Exercise due care when evaluating Emsi Software's a-squared Anti-Malware product. If you are using a powerful, proactive, heuristic third-party personal (software) firewall product, such as Agnitum's Outpost Firewall or Tall Emu's Online Armor, the two products will conflict and contradict each other.
In fact, Agnitum warns users not to install its anti-malware (antivirus/antispyware) software and its firewall at the same time.
Although Esmi Software's Web site contains bar charts and percentages comparing the percentage of malicious software its product detects compared to major competitors, the percentages are not adjusted to include the percentage of "detections" by a-squared Anti-Malware that are false positives -- which on my system have been 100% so far. After the first scan, I removed from quarantine -- for example -- network analysis tools, "tarball" archives that I'd downloaded for use with Linux, and the various components of TightVNC. I "white-listed" the files and reported them as false positives. (If Esmi Software evaluates reported false positives, they take quite some time -- but obviously not all users file accurate reports and evaluating the overwhelming number of programs written for the Windows platform (much of it sloppily coded freeware and shareware for which ther are no records in databases, such as OASIS.
I have evaluated Vista-compatible security products for over eleven months: At this point, Agnitum's Outpost Security Suite 2009 Pro has been the most effective and detected only two "false positives," as well as correctly identifying and quaranining the WeatherBug widget (and its associated application) that either Microsoft or HP included as one of the default Vista Sidebar widgets; WeatherBug has always been adware/spyware -- and was notorious a decade ago -- and despite its "reform"...and the TRUSTe seal on its Web site should fool no one...WeatherBug is a security and privacy threat that most security software does not detect).
Unfortunately, Agnitum's security and antispam features for e-mail client support Outlook Express (Windows XP and earlier), Windows Mail ("Outlook Express for Vista"), Outlook, and The Bat! (by Rit Labs in Moldova, and very popular in Russia -- and Agnitum's headquarters is in St. Petersburg -- and the former Soviet Union (FSU). The Bat! Standard (and Professional) has a small, loyal following -- and a powerful, proprietary scripting language -- but RitLabs offers no documentation or support for this shareware program, and I know of users who were "ripped off" by RitLabs and its vague upgrade/licensing terms. (I evaluated the program for thirty days, setting up an account solely for testing it, because RitLabs has a proprietary format for e-mail and, at that time, no one had reverse=engineered it to allow migrating messages from The Bat! to another e-mail client's format to to one of POSIX standards or commonly used formats that are either open or, in the case of Microsoft's clients, can be export, converted, and imported -- despite being closed and proprietary. It has been several years since I evaluated The Bat!, but it was useless to me without Unicode support, while other users were demanding IMAP compatibility -- both of which RitLabs promised had RSN ("real soon, now") status. Therefore, Agnitum -- which apparently uses plug-ins written for individual e-mail clients for security scanning and spam filtering -- offers me, personally, no e-mail protection -- because I will never use any of the e-mail clients that Agnitum support -- and the company never responded to my messages praising Outpost Security Suite 2009 Pro as a fast and powerful security product (uncommon for most security suites, which are so bloated that some cripple all but the fastest computer) and informing Agnitum that their support for e-mail clients I do not use prevented me from licensing their product -- and explaining that The Bat! is relatively unknown by Windows users in the United States.
Ultimately, you are responsible for the security of your computer and blindly relying on any product (and just because a product's scans show that your system is clean does not mean that you are free of malware) means that you WILL have to restore Windows "from the metal" (after running FDISK) -- and the only question is WHEN, not IF.
"Your mileage may vary" (YMMV) with Emsi Software's a-squared Anti-Malware, which I do think has the potential to be a superior product -- and definitely try Emsi Softwares freeware anti-rootkit program, which is bundled with a-squared Anti-Malware, but available as a standalone program.
In fact, Agnitum warns users not to install its anti-malware (antivirus/antispyware) software and its firewall at the same time.
Although Esmi Software's Web site contains bar charts and percentages comparing the percentage of malicious software its product detects compared to major competitors, the percentages are not adjusted to include the percentage of "detections" by a-squared Anti-Malware that are false positives -- which on my system have been 100% so far. After the first scan, I removed from quarantine -- for example -- network analysis tools, "tarball" archives that I'd downloaded for use with Linux, and the various components of TightVNC. I "white-listed" the files and reported them as false positives. (If Esmi Software evaluates reported false positives, they take quite some time -- but obviously not all users file accurate reports and evaluating the overwhelming number of programs written for the Windows platform (much of it sloppily coded freeware and shareware for which ther are no records in databases, such as OASIS.
I have evaluated Vista-compatible security products for over eleven months: At this point, Agnitum's Outpost Security Suite 2009 Pro has been the most effective and detected only two "false positives," as well as correctly identifying and quaranining the WeatherBug widget (and its associated application) that either Microsoft or HP included as one of the default Vista Sidebar widgets; WeatherBug has always been adware/spyware -- and was notorious a decade ago -- and despite its "reform"...and the TRUSTe seal on its Web site should fool no one...WeatherBug is a security and privacy threat that most security software does not detect).
Unfortunately, Agnitum's security and antispam features for e-mail client support Outlook Express (Windows XP and earlier), Windows Mail ("Outlook Express for Vista"), Outlook, and The Bat! (by Rit Labs in Moldova, and very popular in Russia -- and Agnitum's headquarters is in St. Petersburg -- and the former Soviet Union (FSU). The Bat! Standard (and Professional) has a small, loyal following -- and a powerful, proprietary scripting language -- but RitLabs offers no documentation or support for this shareware program, and I know of users who were "ripped off" by RitLabs and its vague upgrade/licensing terms. (I evaluated the program for thirty days, setting up an account solely for testing it, because RitLabs has a proprietary format for e-mail and, at that time, no one had reverse=engineered it to allow migrating messages from The Bat! to another e-mail client's format to to one of POSIX standards or commonly used formats that are either open or, in the case of Microsoft's clients, can be export, converted, and imported -- despite being closed and proprietary. It has been several years since I evaluated The Bat!, but it was useless to me without Unicode support, while other users were demanding IMAP compatibility -- both of which RitLabs promised had RSN ("real soon, now") status. Therefore, Agnitum -- which apparently uses plug-ins written for individual e-mail clients for security scanning and spam filtering -- offers me, personally, no e-mail protection -- because I will never use any of the e-mail clients that Agnitum support -- and the company never responded to my messages praising Outpost Security Suite 2009 Pro as a fast and powerful security product (uncommon for most security suites, which are so bloated that some cripple all but the fastest computer) and informing Agnitum that their support for e-mail clients I do not use prevented me from licensing their product -- and explaining that The Bat! is relatively unknown by Windows users in the United States.
Ultimately, you are responsible for the security of your computer and blindly relying on any product (and just because a product's scans show that your system is clean does not mean that you are free of malware) means that you WILL have to restore Windows "from the metal" (after running FDISK) -- and the only question is WHEN, not IF.
"Your mileage may vary" (YMMV) with Emsi Software's a-squared Anti-Malware, which I do think has the potential to be a superior product -- and definitely try Emsi Softwares freeware anti-rootkit program, which is bundled with a-squared Anti-Malware, but available as a standalone program.
Cordially,
David