it has been very much appreciated.

Also thank you Hewee for the details of the Spyware Warrior site, which I have made a note of for the future as it could be very useful. With regard to XsoftSpy it made reference to aggresive marketing and false positives, but then went on to say ".... in view of these changes we can no longer regard XsoftSpy as rogue/suspect anti-spyware"

Kind Regards to both.

Red Cloud

[t bone]

that's good to hear.

i'm curious.... do you usually have all 3 of those progs. coming on at startup.
if so that seems like overkill not to mention it's prob. not a good idea.

[RED CLOUD]

Dear tbone,

Only Spy Sweeper runs at Start Up, I use the other two for scans only on the basis that if one programme misses something, another may catch it.

Regards,

Red Cloud

[hewee]

Originally Posted by RED CLOUD

Dear Hewee and tbone,

I am very pleased to report success !! I had already disabled Tea Timer on Spybot some time ago. I temporarily shut down Defender, Spysweeper and XoftSpy and then updated Spyware Blaster and then "enabled all protection". Lo and behold on "Restricted Sites" all protection enabled ! Thank you so much for your invaluable help it has been very much appreciated.

Also thank you Hewee for the details of the Spyware Warrior site, which I have made a note of for the future as it could be very useful. With regard to XsoftSpy it made reference to aggresive marketing and false positives, but then went on to say ".... in view of these changes we can no longer regard XsoftSpy as rogue/suspect anti-spyware"

Kind Regards to both.

Red Cloud

That is good to hear you got all protection enabled now with Spyware Blaster.
Yes Spyware Warrior site is a great site and it is even outdated but still has so much good info that your want to keep it bookmarked. Your see also under trusted software it is just a small handful of programs and 100's of bad ones are listed.
I know XsoftSpy is no longer listed as as rogue/suspect anti-spyware but that would not make make me trust them.

I also use a Custom list with Spyware Blaster. Don't know if I really need it because so many things are to protect you if you use IE and I don't use IE but for Windows updates and it blocks ActiveX in IE.
Spyware Blaster lets you if you go to Tools, Custom Blocking.
You will not see anything because nothing is there now.
If you go to where Spyware Blaster is installed C:\Program Files\SpywareBlaster and then make a text file called " customblocking " you can then add sites to it. But if you ever want to stop using it you need to uncheck everything and then remove protection for all unchecked.

I use this one I found over here. http://koti.mbnet.fi/pattaya1/customblocking.txt
Here is the rest from the site http://koti.mbnet.fi/pattaya1/spywareblaster.htm but I can't read it.
Your note on that list it has a date at the top.
Now if you use this list and update it you have to uncheck them all and then unprotect them. Close Spyware Blaster down and then open it and go look at the Custom list to see if they are all RED so you know that there is no protection and then your know it has removed all of them from the registry.
It is a very big list and you can just copy the page and paste it into customblocking.txt file and save it.
It can take a long time to see what is in the toll, Custom list too because it has to get the info and list them all. Same goes with adding or removing the protection so you may think it is not working. A slower computer will make things even slower.

I would not add this list unless you know what your doing and even then it is not needed unless you use IE.

Also be for I forget. If you do add this Custom list and the first time you open Spyware Blaster and see the list some in the list may already be "black" as protected. This is because it is already in the registry from another program.
So undoing the protection or updating the list you also want to look at other programs to see if you disable any from that program so you can redo it.