Where have all the definitions gone?

[FatBear]

Hi,

I have five systems running Spybot (yes, I did donate when I first started using it, though I should probably do so again...) The problem I am going to describe has just occured on the second system of my five.

Spybot was installed and running fine. I routinely check for updates, immunize if it finds any, and then run the scanner to check for problems. It was reporting something over 50,000 known spyware definitions (if that's the right term for them) and would then spend quite a bit of time checking for them. Then suddenly one day it said no updates were found, the system was fully immunized, and it only ran the checks for about a dozen definitions. What happened to the other more-than-40,000 definitions?

I tried a bunch of things (it's been a while and I don't remember what) and finally tried to uninstall Spybot S&D. But it wouldn't uninstall and it left files on my system which I could not delete. I tried re-installing over the partially uninstalled files and still had the same problem - only a few definitions being scanned for. I uninstalled again with the same problems and re-installed in a different directory. That didn't work at all and I finally gave up and installed a couple of alternate spyware/adware checkers on the system.

Now my second system has acquired the same problem. It was checking for over 50,000 definitions and now it is suddenly checking for only 32, while finding no updates. I haven't bothered trying to uninstall/reinstall - I already know where that will lead.

I need to know what is causing this so I can fix it. We really need anti-spyware. Is this a known problem with a known solution? If not, I'm just a user, so it is unlikely that I have provided all of the information needed to solve this problem. What additional information can I provide?

The two affected systems are both running XP-Pro with all updates and both are/were running Spybot 1.4. The first one is using Norton Internet Security 2006, the second is using NIS 2005. Anything else I can add?

Thanks!

--Brian M. Godfrey

[spybotsandra]

Hello Brian,

Please run Spybot - Search & Destroy and switch to "Advanced mode" via the menu bar item "Mode" and select "Settings" --> "File Sets" in the left bar. There, please right-click somewhere into the list and choose "select all available checks".

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[FatBear]

Hi Sandra,
I followed your instructions and Spybot is running all of the checks as I write this. Thank you!

--Brian