Suggestions

would it be possible to implement a system tray icon for the updater?

-an option to just right click a file and choose 'remove on boot', just permanently delete it, something like GiPo@FileUtilities 2.9 but preferrably GiPo@remove on boot.
Spybot seems to not be great at scanning at startup and removing, what if i dont want it scanning at boot, i just want a file i chose deleted
honestly i dont know., is there a better way, research maybe to how spybot can remove files, or clear them out of memmory to kill the processes and than delete them

-also check to see if a new version of your setup maker for spybot is out, if yes, see if the repair option/modify is supported now

I still don't understand ;)

If it's about files Spybot-S&D detects, it already schedules them for removal during boot. And if it is about any file you want removed, the Erase using Spybot-S&D option in Windows Explorers context menu does the same.

And it already does a lot to "remove them from memory", including killing process handles, unloading file handles, closing library handles etc.. I guess it would be better if you would name something specific instead that is currently not removed through the standard methods ;)

InnoSetup homepage - no update since October I'm afraid. Neither for the Repair/Modif addon (UnInsHs). The incompatibility is not exactly with the setup engine itself though, but with the ISX download addon, where helpinf updates are not very likely (we have to use an old version of the ISX download addon since newer versions have this problem of scrambled texts during the download on older Windows versions).

Another suggestion would be that when you select multiple items to be 'erased with spybot search and destroy' from the context menu, each item you want to delete, pops up with it's own individual warning.

When multiple items are selected, there should be one pop-up listing all the files set for deletion, instead of loads of pop-ups for each file.

:crowned:

I think the problem with individual warnings is that Windows calls SDDelFile.exe for every single selected file.

A better solution would be to integrate tighter into Explorer (like the file properties scanner - as a DLL loaded by explorer.exe), since that would allow us to see all selected files at once.
But I'm not sure how it would act when you're killing a file that needs Explorer to shut down to be removed - it might lead to it stopping itself from removing the files ;)

Maybe a combination...

How about also enabling the 'erase with spybot search and destroy' to work with deleting folders. :)

And here's another one, When a scheduled scan is in operation, If you move the scanning box you can see the loading bar (same bar as when you start up the program). At the moment, it is hidden behind the scanning box, but is there a way to hide it?

and one more :laugh:

In the recovery window, the picture of the 'first aid kit' has a red cross on it, while the icon in the side bar has a green cross. It would be better if the the 2 icons matched colour.

(now im being really picky!)

All noted :)
Yes, that cross should be green as well (the red cross is a trademarked symbol and the red cross organization doesn't like it used anywere ;) )!

Will think about a way of hiding the loading bar, not sure though if that could make its way into the next version, since I already made a possible RC build today :)

The erase option will surely improve a lot; not specifically for this, but for a bunch of other topics as well (we've got some broader new cleaning concept in planing).

I love the advanced features SpyBot includes, but there were a few things it seemed to lack.

When you scan for problems, it always checks specifically for individual bad programs, which makes not including an explorer extension of right-click scanning understandable, but the ability to specifically target a certain directory or file (possibly by right-clicking) would really be nice. I sometimes feed malware to anti-malware programs to see what has proper detections, and that's hard to do with SpyBot.

The second issue is that SpyBot doesn't give the option to hook Firefox like it does to Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is a commonly used program, so it is very targeted, and needs protection. However, now Firefox is becoming popular I understand exploits exist for it too, so there needs to be an option to hook Firefox just like with the Internet Explorer tweaks. As far as cookie managment, the current version of Firefox doesn't offer a whole lot of support for it, so some extra setting tweaks couldn't hurt. It has a checkbox to enable cookies or not (blocking them foils most logins), and you can carve out exceptions, but the option to quickly (and temporarily) allow a site to set a cookie, with the option to enable/disable alerts prompting if the user wants to allow a cookie - like TeaTimer does with registry changes - in both Internet Explorer and Firefox would be wonderful.

The third suggestion I have is something I'm unsure about. I can't find anyway to manually edit the host file settings in SpyBot. When you find something constantly phoning home to a certain address, the ability to null-route it with a simple right-click is priceless.

A forth neat right-click treat would be in the browser pages. Supposing a user doesn't want yahoo.com to load every time they mis-type an address, they should have the option to change it to something they do want, like google.com, with a right-click.

Number 5: The above suggestion of using the right-click to delete on a startup is not bad. It can be a real pain to try fixing a problem with SpyBot only to require yet another scan on the next startup, more so if it already knows what the problem is. Other competing products generally have this option, so users will probably be used to it.

