Recommendations on using Spybot to cleanup supposed Malware?

JockVSJock

So I use Spybot twice a week on Win 7 x64 Enterprise on my laptop.

I always noticed that it flags Windows Media SDK, Windows Drivers, and MS Direct3D (I've included a screenshot).

I feel comfortable deleting Cache and Cookies, however I'm not so sure about the other things.

What recommends do folks have?

sasnimrod

I don't use Spybot as frequently as you do, but whenever it finds something on my PC I always choose to remove it. So far, I've never had any problems with this approach.

From the attached screenshot it shows that most issues have the Type listed as a 'Registry Change' so it's probably going to remove only invalid registry entries. I've found that CCleaner is also a good program to use as a Registry Cleaner.

stryder144

I second the ccleaner recommendation. Run that, then run Spybot and see if things have changed.

SteveLord

Why do you have to scan twice a week? I probably use Malwarebytes twice a year.

JockVSJock

I would rather be safe then sorry.

YFZblu

That photo isn't very helpful, after zooming in it's too pixelated to see exactly the file(s) it detected. That being said, a legitimate malware hit should be a 'nuke and pave' situation if you're able to do so; If you aren't able to do so, I would take this as an opportunity to prepare for the next time.

Regarding frequent on-demand scanning, I like the idea. I have it scheduled for once a week myself. Staring at attack traffic for a living will make you paranoid I suppose.

Xyro

JockVSJock wrote: »

I would rather be safe then sorry.

JockVSJock

I forgot that I also have CCCleaner installed too. Here are some observations, and maybe I'm splitting hairs here:

-Both CCleaner and Spybot detect different things. What shows up under CCleaner doesn't show up under Spybot and vice versa.

-I ran CCleaner first and then Spybot this morning. Just to see what happens, I just did the same thing again and in my mind it seemed to pickup
the same results as before. Just an observation, call me crazy. Next time I drill down further and report back here.

SteveLord

CCleaner isn't designed or advertised to remove malware. Never has been.


When I need to cleanup a computer, it's Malwarebytes > CCleaner > Auslogics Defrag on Optimize mode (with power off upon completion checked.)

Ever since Mbam, I don't even give Spybot a thought. The free version has always been solid.

sasnimrod

SteveLord wrote: »

CCleaner isn't designed or advertised to remove malware. Never has been.

Agreed. Maybe I should have mentioned this distinction between Spybot and CCleaner upon suggesting the latter.

One other product that I use (not for malware removal), is BleachBit. I found it to be quite good at clearing all of the junk (cookies, temp files, etc) that's just sitting there wasting disk space on my PC.

JDMurray

If your computing (Web browsing) habits are such that Malware infection is of great concern to you, I would highly suggest that you look in to running your Web browser in a sand-boxing program (like Sandboxie) to contain and destroy anything unexpectedly acquired your Web browsing sessions. Prevention first and detection and removal second.

mokaiba

Microsoft has stated in the past that PC cleanup software is known to cause more problems than fix. I completely agree with them. When I did use that software, I always found myself having pc issues months later and eventually having to re-image it. I don't run into that issue anymore since I don't use the software anymore.

YFZblu

JDMurray wrote: »

If your computing (Web browsing) habits are such that Malware infection is of great concern to you...

In an age of automated, silent, browser-based exploitation, shouldn't malware infection be of great concern to everyone?

In the last year YouTube has been observed serving malicious ad traffic in two separate campaigns (that I know of). Yahoo.com has fallen victim to the same.

Other well-known domains and orgs I have seen silently redirecting to exploit kits in the last 8 months:

-livestrong.com
-bible.org
-msnbc.com
-glassdoor.com
-wafflehouse.com
-monster.com

...and thousands of smaller legitimate websites.

Random note: The company I work for rents building space from property management companies; one of which has its own website (expected). What wasn't expected, was to see their website attempting to redirect me to a Blackhole landing page by way of a malicious iframe. Of course, at this point blackhole is not operational and I lucked out in that regard.

My larger point being: this stuff no longer hides in the deep dark corners of the internet.

SteveLord

JDMurray wrote: »

If your computing (Web browsing) habits are such that Malware infection is of great concern to you, I would highly suggest that you look in to running your Web browser in a sand-boxing program (like Sandboxie) to contain and destroy anything unexpectedly acquired your Web browsing sessions. Prevention first and detection and removal second.

Seconded.

mokaiba wrote: »

Microsoft has stated in the past that PC cleanup software is known to cause more problems than fix. I completely agree with them. When I did use that software, I always found myself having pc issues months later and eventually having to re-image it. I don't run into that issue anymore since I don't use the software anymore.

I've used the same software for years. The "junk" cleanup software are those that run ads, trialware and your everyday user installs thinking it will turn their computers around. Then throw money at it because paying for something somehow automatically means it is better. Consumer antivirus software is a big example of that.

Oh well. Puts extra money in my pocket on a regular basis.