SpywareGuard - and all antispyware a fraud?

I have SpywareGuard loaded on my computer and recently got hit by a nasty BHO helper trying to rewrite my homepage and cause general mayhem. When I clicked the prompt when it asked me if I wanted the object removed I naturally selected OK. Once I did that, I decided to check to make sure it was actually gone. I ran REGEDIT and what did I find? The very registry entries SG said it had removed. SG does great at letting me know something has happened, but it apparently does NOTHING to remove the cause, even when it says it has. It really upsets me that I have 6 different programs on my computer that fight spyware and viruses and none of them can remove all of the dangerous intrusions, eventhough they are marketed to do so. It leads me to suspect they really aren't designed to do that at all. Just makes it infinitely difficult for the consumer to get their computers functional, forcing them to Best Buy to by another $79 antispyware program that does just as little. Or better yet, forces them to spend hundreds on a firewall, produced by the same company too. I have often suspected the very people who produce the antispyware materials are also behind spyware in the first place. It sure does create and ensure a very lucrative market. Forces us ignorant consumers to spend billions on useless software that were are told will solve our problems. But hey, if you're creative enough neither the FBI nor any other fair trade or government enforcement agency will ever be able to trace it because the problem can always be blamed on your local anarchist with a PC; some disgruntled former employee of Microsoft or Sun, and the real beauty of that is that everyone will believe it! But you legit antispyware people who honestly want to see this crap stop (eventhough it would eventually put you out of business by doing so, or at least but a big dent in your marketshare), just make everyone's life easier by making antispyware software that really works!!

 

Hi Navigator372,

Welcome to the forum.

You have not provided the details of this BHO helper that SpywareGuard alerted you to. Please note that SpywareGuard is "a work in progress" and even though it's detection abilities are heuristics in nature and will catch and block many of the newer versions of spyware, it might not block some of the more recent and agressive hijackers/spyware out now. It also depends on how that spyware is installed, either through a browser exploit, p2p program, or manually as part of a bundled software package the user downloaded.

SpywareGuard also is not a spyware removal program like Ad-Aware SE and Spybot Search & Destroy for example. SpywareGuard is a preventative tool in that it actively monitors your PC with the 3 protection options enabled (real-time scanning, download protection, and browser hijack protection), which will prevent most spyware from ever being installed in the first place.

Some of the newer spyware/malware out now, like Vx2 and CWS, can be extremely difficult to remove and will usually take manual removal, which would involve posting a HijackThis log for review at one of the spyware removal forums along with step-by-step instructions given by an experienced Hijackthis Analyst, and most likely the use of specialized tools created specificially for removal of this type of infection.

You can find a list of sites that offer this free service in this link: http://a-sap.org/
The two bigger forums for HijackThis log processing, (meaning they process more log threads each day than most others) are: SpywareInfo.com and CastleCops.com.

You have not mentioned what anti-spyware programs you are using, but there are quite a few rougue anti-spyware apps out there. You many want to read this link: Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites.

Please ensure that you have downloaded SpywareGuard from the correct source:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html

As for SpywareGuard, and any of the other programs created by the Developer, Javacool; these are free programs. Same goes for Spybot Search&Destroy, and AdAware SE, both of which have their own forums with free support available. Also, HijackThis is a free tool, as is the help given by the HijackThis Experts who volunteer their time to help people clean their computers.

If you would like to give us more details on the name of the BHO that was detected, along with your operating system and the other anti-spyware programs you've mentioned using, we may be better able to offer you more advice.

Regards,

snap

 

Well, not exactly a fraud. Brian Livingston "WindowsSecrets.com" has done a study, with help from other sites, pointing out which Anti Spy Ware packages are the best. Not surprisingly, there is NO program that will catch 100% of spyware. It isn't a fraud and he explains why no one program can do what we want. Hopefully the results displayed will prompt a new generation of spyware catchers.