Yet a sixth is, an additional option to run the program without the brief scan (mentioned somewhere above) under the advanced settings, and perhaps a parameter to specify one or the other to override the current setting and shortcuts for both in the startup menu. This would be really helpful for those with slow computers who are only (at that time) launching SpyBot for its utilities and do not likely have to worry about something intercepting the process at that time.

And finally, TeaTimer should hook the operating system to prevent its termination. Any malicious process could probably just terminate it when TeaTimer gives trouble (which it most likely will), so it needs to defend itself. Then, to be fair to the user (such as in a case when the user is installing a trusted program that makes many registry changes), there should be an option to disable TeaTimer temporarily.

Now, my picky suggestions involve the startup info page. Some additional right-click options would be nice, such as running (or at least specifically copying to the clip board this alone) the listed uninstall command, or in a case where none is present, an option giving options to find information, like putting relevant details (such as KB884016) into a search engine to minimize mistakes and safe work/effort from the lazy user.

I'm not giving any of these to criticize the program - I already consider it as a top-quality program - but I truly think they'd be nice, and I'd personally make much use out of them. As for the program rating, I give it a 95%, with a subtraction of 20% for the lack of a targeted scan, 10% deducted for its lack of support for Firefox (what we should probably be using), 10% extra credit for its good definitions, 20% for the advanced utilities, and a deduction of 5% for the disappointment I get in a few of the wonderful tools going so far and working so well, but then leaving me without an easy way of fixing something they present (all those right-click options). In short,
100 - 20 - 10 + 30 - 5 = 95% A.

1. For targetting a special file, see Spybot Christmas Presents, Part 2: Separate File Scanner :)

2. For Firefox, there are already great generic protection plugins: NoScript and AdBlock, for example. It's somewhere on our todo list though to write a specific Firefox plugin as well :) I've added this issue to the bug tracking/feature request system though to allow votes and comments on the topic.

4. The browser page overview already allows you to change entries (see Change button in the toolbar). Do you want that button to be available in the context menu (right click) as well, or have I misunderstood your point?

6. For utilities, I would recommend RunAlyzer as a stand-alone tool. It's going to replace the integrated tools section in Spybot-S&D 2.0 :) RunAlyzer takes a lot of time to start up as well, that's true, because of it's integration check. Requests for specific combinations to be added to the startup selection are welcome.

7. The option to temporarily disable already exists, and the 2.0 TeaTimer is already concepted as a system service and with some other plans to make it more persistent :)

X. In RunAlyzer, you can already copy entries to the clipboard. I've added this feature request for direct browser links though.

Sorry that I skipped some entries, just used a short break in working on the new TeaTimer which I need to get back to now ;)

Separate Secure Shredder suggestion:

Followup on a gripe by Sliztzan in the following thread:

• Context menu entry
  http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=22553

Please consider adding a feature to the Spybot > Mode > Advance mode > Tools > Secure Shredder facility that would allow the addition or removal of the standalone context menu driven "Separate Secure Shredder" after the installation of Spybot.

When working on firefox support, please simultaneously add support for flock.

It is based directly on firefox. It almost seems like a permanent plugin and skin since its still firefox underneath, but it has changed paths so plugins with hard coded path information, and Spybot, don't look in the right spot for various information. And immunization thus probably is not doing anything either.

I am assuming from the previous post that when you say firefox is supported, you don't directly control it as you do IE (I see the link in tea timer), and that when hooked it will be done as a plugin (per previous poster)? I am already running adblock plus with additional subscriptions. But I am getting some that they missed via your HOSTNAME blocks (I see the image not available tag from the browser).

Instead of hook, your current support is scanning the directory's and registry correct? which is better than nothing, but I don't know if I've been had since its not scanning flock's directories.

If you don't hook then what is the protection/immunization doing when it is protecting firefox?

Also until Tea-timer becomes a service, make it easier to restart it. I saw it was not running the other day and could not find how to run it. I looked in the start menu, programs folder, and inside spybot. I think it used to be on the immunization page.

