[Deb123]

Though that one of the improvements with Windows Vista was that it was more secure.
I had a 98 machine that I weekly ran adaware and only had a hijack once a couple of years ago. This is suppose to have better security and I have been on this new machine a week and have gotten a aboutblank spyware.
I have tried adaware and cwshredder to remove it with no luck. I ran Sypbot and
it came up with one entries but I am not certain it is safe to remove. Never use
spybot before. It says in RED
Microsoft.Windows.security.internet explorer- 1 entry
HKey_USERS\1-5-21-1015622350-708935824.11...

Does anyone know if I can safely remove this?

Deb123

[uhaligani]

I am a (fairly) satisfied Vista user, but agree with your sentiments Deb. I ran Ad-aware on my XP OS regualarly and it seldom found anything to clean out. I backed it up with AVGFree. I also , on a regular basis, manually deleted my cookies and temporary Internet contents. Never had an attack over the life of XP. In Vista, Ad-aware is constantly finding trackin cookies and other garbage. A regular clean out with Regcleaner standard also finds a mass of new enries, in spite of the fact that I have installed nothing new. As always, I continue to take care of my own security and ignore MS's boasts.

[Deb123]

Do you know anything about spybot, would you think it safe to remove that entry?
Kind of scared to remove it because it says Microsolf and seems like I have heard
that you have to be careful about what you remove cause it could be something important.
it does say that it is a registry change and the entry in in RED which is what they consider spyware. I have not yet removed it.

Deb123

[uhaligani]

I don,t use spybot but it is a well favoured program. If it says it is spyware, then I would trust it. Personally, I would copy the file somewhere safe, delete the original and restart. If there is nothing amiss then dlete the copy.
For what its worth, I keep my updates going on a daily basis. I have searched my reg file and cannot find that entry, so maybe it should not be there.

[johnpaul]

That's odd because I've been using Vista for four weeks now on a new laptop. I do the same web surfing as before and have had no problems. I run AdAware and SpyBot regularly, but they find no major problems.

JP

[JohnWill]

Try starting a new thread in the Security forum and post a HijackThis log, those folks will help you sort this out.

[Bob Cerelli]

"This is suppose to have better security" - It does have better securty. But it is not perfect security.

Kinda like having better seatbelts. Still need to watch your driving.

[Deb123]

Well what I am saying is I was only on Vista for a week before this happened and I assumed with Windows Defender running that it would prevent this. I had not yet downloaded Adaware to run weekly as I did on my 98se. The only thing is I did turn off
Defender for about 5 hours one day (checking on another problem of compatibility) that have since solved). But what I am saying is that after all this time I would of thought microsoft would of improved security more than it has. Defender is obviously no better than adaware that has been out way before and neither found it. There are some positive things about Vista but so far do not see that they out way the negative and do not see any advantages of it compared to XP that is worth the time figuring it out.
I have always ran adaware weekly on my older computer and kept my temp files clean so I know that but as I said I had been on Vista a week when this happened. Also another thing that is occurring is I go on dictionary.com a lot because I work from home and now when I do and close out their is a pop up behind it which was never on my 98 that I just stopped using a few days ago which I did not have a pop up blocker running and do on Vista. Though it may be possible that I have enabled something in the security since I set most of them to enable when I was having the compatibility problem but I have compared it to the 98 settings and don't see any different but their are more settings on Vista.
I have recently posted on the spyware forum but the threads seem to way out way the answers. I probably will go ahead and delete it but copy it first, thanks for the suggestion.

Deb123

[Bob Cerelli]

"I assumed with Windows Defender running that it would prevent this." - Not necessarily a good assumption.

And correct, Defender not necessarily the best program out there in regards to spyware.

Again to go back to the seatbelt analogy, it would be like saying, I assumed because I was wearing seat belts, I could do whatever I wanted with my car and not get hurt.

[uhaligani]

I think the point is that, however hard MS try to improve there security, through updates or SP's, about 50% (wild guess) of the hackers in the world , who are intent on the challenge MS thrust at them, will normally find new vulnerabilities within weeks, if not days.
Linux, and other OS derivatives, do not offer so much interest. There oft claim to better security lives on the back of this premise.

[Deb123]

Regarding the seat belt comparison-don't think so, I abide by the laws and though accidents happen, these are not accidents. My only point is that Microsoft has been out along time now and though yes there are more and more advanced people out there but
the fact of it is their program that they market and if you notice if you go to their website they do have a program that can be purchased for $$ to get rid of these things
that you have to assume is a higher grade than Defender- yet not on Vista, hu.

Deb123

[JohnWill]

What's so surprising about MSC having more expensive options for additional security?

If you buy a car (yep, I love car analogies), you can buy "optional" extra airbags, electronic stability control, and on some models, even anti-lock breaks are an option. All of those are safety options that in your way of thinking should be standard on all models, right?

[Bob Cerelli]

Originally Posted by Deb123

My only point is that Microsoft has been out along time now and though yes there are more and more advanced people out there but
the fact of it is their program that they market and if you notice if you go to their website they do have a program that can be purchased for $$ to get rid of these things
that you have to assume is a higher grade than Defender- yet not on Vista, hu.

Deb123

There are many programs that are better than Defender and are free. Otherwise too many assumptions that somehow Vista is impervious to spyware and viruses is not a particularly good one to make.

So while Vista is more secure, it is not perfectly secure. Still need to use good anti-virus and spyware protection.

And even though you abide by the rules, accidents with computers can still happen.

[Deb123]

Well don't want to get into a thing about this but if I get a intruder in my house I call the police to get them out not spend days trying to figure how to remove them. As far as I am concerned it's is not the 90's and Microsoft has had plenty of time to make their system's more secure. Adaware was out way before Defender and look how many people are still having problems. That is evident by the spyware forum here and that is just this site. Not everyone is a computer tech and believe most people would agree that both in the past and now that microsoft could and should of done more to make their systems they sell more scam free and a lot sooner than they have, they are internet explorer right.
Well I still have computer issues to deal with so bye bye.

Deb123

[Bob Cerelli]

It is more secure. It's just not perfectly secure.