LOst everything to Spyware Scanner

[Jolly J]

I ran my Spyware Stormer program an hour ago. Just tried to log on to Limewire and find I have no Limewire files at all on my system. All gone! I read the blurb on Limewire and it says it is not Spyware. So why have all the files been wiped? We're talking everything here, no .exe files, nothing left.

[verdyp]

Some antispyware tools incorrectly report Limewire as a spyware, and then delete ALL files contained in the Limewire installation directory, including your OWN files...
There's nothing LimeWire can do. Be cautious with suh malicious tools that don't even take the preventive measures to ask you what to do with files contained in a directory. Such antispyware that delete all files in a folder, whatever they are, should better be replaced. There are better antispywares, that are more up to date.

It's true that VERY OLD versions of precompiled Limewire installers (before Limewire v2, several major versions have been released since that long time) bundled some adwares that could be considered spywares (the old "LimeShop" program, and some desktop shortcuts, all of them were always ABSENT of the open-source version). This is no longer true since years now, and LimeWire does no more support these outdated versions. And you can use the precompiled version with confidence.

Deleting those bundled softwares would be OK, but deleting LimeWire just because of its name, not even verifying its version, really demonstrates that your antispyware is outdated, and dangerous to use. Replace it with something else. There are great antispywares some of them free of charge or even open-sourced, and none of them consider LimeWire (v2 and more) as spyware. With these tools, you can also cleanup old non-supported versions of Limewire without altering your own existing files.

One recommandation: don't store your downloaded and shared files in the LimeWire program installation directory, and don't install LimeWire in your home directory. Use your home directory (or another independant folder or drive) for these files. You should be able to delete all the Limewire installation directory without deleting any of your precious files.

Note that Limewire is setup by default to create and select the download/shared directory as a subfolder of your user home directory, outside of the program directory.

[verdyp]

Another note:

Computer Associates has bought an antispyware company and renamed its product "Pest Patrol". However, it has not updated its database since extremely long, and its detection routine incorrectly identifies LimeWire.

In fact it incorrectly detects LimeWire as:

• "Grokster" (type P2P, risk medium): wrong detection, the "P2P" type is correct but LimeWire has nothing in common with Grokster. The detection is only the registration of the "magnet" URL handler. This is a P2P feature common to almost all Gnutella programs, not a spyware or adware. It allows handling URLs that start with "magnet:" found on websites, to allow downloading the referenced file from the Gnutella network with LimeWire by a simple click. If you click on such URL on a web site, LimeWire will be launched and will ask you whever you want to download the referenced file from the Gnutella network. The detected feature is only the registry key "HKEY_CLASS_ROOT\ magnet", but Pest Patrol does not check its actual value. The "medium" risk itself is only related to your PERSONAL use of a P2P program to download illegal files with invalid licences, and to the banwidth Limewire can take when you actually use it. This is not a stolen hidden bandwidth because you can control that bandwidth in LimeWire (It's in your control), so the risk is actually "low" or inexistant if you use LimeWire safely.
• "KaZaA" (type P2P, risk medium): wrong detection, the type "P2P" is correct but LimeWire has nothing in common with KaZaA and is using a separate network. The detection is related to the installation of the Magnet URL handler (registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ software\ magnet"). Here also, Pest Patrol forgets to check the actual value of the registry key. Same remark as above regarding the "medium" risk.
• "LimeWire" (type Adware, risk medium): correct detection, but wrong type. LimeWire is not Adware and does not exhibit the adware "features" claimed by Pest Patrol. Same remarks about the "medium" risk. CA Patrol in fact only detects the following SAFE items:

1. Key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ software\ microsoft\ windows\ currentversion\ uninstall\ limewire": this is a normal entry on Windows for allowing uninstallation of LimeWire in the configuration panel, like all normal Windows programs. Deleting it will just prevent you to uninstall LimeWire correctly when upgrading. Pest Patrol does not check the actual value of the registry key, to find it this is a very old version of LimeWire. If it was the case, deleting the key would in fact prevent you from upgrading LimeWire to a much more current version.
2. Folder "C:\ Documents and Settings\ All Users\ Start Menu\ Programmes\ Limewire\": this is the directory of the LimeWire start shortcut in the Startup menu. Deleting it will prevent you from lauching LimeWire. Pest Patrol does not check where the shortcut really points to, and just detects it by name. Very bad practice, because there also exists effective pest programs (not LimeWire) that create shortcuts in the start menu, mimicing the icon or name of a desirable program (or even a required program for Windows!). Deleting it would perform not much damage to LimeWire itself, but you'll have to browse your system to find again the "Limewire.exe" program to launch. The shortcut is added there by the LimeWire installer, with an explicit permission. But suppose that you have created yourself a shortcut folder named "LimeWire" to put there your own additional shortcuts, CA Pest Patrol will simply delete all your personnal shortcuts as well.
3. Folder "C:\ Program Files\ Limewire\": this is the directory of the LimeWire installation directory. Pest Patrol does not check the actual content of the directory, to see if it really contains a dangerous program (note that Pest Patrol scans the directory itself, including "LimeWire.exe", and does not report any pest there.... this is another proof that the results of Pest Patrol are contradictory).

Conclusion: Pest Patrol is a bad antispyware that does not make the most minimal controls on the actual content of your PC. It just identifies pests by name, and is in fact INEFFECTIVE to find the actual pests, worms, spywares and so on that use mutating names. You should better use another product, because Pest Patrol will NOT protect you from the most dangerous and actual spywares... And in fact Pest Patrol can too much easily delete your own precious files! Its scan engine is outdated, and its database also inaccurate and not maintained.

If you have a CA Antivirus, it may come with Pest Patrol. I recommand keeping your antivirus, but not installaing or using its 'featured" antispyware, and use another one. LimeWire is so commonly installed in the world that you can really ask yourself why other antispywares do not detect it, including:

1. SpyBot Search and Destroy (non commercial, free, recommanded by many websites, and constantly maintained up-to-date).
2. Microsoft Windows Update's spyware/virus/spamware cleaner (updated each month to delete the most frequent and dangerous pests that threaten the internet and your security or your privacy). Strongly recommanded download.
3. Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta (commercial product, free for Windows XP users, maintained frequently). Not a bad product but its detection engine forgets many adwares (it mostly detects only spywares, but not the Microsoft partners advertizing programs, including the Microsoft's own adwares bundled in some of its products). Use with caution.
4. GIANT AntiSpyware (commercial product that can be used only by existing registered users, before it was bought by Microsoft, the product is no more available for sale but still maintained by Microsoft). Same remarks as above, because it uses now the same detection database as MS AntiSpyware Beta (but it works on Windows 95/98).
5. ...

[Helltech]

Originally posted by Jolly J
I ran my Spyware Stormer program an hour ago. Just tried to log on to Limewire and find I have no Limewire files at all on my system. All gone! I read the blurb on Limewire and it says it is not Spyware. So why have all the files been wiped? We're talking everything here, no .exe files, nothing left.

Meh, how troublesome trying to explain spyware to some.

Spyware Stormer, IS spyware, geeze.

www.ewido.com
www.avast.com
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Ewidio, is really only a one time use program, because you can only use it for one week, but it is the best of the best, and you will only need to use it once.

Avast is probably one of the worlds best ant-virus protections, and on a side note, Norton, is one of the worst.

Microsoft-AntiSpyware, just owns, so get it ....

All of these are free, but ewido you can only use withing a week you download it.