Added two feature requests :) :
Browser support for Flock (Spybot-S&D)
Browser support for Flock (AlterEgo)

Hi, I would love to see a 'Minimize to Tray' option. i was asking about it here but would love to see it properly put in. Just a tick box that when ticked, if you press the minimize button, it minimizes it to an icon in the 'tray' rather than on my taskbar. Thanks!

i have some suggestion.Could detected cookies be for example orange?or some other weak things.Cause all detections are red and for a second im scared if it is spyware or something like that:-/

another is,rather a question..Is there some new version planned?with some lower memory usage?or better realtime protection in tea timer??

i think,the biggest improvement would be more frequent updates!!:)i mean,dont matter if they will add less detections,but my comp will be sooner protected,dont u think?:)once a week is not too much:-/

If you want more frequent updates, a good idea would be to participate here; no action involved after installing it, but the more people participate, the less testing is needed on our side :)

First off, I want to give you a hearty "Dankeschoen" for Spybot S&D. It is an amazing program! I always recommend it to my friends and family. Because of your program, I have no spyware! I also make sure to donate money every couple of years.

My question is this: The program always refers to "Internet Explorer" being protected. What about Firefox? That is the browser I use, but I have seen no references to it in Spybot S&D. Today I downloaded 1.5.2 and as soon as I restart my computer it will be installed, so maybe you have Firefox support in it?

Again, thank you for Spybot S&D!:bigthumb:

You're welcome :)

Both immunization and scanning do know Firefox (including the old versions that were still named Firebird), Mozilla/SeaMonkey, various Netscape Navigator versions, Beonex, K-Meleon, Lolifox, Wyzo, Flock, and Opera (Flock and the latest Netscape versions may need the next release).

Internet Explorer additionally has a plugin; for Firefox (and the various compatible Mozilla versions), there's a feature request for a plugin here.

One suggestion would be:

Integrating "ClearType" into Spybot's text. It makes it much more easier to read.

Such things should be handled by the framework (Delphis VCL) actually, but I might take a look at where it could be influenced ;)

Meanwhile, 1.6 beta 1 is currently tested whether we it's fit to be made public... :)

Perhaps a little request :

Ability to play some sound when scan has finished.

Take a look at the Settings page, you can already set up different sounds for a clean vs. an non-clean end of the scan :)

Ah. Now I've got one.

I used to use TeaTimer all the time, lols, however problem is that TeaTimer will take up around 45-50MB of memory when the computer has been idle for, say 45 minutes.

I've checked the Task Manager during the first few minutes after boot up and TT was using around 35MB. It slowly rose after time.

Pepi, I was wondering if you could cut down the memory usage of TeaTimer. I find it quite useful, but even on 512MB of RAM, I don't like the sound of the cooling fan when I'm running TT and Firefox simultaneously. Thanks.

Here's another one:

I recently installed Opera (9.50) and only used it for a day or two (a reason for this is because, as you may know - I LOVE FIREFOX!!! WOOO!!! :FF:) <--- :clown: sorry for caps! Anyway, before using Opera I immunised it with Spybot, but after I un-installed Opera, the Opera immunisation profile was still in Spybot :eek: :fear:

Spybot should be able to detect if a browser is un-installed and if so, delete the immunisation profile :)

More...

You could have a 'Delete browser profile' option in the context menu on the immunisation page, but you would only have this option in advanced mode

@drragostea: before I implement the last TeaTimer feature for 1.6, I'll have another go at monitoring its memory usage.

@honda12: advanced mode sounds very necessary ;)
Still not quite sure there though, detecting "uninstalled" browsers might be tricky, profiles are usually not exactly linked to one specific executable.
The Firefox profile folder is used for Firefox 3 even if Firefox 2 is "installed", for example. Opera can have profiles everywhere, and if I have three different Opera versions installed and remove just one, which profile should I remove?

Maybe a small stand-alone tool for separate download for those people who wonder and come looking for a solution would be better?

The file properties dialog scan as i understand has been made optional by ensuring that it doesn't start until u click on hte s&d tab. But i request you to change the name of the tab to scan with s&d or better put an option to start a files scan on the right click menu itself [context menu i think] like most antivirus prog's.
i.e:
now: Right click on file/folder-> properties->sp.bot s&d to start scan
suggestion:(right click on file/folder->[click]Scan with S&D)

this will also prevent crowding of the file properties dialog with tabs

OK the skin is holding on this release.

but,

1. I'd like to be able to stop that popup box that wants to delete temp files that starts even before you get to S&D. I'd rather have that within the program. Besides I am a dialup user, and do not clean out my temp IE folder as much to save time.

2. This version still opens to the "settings" page of the program. I hope it will be corrected in next update to open back at the main page.

