Antispyware shielding in a multi user XP environment

[Bob Kuhn]

If I am running multiple users on an XP machine, will the
Msft antispyware beta version shield over all users? I
am assuming it is sweeping across all registries, but one
deficiency I have noted with other antispyware programs
is they don't shield (protect) across all users on the
machine.

Bob

 

[Steve Wechsler [MVP]]

If I am running multiple users on an XP machine, will the
Msft antispyware beta version shield over all users? I
am assuming it is sweeping across all registries, but one
deficiency I have noted with other antispyware programs
is they don't shield (protect) across all users on the
machine.

Bob

Bob,

From experience, and from what I've been seeing lately, one *must* run
spyware apps in ALL User profiles to ascertain that the system is
cleaned when running XP. The malware scripters are preying upon Users'
lack of knowledge of how XP functions; not to mention the failure of
said Users to clear out the Temp and TIF folders for all Users of the
system.

"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi " ...

Steve Wechsler (akaMowGreen)
MVP Windows Server

 

[Bill Sanderson]

My short answer to this one would be no.

It definitely fails in some simple cases such as the list of URL's for
Browser Hijack Settings restore.

So--I don't think the current design is there yet in this respect. However,
your feedback, along with a good many others who have brought this up may
help get this done right for the final released product.

 

[Kent W. England]

Bill Sanderson wrote on 14-Jan-2005 10:18 PM:

My short answer to this one would be no.

It definitely fails in some simple cases such as the list of URL's for
Browser Hijack Settings restore.

So--I don't think the current design is there yet in this respect. However,
your feedback, along with a good many others who have brought this up may
help get this done right for the final released product.

Just to follow up on Bill's comments, Microsoft has to make the choice
whether to protect user profiles individually or all at all times.

If users can disable/tweak MSAS for their own accounts, then they would
be able to turn off certain protections, but not system-wide protections.

It might be a good idea, as some other software does, to disable the
ability of limited users from changing certain settings in MSAS, or make
it run as a service with no limited user interface.