Application: Spybot - Search & Destroy
Category: Security
Description:
Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven't intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been "hijacked" (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don't see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.
Spybot-S&D can also clean usage tracks, an interesting function if you share your computer with other users and don't want them to see what you have been working on. And for professional users, Spybot-S&D allows you to fix some registry inconsistencies and extended reports.
Download Spybot - Search & Destroy Portable 1.6.2 Development Test 5 [19.4MB download / 52.7MB installed]
(MD5: 2f87c5893ece271c129bd8c368134d87)
Release Notes:
1.6.2 Development Test 5 (2010-12-13)
- Fixed folders being left behind in %ProgramFiles%
1.6.2 Development Test 4 (2010-12-13)
- Fixed not saving settings in Windows 2000/Windows XP
- Fixed double ampersand issue in the installer
1.6.2 Development Test 3 (2010-10-25)
- Launcher now cleans up left behind registry keys
1.6.2 Development Test 2 (2010-10-25)
- User must now agree to the EULA before installing Spybot - Search & Destroy Portable
1.6.2 Development Test 1 (2010-10-24): Initial release
Known Issues:
- Language switching does not work with Windows Vista or greater
- Spybot - Search & Destroy Portable leaves behind Eventlog entries
Notes:
- Administrator rights are required for all features to work properly
- For personal use only
- Bundled with permission
I was told that a while back PortableApps.com had been granted permission to bundle Spybot as a portable application. I wanted to verify this was true myself (since nobody else has packaged it yet, I figured why not possibly do it myself), and ask if this applied to any of your other utilities (RegAlyzer, FileAlyzer, etc.). I'm quite busy with classes at the moment so Spybot Portable might take a bit, however your other utilities seem to be much easier to package for the time being. If I was told wrong and we have not been given permission to do so, then I apologize for not further checking first.Hello Kenny,
There should not be a problem with this, as long as you make clear that this is only for the private use.
Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
- Thanks to Chris Morgan for hosting
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Thanks for this. It's been on my most wanted list for some time. Will test for a while and see how it goes.
An initial thought regarding TeaTimer, is it wanted?
I, and I believe most SpyBot users, use SpyBot as a secondary scanner therefore resident scanning is not required. As a PortableApp I would think this would be even more the case.
From memory TeaTimer closely monitors (and possibly hooks into) the registry acting almost like a firewall. This would be quite a handful to manage portably.
Anyway thanks again
PortableApps.com Advocate
I have to admit that I have been using TeaTimer, not really for myself but for other family members who are less cautious with their surfing habits (click click click format C: yes/no? click click).
I can certainly test at home how well SpybotPortable plays with the real TeaTimer. For the most part AFAIK they are two separate and distinct entities but we shall see.
As you said, TeaTimerPortable would be nice but I could quite easily see it being a nightmare with all the system hooks and what-not.
Oh yes, and I almost forgot.. Thanks ScriptDaemon, this is probably one of the most requested apps of all time, ever.
PAF pass with no issues except the icon being horrible (as you said) and help.html not encoding the & character as & (not an issue except that it's not valid HTML).
Tested on XP SP3, administrator. Language switching worked.
Some keys have been left behind:
The use of the event log is not quite desirable. There's an extra value which is not altered due to it as well:
Also the directory
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroywas left behind with various data. There's a [DirectoriesMove] entry which should deal with it, so I'm not sure what happened there. I'll need to try it again another day.I did go to the immunisation tab but didn't do anything with it.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Language switching worked with admin rights? If so, then it seems that issue has somehow been fixed because this is still using RunAsAdmin=try (or should be; I'm pretty sure I changed it back).
As far as all those keys go, should I just remove them? I don't think any of that needs to be backed up (except maybe HKLM\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited).
And lastly, is there anything I can do about the event log in this case?
I'll put a new DT tonight after work.
I'm not surprised language switching is working; bear in mind that I was running on XP with admin already, so there's no elevation done and no UAC prompt. A more interesting issue is whether it works on Vista/7, and I don't have VMs set up for them yet.
There will be some DLL call for the event log (don't know what it would be). I suspect it might not be safe to just backup and delete them. You could try it though.
I think those registry keys should be fine to just backup and delete (file name of
-), and HKLM\Software\Safer Networking Limited may as well be kept.Edit: probably something like this for the event log stuff.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Updated.
I still haven't worked out how to do the Eventlog stuff though.
Spybot - Search & Destroy Portable
A valuable addition to the PA portfolio, I think. If it can be made really "clean".
Personally, Spybot S&D is usually my 2nd choice after the (installed) virus scanner. I almost never use TeaTimer, and if so, only on installed Spybot versions. I feel it wouldn’t be required for a portable app. After all, with tools like Spybot S&D it’s usually "come over, help someone, and leave".
Just my 2 cents while timing the tea …
I thank the users who have provided feedback on whether or not to include TeaTimer. I think I might leave it out then, if this is the general consensus.
Small issue with the name being displayed in the menu. The name shows as "Spybot - Search _Destroy Portable" but should be "Spybot - Search & Destroy Portable". If you add a 2nd & to the appinfo.ini then the menu displays it correctly, however this causes 2 &'s to be displayed in the tooltip. This might be more of a menu issue but figured i'd mention it here.
Once you go portable...
I've already reported it here.
Thank you, though.
Ok, didn't see that. Maybe for now you can use && and have the tooltip display incorrectly until the menu is fixed?
Once you go portable...
It's more that that - the installer also shows Search _Destroy some times and Search & Destroy other times, so it would affect that too.