@HOODYE8:
1. There you have luck :)
It's undocumented and unofficial, but should work in beta 2:
Need option to disable temp folder cleaning
2. Will be looked at as I wrote above somewhere I think ;)

@outspoken: funny thing: usually find the context menu too crowded instead of the properties tab ;)
But in the long term, it'll lead to what you described, because it fit's better into the overall concept :)

??? I don't have this in my registry

Tweaks\DisableTempFolderCleaning


can't the coders just make a setting for this in the final version to stop this annoying thing?

OS: Vista Home Premium SP1

@Hoodye8: well, cleaning the temp folder is able to speed up the scan quite a lot depending on how large it is.
If users would misinterpret this option and disable it, this would mean a lot more support work in finding out why some users scans take so long.

You wrote that you do not clean out your temp IE folder to save time, since you're on dial-up.
That's fine. Because this function does not clean out the Temporary Internet Files folder (aka browser cache), but the regular temp folder used by applications during installation of software to temporary store extracted files, for example. So your browser cache would not be affected at all. But thinking that it was, you would give up the possible speed improvement, being a good example on why options often complicate things more than both sides expect ;)

PS: and no, tweaks have to be created, the do not exist beforehand. I should add a help page about them somewhere, but then, they're inofficial tweaks only ;)

Ah OK, well if it just cleans up the windows temp files than that's another deal, and i don't care about that folder. It may be an idea to have that box say that.

Yeah being on dialUp I only clean out those files once in a while, but I do clean my cookies more often.

I just don't like this vista OS having made so many folders inaccessible now, like the IE temp, history, and cookies.

So thanks for clearing up what files are deleted, I couldn't find that folder in my reg as it was anyway.

:fear:

I got another deal goin here now, I'm not sure just what version of S&D put this tap in the system properties box.

I was checking my C drive properties, and found the properties box was taking a little longer to pop up than it did, or any other properties check was on any other drive.

when it did show, I seen this spy bot tap listed, so I clicked it to see what it was for.

Well hell this thing seemed to just start some sort of system scan, which never did finish, I left it on all last night to see just what it was for, and this morning was stuck, but it took forever just to get to that point.

first thing is it shouldn't just start right up doing this, it should have a box to ask you what you want to do and tell you what it WILL do.

So I'm thinking what ever this tab is for, its probably making my properties box taking longer to show up now.

can tis be removed some how? is it in settings? I don't need this in the system properties box info, I can do this from within the regular program when I wana check for malware or bots.

OS: vista home premium
S&D 1.6 beta 2

It's a bit different from the regular scan, since it's usually targeted for single files only (can do folders and whole drives as well though).

But I agree, this part caused too much trouble. For the next release, I've recently finished the alternative that has been suggested a few times here: SDFiles.exe, which appears in the context menu when you right-click a file (not in the Properties window any more), giving you some more control on when to scan exactly, allows to drag'n'drop more files onto the window to scan, and runs on 64 bit systems as well.

To remove the old one right now, you would have to unregister the DLL. That's probably the command

Code:

---

regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\SDfiles.dll"

---

.

Thanks for reminding me about the topic, I wrote a todo for myself to make sure this is automatically removed by the next installer :)

yeah OK, I'll just wait for the next release to re set this thing, I don't use it that much anyway and won't use that tab at all for now. I figure this 1.6 should be about ready for final anyway.

BTW you ever think about the GUI on this program? I mean yeah there are some skins available, but they also seem old like looking graphics wise. Any thought into making the graphics more clear looking, I mean more bright and the colors more vivid?

hi. i have some suggestions to spybot, i can see that i have 11 hostsfile backups in the hostsfile folder, maybe they can be removed by spybot so we dont have to do that manually because the folder is just growing and growing and some people maybe dont know the folder is growing, i mean it is just necessary to have just one backup.

the other one is that maybe the installation wizard can ask if you want to disable the dnsclient to avoid slow browsing speed, maybe someone dont understand why their browsing is a bit slower than before. and it have been great to have a hostsfile server to serve up images or empty images to make the browsing even faster, and to avoid to having to hit the backbutton in the browser several times to get back to where people was, but that happenes only sometimes and mostly when a ad or something is blocked on the site they are visiting, maybe you should link to hostsman wich has a hostsserver.

and maybe the logs should be not only in the advanced mode, but in the standard mode, to be easy for newbies to delete them when they are not needed anymore, to avoid the growing of the logs endlessly

Agreed with Blues about the ever-growing logs and hostfile backups - maybe a section in Settings to 'Remove after' week, month, or quarterly would help housecleaning. Leave it in Advanced, though - it doesn't seem to affect performance and by the time a user actually takes a look at the log dir and hostfile backups, they're not so much a newbie anymore. Possibly another page or note in the .chm as to that.

