Spybot and McAfee Services - incompatibilities and enforced uninstallation

[Da Gopha]

Hi folks,

I've been a very big fan of Spybot for ages now. However, I've been forced to uninstall it recently when installing McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008.

Unfortunately (as another user has discovered: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=18590), McAfee flags the presence of Spybot during its installation process, and refuses to install unless Spybot is removed first.

Whilst this is somewhat out-of-order(!), I complied to get McAfee in, and then reinstalled Spybot (and upgraded from 1.4 to 1.5).

However, when coming to use the Immunize function, it seems that McAfee's SystemGuards conflict with the deployment of the immunization to Firefox and IE.

Essentially, as is described here: http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=8230 when trying to immunize, the Spybot process hits 100%, and needs to be forced to close.

Would there be any possibility/has anyone come across a feasible solution to allow Spybot to co-exist with McAfee, so that we can Immunize weekly, without needing to disable McAfee SystemGuards?

With kind regards,
Gopha.

PS. Have also flagged this with McAfee at their Forums: http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/showthread.php?t=216783

[PepiMK]

Well, McAfee told us two reasons:

First, their software would get confused due to the immunization. Of course, forcing the user to remove the only application that could undo the immunization is a very good way to ensure McAfee will be running fine later on (yes, that's irony in there ).

Second reason was the TeaTimer. Again, a Spybot-S&D option that wouldn't have to be used and wouldn't justify a forced uninstallation.

Guess in the end, it'll need a Cease & Decist to stop them.

[Da Gopha]

Originally Posted by PepiMK

Well, McAfee told us two reasons:

First, their software would get confused due to the immunization. Of course, forcing the user to remove the only application that could undo the immunization is a very good way to ensure McAfee will be running fine later on (yes, that's irony in there ).

Second reason was the TeaTimer. Again, a Spybot-S&D option that wouldn't have to be used and wouldn't justify a forced uninstallation.

Guess in the end, it'll need a Cease & Decist to stop them.

Thanks for your reply. I have a few contacts on McAfee's side that I'll flag this with.

However, I would say that: I've had to uninstall Spybot to get McAfee in, but I intend to reinstall again at some point to figure out if I can get both to coexist without too much trouble.

I didn't bother undoing the immunizations before removing Spybot - I'd rather have the tens of thousands of 'bad' sites permanently blocked in my IE restricted sites list. I know that this doesn't have any impact on McAfee because McAfee doesn't have anything that interferes with IE zones (to the best of my knowledge).

Even some of the McAfee Moderators have used Spybot, and accept that it would work at its most primal level.

The 'true' conflicts that currently exist are:

1) Immunize cannot be implemented without first disabling McAfee's SystemGuards, which prevents such changes to the registry etc. From what I gather, we can Immunize if we first disable SystemGuards and then re-enable.

2) TeaTimer will simply conflict with McAfee's Always-On Protection processes - which is why McAfee folks have always used SDHelper/Immunize independent of TeaTimer (and McAfee Moderators have accepted this).

So bottom line is - there is no reason to have Spybot uninstalled prior to McAfee installation, and we need to figure out a way of letting Spybot Immunize without any hassle from SystemGuards. In particular, I'm quite keen to see if there is a way of white-listing Spybot to let it Immunize freely.

If I hear anything back from McAfee, will keep you posted.

Best regards,
Gopha.