The only really feasible solution without considerable work in the Platform and Installer for just one app is what I suggested to scriptdaemon: just keep it Spybot Portable.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
I'm going to do that, just didn't have time to upload it yet. I'll be off work in about ~45 minutes, so I'll do it then.
Keep it as Spybot - Search & Destroy as that is their registered trademark name. I'll fix it in the installer and platform in the next releases.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The delphi fix should be very simple just set ShowAccelChar = False. I just ran a test using a TLabel, which I believe the menu is using, and the ampersands are displayed. As for the installer I see what you mean, had to run it again as I missed it the 1st time.
Once you go portable...
It's more complicated than that for the installer as the AppName is woven into NSIS itself in multiple locations, so we'll need to override a few things. It may get messy.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I know it might be more involved but I did some research for NSIS and found something interesting. I think it might be how Name is being set in the script. It takes a second optional parameter which is explicitly for when a name has ampersands.
Name "${PORTABLEAPPNAME}"
would need to be something like:
Name "${PORTABLEAPPNAME}" "${PORTABLEAPPNAME_DOUBLED_AMPERSANDS}"
I did a couple basic tests and it seems to work. How you would generate the double ampersands part I'm not sure as my NSIS knowledge is limited.
Hope this helps.
Once you go portable...
I'd never noticed that before.
OK, I take back what I said about its being difficult; it's really very easy to fix.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
It wasn't super easy, but it was a few lines of code to generate and then adding it into the proper places without doing it in places where it showed up twice. I think I have it sorted and it's in 2.0.6.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks.
Thanks this works like a charm!
I had a rough go on SpybotPortable and ran into several new issues, all tested on XP sp3 admin and/or non-admin.
Why are you writing the language value as an INI, but reading the value with ConfigRead ?
The ConfigRead is probably not doing the intended job somehow !
'%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy'
instead of
'%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Spybot - Search & Destroy'
Formerly Gringoloco
Windows XP Pro sp3 x32
1. I never noticed even the installed app on my comp ever doing that. I'll have to investigate. I can talk to Safer Networking and see if they can fix it if it's still a problem.
2. ChrisMorgan suggested doing it that way. I'll take a look at it again to see if it still makes sense (or he could investigate it in the launcher if he sees this).
3. I'll double check this as well.
I should have some time over the weekend to look over this.
It creates 4 folders in %PROGRAMFILES%.
Like Mark, I'm on XP SP3 and it creates the necessary data in %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy instead of %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Spybot - Search & Destroy. So when you close the app, it doesn't move any of the files. Not only are they left stranded on the local machine but that folder contains the settings INI files so Spybot doesn't automatically keep track of its settings.
The settings should be saved. It always retains its settings when I run it. Odd.
The cause of my issue is the same as Mark - it appears the main Spybot EXE is creating its data directory in %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy. The settings are stored in that directory, in the configuration.ini file.
The issue is that the SpybotPortable.ini tries to execute [DirectoriesMove] against %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Spybot - Search & Destroy, which doesn't exist on my PC. The launcher leaves behind %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy instead of copying everything back to flash.
The next time I run it, the main Spybot EXE creates %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy again, overwriting everything in the directory including the settings file.
I also looked on my flash drive and found that \PortableApps\SpybotPortable\Data\Spybot was empty after closing the application.
I changed:
to
and confirmed that it works. I changed all of my settings, updated, and closed the program. %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy is gone, its contents moved by the launcher to \PortableApps\SpybotPortable\Data\Spybot. Re-opening the program shows that my settings have been saved.
I also found that although the application created those 4 folders in %PROGRAMFILES% they don't come back after being deleted.
I'll fix that settings issue when I get the chance (probably tomorrow).
I deleted all the directories which were empty. start and stop, updated and they never appeared again. i think it does it on first update.
James
I could not get Spybot to recognize FirefoxPortable.
I successfully immunized my local installed Firefox-3.6.8 on my workstation. By sorting the local profile directory my date/time, the only thing changed was a file named permissions.sqlite. Spybot added over 44,487 entries making it grow from 200k to 1.5MBs.
I copied this file to my PortableApps\FirefoxPortable\Data\Profile directory and it seems to be working.
Can someone verify this is all needed to immunize FirefoxPortable?
Thanks
First of all, it didn't work. It timed out and said there was an error retrieving the info file.
A cursory check of the filesystem (XP SP3, admin rights) shows 17 files and 4 folders were added under \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy\.
I can't get to the Spybot forums either. Massive packet loss between dallas.opentransit.net and paris.opentransit.net.
I will have to try it later.
The issue only applies to XP. It's because they changed the way "all users" works. In Vista/Win7, "all users" consists of global folders, like C:\ProgramData, where all local users can share access to apps or data.
The path listed in the default config (%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Spybot - Search & Destroy) works fine for Windows 7 because %ALLUSERSPROFILE% is set to C:\ProgramData by default in Windows 7.
In XP Pro SP3, "all users" is actually a user with a user directory in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users, so the default value of %ALLUSERSPROFILE% points to there instead of to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy.
Ah, yes. I might have to talk to Chris about how to handle this with PAL.
(2.1)
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Tip or beta 2?
It's been in for a while.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Fixed the settings issue in 2000/XP and the double ampersand issue in the installer.
And again.
Installed on both XP SP3 and Windows 7 Enterprise.
No modifications necessary. Works like a charm!
Ive installed Spybot ver 2.4.40.0
Now I want to remove my portable apps usb stick And I can't get spybot to exit, I've closed spybot, but when I click to remove port app, the error is ' spybot is still running. close all programs
So, how do I do that??
BTW, portable apps 12.1