Snookered Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 I gave a teacher a brand new laptop on Monday and as she doesn't like IE she installed Chrome. She is sure that she got it from the genuine Google site, but within a few hours all sort of rubbish installed itself. If I look in Program files I can see Groovio, Wajam, Search Protect, ASP (advanced System Protector) Systweakasp and CommonShare were all installed within seconds of each other. I've just run a scan via Windows Defender and it says no threats found. (I hold my hands up and admit for various reasons I forgot to put my usual AV on!) Defender is up to date, so what's the point of it? Cheers!
Tesla Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 Those programs aren't strictly viruses, so defender doesn't pick them up, they usally bypass most AV's that aren't "security suites" in my experience. As they're genuine programs, but the only function is to generally create and show adverts. the more advanced Security suites will pick up whether or not a home page has been hijacked etc, but by no means will all of them do it.
abillybob Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 Do you not have a dedicated Anti-Virus Suite anyway like Sophos? It's bad practice to just leave it all down to Windows Defender!! I would make that a priority. Though back to topic Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials are very good programs I use them on all my home PC's and I have never got a virus!!!
Mako Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 They're PUPs, or potentially unwanted programs. Not registered viruses, as @Tesla said. Anti-virus software usually sticks to specific viruses. Malware and PUPs sneak by quite easily. Stick Malwarebytes on to clean up stuff like that, and CCleaner to sweep away any loose registry files etc. 1
Norphy Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 (edited) Do you not have a dedicated Anti-Virus Suite anyway like Sophos? It's bad practice to just leave it all down to Windows Defender!! I would make that a priority. Though back to topic Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials are very good programs I use them on all my home PC's and I have never got a virus!!! Windows Defender on W8 is Security Essentials. They just rebadged it. To answer the original question, as others have said strictly speaking those aren't viruses so AV won't necessarily catch them. Microsoft AV products may not be the best but they're far from useless. Edited September 10, 2014 by Norphy
rickypike Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 +1 for Malwarebytes, its great at picking up PUP's, use it all the time!
Roberto Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 (edited) No AV is proof against intrusions (I assume you're running Windows 8 on this beast as Windows Defender in earlier versions wasn't a AV scanner at all) in the same way that a seatbelt doesn't actually make it safe to drive into walls at a high speed. This is why we don't give staff any kind of admin access to our computers; not a bullet-proof precaution either of course but will certainly cut down on a lot of this kind of thing. Edited September 10, 2014 by Roberto 1
robjduk Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 Defender alongside User account control is perfect for all but the most heavy users.
Snookered Posted September 11, 2014 Author Posted September 11, 2014 (edited) Many thanks for all of the replies....like I said in my initial post I forgot to put our usual AV suite on this one (Avast for education, it does a good job) rushing to get a laptop out after being told it was a top priority and with a hundred and one things to do at the start of term it slipped my mind. As a side note it's amazing what can come on to a pc after visiting only 5 websites, all of them were legitimate well known sites, there is nothing shown in IE's history showing where it could have come from, the laptop is new and the user is a surprisingly cautious (for a teacher). I use Malwarebytes on a regular basis and it cleared over 120 items on this machine cheers! Edited September 11, 2014 by Snookered
STbob Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 In my testing windows defender is almost useless. On 20 different windows machines over a period of years the logs have shown ZERO threats found. There have been threats some done on purpose. Its made of Swiss cheese. It sucks up resources and does nothing but give a user a false sense of security. Running notepad with the worlds "Anivirus" would be just as good. Turn it off as it only servers as another application that can slow down the computer or cause needed conflicts. Do not listen to these people that say "Its good, i never got a virus so it must be windows defender". These people should not even be posting that as its obvious they do not know what they are talking about.
free780 Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 The more basic question is why is the teacher an admin?
penfold Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) In my testing windows defender is almost useless. On 20 different windows machines over a period of years the logs have shown ZERO threats found. There have been threats some done on purpose. Its made of Swiss cheese. It sucks up resources and does nothing but give a user a false sense of security. Running notepad with the worlds "Anivirus" would be just as good. Turn it off as it only servers as another application that can slow down the computer or cause needed conflicts. Do not listen to these people that say "Its good, i never got a virus so it must be windows defender". These people should not even be posting that as its obvious they do not know what they are talking about. Not the most helpful post, and to be honest I've never known windows defender to slow down a machine as it is pretty light. And for those saying they have never got a virus - it's probably more to do with the fact that they do know what they are doing and in turn more cautious about clicking on links than a standard user. Maybe if you offered an alternative solution rather than just turn it would be more helpful. Edit: to answer the OP my dad has just switched from the windows AV to Avast as he read online it was better. It still won't stop him installing all sorts of rubbish on his computer which is why every couple of months I'll get a call that he is getting all sorts of pop ups. He keeps installing some free software which in turn installs a load of PUP's but at least now he knows to run Malwarebytes regularly. Edited February 3, 2015 by penfold
STbob Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I can lead a horse to water but I can't make it drink. I stayed on topic which was "is windows defender useless" I stayed within the bounds of the question. Keep running it if it makes you feel secure.
X-13 Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I can lead a horse to water but I can't make it drink. I stayed on topic which was "is windows defender useless" I stayed within the bounds of the question. Keep running it if it makes you feel secure. You made an account to post an unsubstantiated claim about windows Defender and question the intelligence/professionalism other posters. You don't have the high ground here.
robjduk Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 2 posts and both rude and joined today. Classic do not feed the troll moment.
SHimmer45 Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 imo windows defender is a decent package for what its designed to attempt to prevent. PUP's are not viruses and as such it wont "clean" them. alot of virus's require user intervention to get anywhere and even with "good" antivirus still cause problems if only other free antivirus actually concentrated on being an anti virus program rather than everything else they try and do, im looking at you AVG and avast
TIOAOA Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 As this thread is veering off a little lets try to point it back in the right direction, if not slightly hijacked (Apologies in advance) With regards to these PUP's any other suggestions on how to rid a machine of them. I've a run both malwarebytes and ccleaner - shows as clean but still popups and hijacks galore. Scratching my head atm.
Arthur Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 With regards to these PUP's any other suggestions on how to rid a machine of them. AdwCleaner to remove. Unchecky to help prevent PUPs being installed in the future. 1
Arthur Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 The ironic thing about free antivirus programs is that many of them bundle PUPs themselves. http://blog.emsisoft.com/2015/01/17/has-the-antivirus-industry-gone-mad/
gshaw Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Even Microsoft themselves said Defender \ Security Essentials is no longer good enough as a standalone AV product - detection rates gone through the floor since 2013. Most third-party AV products disable Defender as it eats up CPU like no tomorrow if it starts battling another product during scans etc, Sophos is one that doesn't do it automatically and doesn't make an official recommendation either way. I'd either say pay for ESET or go AVG but with the crapware disabled for home machines as it stands.
cpjitservices Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 ComboFix, ADWCleaner, Spybot S&D 1.6, Malwarebytes and Avast Free.
Joanne Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Use Revo Uninstaller to remove them. It will get rid of any reg keys too. Also check the startup folder and look at startup processes in msconfig.
STbob Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 2 posts and both rude and joined today. Classic do not feed the troll moment. Please try to stay on topic. The topic is about windows defender.
X-13 Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Please try to stay on topic. The topic is about windows defender. Troll confirmed.
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