Some other smallish niggles

a) If not too difficult to make in localizations, personally I'd like to see the 'pullout' info in plaintext if that could be done - somewhere along the way I've lost that ability to show RichEdit material http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=27344 and I miss the info :sad:

b) Lighter text on the headers!
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/9...6headernk1.png

c) Fix the 'persistence' of System Internals "Integrated search for registry inconsistencies" in the statusbar
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7259/ssdstatkd8.png
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7302/ssdstat2pv0.png

d) It may be just me, but the tiny 'favicons' are ghostly on Immunize and mostly so on Setting-main pages
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/1...onghostwy6.png

The black header text being less visible may also be 'just me' as that dark brown background is my Windows native for app background :rolleyes: - skins aren't 1-size-fits-all, I've found :hair:

@HOODYE8: yes, we often think about the GUI. The immunization at least has become somewhat nicer with 1.5, and the overall concept is to split things, have more smaller, light (no full color schemes nor full skins like the huge AV UIs) windows instead of everything in one big, but bulky, place. You might also notice an attempt at an unobstrusive placement of our logo in these dialogs (again, not hitting with half the screen used for fancy things, but instead small but easy to recognize hints) in SDFiles.exe (RC 1).
@blues:
1. Good point on backups. We probably should combine all types of backups in 2.0, so that we could put a global "age" for them.

2. If it would be on the wizard, many 2000 users would disable it without knowing what it is about probably. What are the chances that users who actually need this service would blindly disable it, and suddenly have no connection? Rumors on that service are various. Are there any Microsoft recommendations that this file could be safely disabled?

3. See 1., it's probably best to get some combined data storage solution instead of implementing this in various different locations right now.

@ME_2&:

a) a bit late for the 1.6 release, since we've just closed the Release Candidate 1 :-/ But this needs an overhaul for 2.0 anyway, let me take a few thoughts on how it would look best if it doesn't have to be in this context, and maybe it could be brought back into a 1.x update sooner.

b) That's a matter of Windows color schemes; we do not use "static" colors here. In this case, it is the background color for app workspaces combined with the color for highlighted text. Sadly, this background color has no matching foreground/text color, so we combined it with the most likely other color.

c) Fixed, thanks :)
Btw, after 1.6 is out, we plan to immediately move the system internals functionality into a separate file, like we already did with the shredder.

d) that's probably your gray background. The icons are anti-aliased PNGs, which has the advantage that they blend in much nicer in the other places, but the soft edges might make them more "ghostly" when shown on a background color similar to their fading out colors.

Meanwhile, I'm putting the last small touches to the installer of RC 1 :)

i have always disabled the dns client when using hostsfiles without a problem, the only issue i found is if you try to repair the internet connection if you cant browse then you get a message that the dns cache or something like that cant be flushed, but i dont know what that means or if it is important to flush the dns cache. is it necessary to flush the dns cache?

this is from other sites: theeldergeek: As the description above states, it caches Domain Name System (DNS) names for this computer. If disabled, it simply means the system will go upstream to resolve DNS names rather than use the cache.
is this service needed? no. recommended setting: disabled.

Start this service if you receive a 'DNS Resolver Failed To Flush The Cache' message.

from microsoft: The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated.

The DNS Client service optimizes the performance of DNS name resolution by storing previously resolved names in memory. if the DNS Client service is turned off, the computer can still resolve DNS names by using the network's DNS servers.

does this means our isps dns servers?

from blackviper: It is also needed if using IPSEC.

from hostsman forum: The DNS Client service is not necessary unless the system is used in a large corporate network that uses Active Directory

from mvps: in most cases a large HOSTS file (over 135 kb) tends to slow down the machine. This only occurs in W2000/XP/Vista. Windows 98 and ME are not affected.

When set to Manual you can see that the above "Service" is not needed (after a little browsing) by opening the Services Editor again, scroll down to DNS Client and check the "Status" column. It should be blank, if it was needed it would show "Started" in that column.

The above instructions are intended for a single (home-user) PC. If your machine is part of a "Domain", check with your IT Dept. before applying this work-around. This especially applies to Laptop users who travel or bring their machines home. Make sure to reset the Service (if needed) prior to connecting (reboot required) to your work Domain ...

IPCOP running a DHCP server needs the local PC DNS Client enabled to function