How to make MS AntiSpyWare NON-RESIDENT?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
Bill--OK; thanks. (Though again, it isn't just the
crashes. It's also the silly feature of the software not
being fully controllable.) --John
 
Sorry about the confusion. This thread is a little zig-
zaggy.

Keeping MS-AntiSpyWare from loading is a matter somewhat
of principle, in that I want to keep the memory free.

There is also a specific software conflict issue. On my
wife's computers, MSASW has been causing repeated crashes
when running the online games, "The Sims Online"
and "There." These are crashes that require a shutdown
and reboot. I know a couple of times MSASW had been
trying to do a scan. I think others were its trying to
update itself, and I think some were simply from it being
in memory monitoring this or that. That's not very exact,
but the result, anyway, was for me to think that to
circumvent whatever is happening, there must be a way,
short of doing the tedious ctrl-alt-del routine, to turn
the program off, but when I found there didn't seem to be
one, I uninstalled MSASW from my computers and resumed
depending on better-behaving antispyware programs. My
wife has left the MS one in operation, however, and
though she has experienced frustration sloggling through
its confusing menus looking for a turn-off switch, she is
still hoping to find a way to make it work, and I'm
trying to help that hopeful effort--and to urge Microsoft
to consider the novel notion of making its products user-
friendly.
Click to expand...

John,

I myself have tried There, and it is a very intense program - the graphics and
network activity are not for the faint, or those with slow network connections.
I'd be very surprised if There wasn't at least 50% responsible for any
performance or stability problems on your wife's computer.

That said, I share your opinion about any software product that insists on
running automatically, and offers no option to prevent this. This applies to
both MSAS, and to RealPlayer's RealSched.exe aka TKBell (such an intriguing name
for such a noxious and sneaky software).
 
John, I think I might have a "workaround" that
actually "works". lol. (I must admit, though, that when I
first started reading this thread I kept thinking to
myself: "Oh, for Pete's sake, just disable all the startup
stuff! What's this guy's problem?" But then I tried it and
saw what you were talking about - disabling all that stuff
STILL does not take it out of the start up loop.) So I
went back to an old trusted program that comes in very
handy when it comes to taming unruly startup hogs. If you
have Spybot S&D on your wife's computer, go to the tools
section there, and click on "System Startup". You should
see the MSAS service listed there, and you have the option
of TOTALLY removing it, or TEMPORARILY suspending it. I
chose the temporary suspend because I was only really
checking for you to see if that would work well enough to
remove it from starting up, and it DID WORK. I also use an
older program called Reg Cleaner, which gives me access to
everything that runs at startup, but that program only
gives the option to permanently remove, not temporarily
suspend, all the startup programs. And I am sure there are
other programs that give access to things that run at
startup as well. Granted, it's not the way it SHOULD be,
and it remains to be seen whether or not MS will include
the proper, polite options that MSAS should have, but at
least in the meantime, this workaround should give you the
options you are looking for. Hope this helps.
 
John - I don't disagree with your wish that the program have controls which
work and which enable you to set it the way you want it to operate.

However, if you think that the real-time protection features are anything
negligable or somehow misrepresented or unimportant, you haven't looked very
seriously at the product.
 
UPDATE:

However...I just discovered that while the workaround I
suggested above DOES prevent MSAS from loading after a
reboot, it does not prevent the icon from reappearing in
the service try after a manual scan is run, and it does
not prevent the gcasDTServe.exe process from running and
wasting resources after a manual scan has been run, and
the program then closed.
 
Bill - it's probably not prudent for me to get in the
middle of your exchanges with John, but from what I read,
I'm not sure that John is saying that he doesn't think
that the real-time protection features are neglible or
unimportant. What I hear him saying is: 1. Something about
MSAS might be causing problems on his wife's computer. 2.
He wants to see MSAS have clear options to void it
according to HIS choice, not MS's. 3. He may or may not
feel the need to use the real time protection offered by
MSAS.

With regard to #3, it has been documented here already
that MSAS and Spybot S&D's Tea Timer apparently conflict.
It's possible that other users prefer to use another full
time protection option. Or that may not have anything to
do with John's decision/choice. But the key term is
CHOICE. I personally have always been turned off by MS's
policy to feel the need to make the choices FOR us, by
making easy configuration obtuse at best, or downright
impossible in some cases. But especially in this instance,
where MSAS appears to be a resource hog, easy access to
clear cut options would seem to be important, if not
essential. Obviously the ramifications of this discussion
go beyond this particular beta feedback loop, but since
you opened up the scope of this thread by adding in more
of a broad brush response, I felt that it was appropriate
to respond in kind.

Respectfully,

sk
 
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