Spyware Warrior

Daveski17

I have been using MBAM for a little while now & it always gives me a clean bill of health. This is a good thing of course but I also like to run SUPERAntiSpyware as well. SAS always finds tracking cookies (sometimes 50 or 60). Is MBAM just ignoring the tracking cookies as they are no real threat? Does anyone else use MBAM?

Tarq57 · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject:

It's very effective. Up there with SAS...very hard to know which is better, and maybe they take turns depending on the malware and the day.
Tracking cookies are low threat, and easily removed, so I don't require an antispyware to detect/clean them for me. Others like it if their AS will do this. I use Ccleaner, and just put the cookies I want kept on a whitelist. It's more of a (usually) minor privacy issue than a spyware one.

Daveski17 · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:10 pm Post subject:

I have heard of Ccleaner. I might have a look at it one day. One of the designers answered my question about MBAM on their forum. He reckons that they don't see tracking cookies as a priority either. I think along with SAS, Spybot S&D & SpywareBlaster I am well covered!

Tarq57 · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 5:33 pm Post subject:

You probably are fairly well covered. But why not keep MBAM as well as SAS?
Neither need to run in realtime. (And unless you've paid for them, neither will.)

Daveski17 · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject:

I am keeping MBAM. I have had a look at the ccleaner site. It looks very interesting (& it's freeware) what advantages does it really have?

Tarq57 · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:04 am Post subject:

Ccleaner advantages? Over (1) Not having it, or (2) some other app?
It can save/reclaim a fair amount of HD space, as unneeded files can be easily removed without having to manually do it. It's very configurable in that regard.

There are some strong opinions around as to whether registry cleaning is desirable or not. If you are one of those who likes to clean invalid items from the registry, Ccleaner's reg clean function is one of the ones least likely to cause damage, plus it makes backups, just in case.

It has a whitelist for "keeper" cookies, everything else can be set to delete.

It has a startup manager and an record of installed programs, which some find easier and maybe more comprehensive than the built-in Windows utilities.

Malware often installs itself in a "temp" directory before attempting to clone itself to a permanent location. Sometimes running Ccleaner as part one of a malware removal exercise will make the following cleanup much more straightforward. In fact, it's usually recommended (or ATF cleaner) for this very purpose.

It's under active development and has an active forum plus user guides, so help is never far away.

Sorry, can't think of anything else, offhand.

Daveski17 · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:38 am Post subject:

Thanks I will definitely have a look at it.