Gettin started

[solarblast]

I have a problem with an ad on my Google that is sponsored by Criteo. Someone suggested I install SB to get rid of it, so I installed it about 10 days ago. I think I ran something called immunization. It produced some report about browsers (FF, IE, TB, ...). Maybe 2-3 times the dialog appears on my screen. Apparently, it is on some schedule, and wants me to do something. This morning I ran it as passive. It offers to run it in UAC mode as well, but I've ignored it until I understand what that's about.

I have no idea if SB is running all the time, or I need to run it from time to time on my own volition. Just how does one operate SB in some useful way?

[Zenobia]

There's a first steps tutorial.You've already done a lot of them,but skipping down to the later numbers should give some explanation on Spybot.
http://www.safer-networking.org/supp...teps-tutorial/

This page has some explanation on what Users Account Control is:
http://www.7tutorials.com/uac-why-yo...er-turn-it-off
This shows how to get admin rights:
http://www.safer-networking.org/faq/...indows-vista7/

This is an explanation about Immunization(and sdhelper):
http://www.safer-networking.org/faq/...ion-options-2/
A little more about it here:
http://www.safer-networking.org/faq/...to-immunize-2/
This helps explain what immunization does.It's from the Spybot 1.6 and below era,but the explanation of immunization and the hosts file(which is now included with immunization) still applies:

How Spybot Search & Destroy protects against the installation of Spyware/Malware

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

There are four levels of protection currently offered by Spybot S&D.

The first level of protection is immunization (a passive protection). When you “Immunize”, entries are added to the system Registry. This blocks cookies from some sites, places other sites in the restricted zone and blocks the download/execution of selected ActiveX scripts. Also Note: If you use Spybot S&D and other products like SpywareBlaster, etc. together, there is an overlap of some of the protection offered. If you undo or disable the protection in one product, it may remove some of the protection installed by the other. You should re-immunize or re-enable the protection in the other products as appropriate.

The fourth level of protection is through the addition of HOSTS file entries. This is a passive protection. The HOSTS file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names and is loaded into memory at startup. The HOSTS file must contain one entry: "127.0.0.1 localhost". The IP address 127.0.0.1 is the local machine. Windows checks the HOSTS file before it queries any DNS (Domain Name System) servers, which enables entries in the HOSTS file to override addresses in the DNS. Adding an entry such as “127.0.0.1 malware.com” to the HOSTS file prevents the access of “malware.com” through IE because any connection attempts are redirected back to the local machine. HOSTS file entries can also be used to block other applications from connecting to the Internet.

http://forums.spybot.info/showthread...pyware-Malware

Spybot 2.0 doesn't have resident protection,so it isn't really running all the time:
http://www.safer-networking.org/faq/...imer-resident/

The system scan should be scheduled to run from time to time(once a month,I think it is.),but to operate Spybot in a useful way,you can run a System Scan to check for and remove threats more than that,as needed.

[solarblast]

There's a first steps tutorial.You've already done a lot of them,but skipping down to the later numbers should give some explanation on Spybot.
http://www.safer-networking.org/supp...teps-tutorial/

This page has some explanation on what Users Account Control is:
http://www.7tutorials.com/uac-why-yo...er-turn-it-off
...

The system scan should be scheduled to run from time to time(once a month,I think it is.),but to operate Spybot in a useful way,you can run a System Scan to check for and remove threats more than that,as needed.

Thanks for the tips.

Did I miss simply "Reply" (w/o quotes)?

[daemon]

Did I miss simply "Reply" (w/o quotes)?

There is a blue "Reply to Thread" button on the top and at the bottom of a displayed thread for this.

daemon

[Zenobia]

You're welcome.

[solarblast]

There is a blue "Reply to Thread" button on the top and at the bottom of a displayed thread for this.

daemon

It must be pretty tiny. I don't see it. I see "Reply to Thread" now under the banner (Forum->Software ...).

[daemon]

It must be pretty tiny. I don't see it. I see "Reply to Thread" now under the banner (Forum->Software ...).

You are right, it is only displayed when one is logged in. I wonder why vBulletin behaves differently for the two buttons. ^^

daemon