spybot +av results.... and the confusion they generate.

[NeilBraun]

Hi everyone.

My wife and I bought spybot with av and got one copy for each of our computers. My computer, a laptop with windows 8 might have problems but I don't know because the list of results is meaningless to me. I am not new to computers or running anti virus software so it was sort of surprising to me that after running all day long scans I still have no idea what the state of my computer is.
After running the first scan which turned up several pages of meaningless results I hit the fix selected items button, and then hit scan again thinking that this would be the clever thing to do.... As near as I can tell I got the same meaningless list, after almost seven or eight hours this was a little frustrating. So I looked in quarenteen, it to has a gigantic yet meaningless list of "products" what ever that is under various headings.
I was never asked to remove malware, or viruses or quarenteen anything.
I honestly have no clue what to do next.
Do viruses even have names any more?

Anyhow thanks for any help, I'm surprised I need it so baddly.

[Zenobia]

There's a first steps tutorial here,and number 6 is removing threats found,which tells you a little bit about that:
http://www.safer-networking.org/support/first-steps-tutorial/
Which includes a picture of the results list,which you can click on and look at,which will help you follow along with what I'm saying:
http://www.safer-networking.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SDScan.png
When the scan is all done,before you click Fix Selected,you can look at the results.Looking at threat level,and Category will help you see info about what was found.
You can also click on any results listed there individually,and over in Details to the left will show you the Product,Category,Type,and you'll see Estimated Danger listed for whatever you clicked on.
If something is showing as Tracks,it is just these and isn't much of a concern:
http://www.safer-networking.org/faq/usage-tracks/

If you click on something and would like to know more about it than what's listed under Details,you can click Show Details,and it will search the forums so you can possibly find out more about it.Usually anything listed as tracks brings up a sort of generic search,but if it's a higher threat level,the search most likely will show you individual results from the Malware Removal guides with the name of whatever was found,which will usually tell you more about what was found under Description.This is the malware removal guides section:
http://forums.spybot.info/forumdisplay.php?54-Malware-Removal-Guides
(That's not to imply removing anything manually is required.It's provided for people who want to do that,but it can also be used just for info on what was found.)


After running the first scan which turned up several pages of meaningless results I hit the fix selected items button, and then hit scan again thinking that this would be the clever thing to do.... As near as I can tell I got the same meaningless list, after almost seven or eight hours this was a little frustrating. So I looked in quarenteen, it to has a gigantic yet meaningless list of "products" what ever that is under various headings.
It might be helpful,and cut down some of the results if you cut out the Tracks scan for now.To do that,open Spybot Start Center,checkmark Advanced User Mode,click Settings(say yes to UAC if prompted),then select the Categories tab.You will see Malware Detection listed at the top,underneath that rightclick somewhere within that window and select Spyware scan only,then click Apply and OK.
After that,you can do another System Scan whenever you get chance.With Spyware Scan only selected,the Tracks won't show,and you can get a better general idea of what is being found and how serious it is,if anything is found at all.
Then,when you do another scan after that(when you have time),if there is anything left that was not removed,you can post back here,and I can direct you to the malware removal forum,if it is necessary. :)

[NeilBraun]

Hi Zenobia,
Thank you for this, now I think I have a better starting point. I have been using spybot for spyware stuff for a long Tims and it always seemed simple, jupdate, imunise, scan, fix. The addition of anti virus seemed the thing to do just to help out but also to check some things I was concerned about. I think in their case they will have to wait.
Again, thank you, I was a bit overwhelmed at the length of the scans, the staggering number of results and the total inability to understand what I was seeing.
I will post again when I try this stuff and let you know how it goes.

[NeilBraun]

Sorry about the typos, I am typing on my phone and the keyboard is smaller than my thumb....

[Zenobia]

No worries on the typos.You're welcome. :)