Spyblaster 3.1 error msgs..

Hi debbie,

Some infections leave behind some remnants that can cause that error message when trying to access spywareblaster's package. There is a lengthy thread on this here:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=26534

Included in there are a lot of manual work-arounds that different people found that worked for them, as far as cleaning the bad remnants and getting SpywareBlaster to install and run properly. Towards the end is a new recommendation about a download that can fix the problem automatically. But, all of these fixes come with a general warning that they are not 100% guaranteed to be problem free, so caution is advised if you decide to attempt the fixes yourself. Javacool has advised that he believes the next version of SpywareBlaster (3.2) may fix this problem in many cases, but the date of release has not yet be scheduled.

 

This is likely to be true, but not because of the 20 A0000....exe files (more on those in a moment). The thread I linked above shows that, for the most part (though there are a small number of exceptions), people getting that virus or corruption message had been previous infected with a variant of CWS spyware. That thread shows many possible solutions though it also says Javacool is trying to automate the fix in the next build of SpywareBlaster.

Now, those files you are seeing. Are they in your System Restore folder (either "_RESTORE" or "System Volume Information")? System Restore on Windows ME and XP grabs copies of any EXE files and stores them at various points during system operation. You can not go into the System Restore area and manually delete files. The only proper way to remove files from System Restore is to disable then reenable it, or use the Cleanup option that allows you to remove old "restore points".

However, when you do either of these operations, you lose either all restore points, or all but the last one, depending upon which you do. Aside for the fact that those copies are taking up a little more than 40MB of space, they really aren't hurting anything, so unless you are tight for disk space, you probably should just leave them there.

More on cycling System Restore here:

http://vil.nai.com/vil/SystemHelpDocs/DisableSysRestore.htm

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001111912274039

 

SpywareBlaster uses completely different protection techniques than SpywareGuard. If you use Internet Explorer as your default browser, and if you are allowing ActiveX in the Internet Zone, then using SpywareBlaster is highly recommended just because of its main protection, that being the setting of kill-bits for known spyware related ActiveX controls.