topic Spybot S&D problem in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Spybot S&D problem

penneck — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 16:48:36 GMT

On my pc, I use Malwarebytes, Microsoft Security Essential and Spybot S&D. The first two didn't find anything, but Spybot has come up with a problem - PU.Auslogics.TB - and under 'Kind' it states "1 Entries PUPS-003". When I try to deal with this problem, Spybot indicates I need to be in Administrator mode. It then asks for permission to run the next time I start up my pc, so I click on Yes.

(1) I have no idea how to run Spybot in Administrator mode (or should that be Win 7 in Admin mode?). Anyone got any suggestions, please?

(2) When I rebooted my pc it didn't appear to run Spybot, or would that be in the background?

Any help gratefully received.

Re: Spybot S&D problem

Mav — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 17:09:31 GMT

@penneck

To address the first point instead of doable-clicking on the program's icon right click on it and select "Run as Administrator".

I haven't used Spybot S&D since moving to W10/W11 but, from memory, PUPS are Potentially Unwanted Programs.. Not sure if they are harmful to the system although I suspect not.

Re: Spybot S&D problem

jab1 — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 17:21:45 GMT

PUPs are totally harmless, just an unnecessary addition by some program vendors.

It is years since I dabbled with and discarded S & D, but run the program in Admin mode, follow any instructions given, and if it does not ask you to restart your machine, do so anyway.

Malwarebytes usually picks this kind of thing up, and is much simpler to use.

Re: Spybot S&D problem

penneck — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 18:56:39 GMT

Hello @Mav and @jab1 . Success! Mav got me into Administrator mode, and Spybot dealt with the PUP. However, I then created another problem for myself. I started running Spybot again, but realised I was still in Admin mode, so I tried stopping it. It didn't seem to like that because a message came up stating it could take a while to get rid of the hives - I assume Spybot had introduced them - and I waited for more than half an hour where I was stuck - I couldn't close the Spybot window, I couldn't get Task Manager to stop Spybot without forcing it to stop, and I couldn't close the pc down. In the end, I got brave and got Task Manager to force Spybot to close. I then restarted Spybot in normal mode, and the test didn't mention the pup.

Anyway, thankyou very much, both of you, for coming to my rescue, and teaching me about using the right click on the icon.