Help about S&D for a newbie

[elmer fudd]

First off, Hello,

A few things I'm not sure about with S&D,

What exactly is SD Helper doing and is it doing it quietly in the background without opening SD up ?

If I need to delete something from the start up list, do I untick it**, or untick everything else ?

I've put a link to my program folder and my usual initial download folder in the directory, how exactly does this work ? Does it only flag if it finds something wrong ?

Now a big thanx to I know not who. I was pointed in this direction to find out about ctfmon.exe that I couldn't get rid of and the answers and pointers on here have enabled me to
squeeze the life out the bugger and get it off my PC.

Last thing is SD15 seems v. slow to load up but I see you're aware of that, so I'll bide my time instead of keep clicking my mouse !!!

Elmer

** Think I know the answer and it wasn't the way I did it !!

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

1. The *SDHelper/Immunize*

Spybot-S&D allows you to immunize your computer against some spyware. It currently offers three different immunities:

Permanent Browser immunity: Similar to JavaCools SpywareBlaster, this allows you to tweak some internal Browser settings to block the installation of known spyware (and similar threats) installers via ActiveX. Spybot-S&D is able to set all entries for those that are in its database to be blocked. If you want to distinguish, you should install SpywareBlaster.

Permanently running bad download blocker for your Browser: This is a second layer of protection. While the Permanent Immunity blocks installers by their ActiveX ID, this one blocks anything that should come through by different aspects.


2. Open Spybot in the advanced mode via the menu item mode, go to 'tools'->'System Startup'
Then mark the entries by clicking it and remove them with delete from the menu bar above.


3. There are different ways to search for spies. One would be to search the complete registry and harddisk for suspicious entries and files. That can take a lot of time.

Spybot-S&D takes advantage of the fact that all spies have to anchor themselves at a few places over the system to get active. It starts to search at these places, following the information gathered there to catch the whole spy.

So it is not necessary to make your own scan on every drive. Spybot-S&D usually scans all internal harddisks automatically. But a general recommendation is that you store all incoming files (downloads) in a special folder, and that you set up this folder for a special installer scan. Please have a look at the "Directories" in the "Settings" when you run Spybot - Search & Destroy in "Advanced Mode". There you can add additional harddisks or folders.


4. Ctfmon.exe is part of Microsoft Office XP. It monitors the active windows and provides text input service support for speech recognition,
handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies. It should be located here:

* C:\Windows\System32

If not it can be virus, spyware, trojan or worm!
Further you can see it on the filesize. The legal version is something like 10 to 15 KB.


5. We already have located the startup problems in Spybot S&D version 1.5 and fixed it.
Here is the download file for the fix: the new Spybot beta (http://www.spybotupdates.biz/files/beta/spybotsd15he-beta2.exe)

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot