spyware blaster and DSOStop

The way I look at it, SpywareBlaster blocks a specific list of ActiveX controls, i.e. those that are found to be spyware related and are in the wild. But, like any "after the fact" protection, there is a certain amount of time that these controls are out in the wild before they are added to the protection database.

DSOstop does two things... First, as it relates to the original "DSO Exploit", it blocks in IE the "Download unsigned ActiveX controls" and "Download signed ActiveX controls" in the "My Computer" Zone. Meaning, if the exploit was actually in play, this fix would prevent any and all ActiveX controls, not just a specific list, from being downloaded within that zone.

Optionally, it also disables those two settings in the Internet Zone. (This is all explained at the PSC site: http://www.nsclean.com/dsostop.html.)

Now as you can see, this is a different type of protection than SpywareBlaster provides. Personally, I think every system with IE ought to have the "Download unsigned ActiveX controls" disabled in every security zone regardless of any exploit. And the setting for signed controls ought to at least be prompt, if not disabled, too.

Using DSOstop2 will not hurt and provides something different than SB, so there is no reason not to use it in my opinion.