When I updated and ran spy sweeper, it identified autoit.exe as a trojan and removed it. any one else faced such problems?

Spy Sweeper isn't a good one to use.

M$ AntiSpyware, Spybot and Ad-Aware are the top 3. That's even a rule at our college, hehe. Cheers.

Well Jeremy - I'd say that's a bit blunt to state that it's a bad software ... It's regarded highly by many people interested in security issues - so if sanjaykumar likes SS I'd say it's better to resolve the conflict between SS and autoit ... wouldn't you agree ?

I'd redownload autoit, it's obviously not a trojan. And do another scan - if it comes up as a false positive, add it to the exclude list. Scanners sometimes claim that software that has been packed w/ upx* (or other executable packers) are malware.

* UPX: Program that packs binary executables to reduce their size.

And Jeremy's alright, he just prefers to always recommend only software he uses

Edited November 11, 200520 yr by Crash&Burn

hah gotta love false positives.

spy sweeper in my opinion is not a very good program, I got infected with CoolWebSearch and it didn't detect it at all, yet it detected a program that I made as "Delphi Trojan" cause it was packed with UPX..

report it to webroot, and hopefully they'll fix it..

btw.. this happens all the time, HiJackThis a popular anti-spyware program gets detected by McAfee as a virus becuase it uses UPX compression as well.

moved to correct forum

Personally, I don't use any anti-spyware software, I'm not that paranoid But the following are recommended apps - linked from Son of Spy - a well known freeware & antispyware advocate.

1. Ad-aware

2. Microsoft AntiSpyware

3. Pest Patrol

4. Spybot Search & Destroy

5. Spyware Doctor

6. Webroot Spy Sweeper

I don't use IE, and don't install "crap" programs. And certainly don't use LookOut Outbreak express. Every year or so I do a system-wide virus check. And in hmm 5 years nothing yet. So go figure.

Edited November 12, 200520 yr by Crash&Burn

AutoIt probably use Windows Hooks : it lets it take control of your mouse and keyboard...

This may be a cause. B)

And Jeremy's alright, he just prefers to always recommend only software he uses

That's absolutely not true at all. But I've been interested in Internet security for years and I've tried out/used pretty much every program that people recommend, i read reviews, I listen to what other people have to say about it, I give my honest opinion. I don't act like a n00b that says "Norton sucks, use Kaspersky!" and leave it at that, I back up what I say with why I say it. I use Sygate Personal Firewall Pro and that's the most highly regarded software firewall according to our guys here at MSFN. For anti-virus, we here at MSFN like McAfee, Kaspersky and NOD32. I have all 3 of these programs on my FTP for people to pick their pleasure. I don't tell you to use one single application, but to try a few out and see what you think of them. I may have been biased in the past, but over time, people mature, smarten up, learn new things, new facts about things they thought they knew all about in the past, and so now I just give out the wisdom and knowledge I have acquired to other people.

Doing that is unquestionably a hell of a lot better than running XP SP1 with no protection and going to some porn site, saying YES to all the pop-ups and think your PC will work the same way in the next hour.