Newsletter Archives

• Malware: Its Prevention, Detection & Blocking

  Posted on June 8, 2017 at 12:39 CDT by Kirsty • Comment in the Forums

  Last week, a blogpost raised the issue about Fireball, a recently discovered browser hijacker and malware downloader.

  In response, an anonymous poster has suggested:

  anonymous wrote
  This is why corporations should be using HOSTS files and utilizing applications like Spybot Search & Destroy and Teatimer.

  Corporations and end users have differing needs, using different methods to achieve similar results. Some utilities are freely available to end users, but EULAs mean corporations pay for those services.

  While one solution will not be suitable for all setups or Windows versions, what are the best methods and utilities available today? How much time, effort and skill do those methods require, to set up, update and maintain?

  Other, Windows Patches/Security hosts file, malware, Spybot

• Spybot conflict

  Posted on January 26, 2015 at 21:16 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Just got this message from John H:

  You probably remember how I pestered you about my Windows Explorer crashing every time I right-clicked on it to bring up a context menu. Well, problem solved and you are not going to believe what caused it.

  It was Spybot Search & Destroy. That’s right, one of my favorite “indie” tools for fighting obnoxious tracking and spyware. I was having trouble updating it and ran across the following whilst looking for a solution:

  http://forums.spybot.info/showthread/?71890-Paid-version-causes-Win-7-Windows-Explorer-to-crash-on-right-click

  An entry in the thread confirmed that the free version also suffers from this bug.

  No wonder I couldn’t find what was causing my Windows Explorer to crash! I installed this version of Spybot right after the December patches. It never occurred to me that it could be the problem.

  Fortunately, the work-around did the trick. But I can’t help wondering how many other people might be affected by this bug since SS&D turns on the WIN Explorer Integration automatically when you install it.

  Thanks, John!

  Other Explorer crash, Spybot