1. Mesenger Plus! has just received another blow today after being red-flagged by Microsoft AntiSpyware.
According to the free program which is currently in BETA, the main executable, msgplus.exe, has now been flaged as a "Serious Threat" and will be blocked from running. Reports have came in that even explicitly allowing the software to launch sometimes fails. The threat level was only raised in the most recent update, before it was just marked as a moderate risk.
Patchou made this statement: "If they were detecting the setup, I could concede that a threat exists, as the user still has the choice to install the sponsor or not. But they are detecting msgplus.exe which does not harm your computer in any way"
For those of you who entrust Microsoft AntiSpyware to "Remove" Messenger Plus! are in fact stuck with the actual sponsor program. Dwergs stated, "Who's causing disaster to your system now? And it's not the first time that Microsoft makes doubtful changes to its spyware definitions".
Patchou has contacted Microsoft personally, so all we can do is ignore the warnings and wait for the threat level to be knocked down again.
www.mess.be
___________________________--
2.Several days ago MSN Messenger fan site Mess.be reported that the latest definitions for Microsoft AntiSpyware detects the actual Messenger Plus exe as Spyware.
Messenger Plus! bundles adware (C2 Lop) which is optional during the install stage. This recent change means users are advised of a threat coming from "msgplus.exe" even though this exe contains no spyware or adware. If you remove the "threat" using Microsoft AntiSpyware this fails to remove the C2 Lop adware and removes the Messenger Plus! un-installer. In simple terms this means if you have the spyware installed, Antispyware doesn't remove it but removes the un-installer of Messenger Plus so you can't remove it afterwards!
I have personally alerted Microsoft to this problem and their response has been disappointing. "The tactics used by spyware/adware vendors continuously evolve and present major challenges. We are looking into the issue that you raised about the removal of C2 LOP when a user chooses to remove Messenger Plus, and want to ensure our removal is complete as possible....We encourage software bundlers not to include spyware/adware in the first place to avoid the problems that arise once spyware has gotten on a user's machine."
Patchou, the author of Messenger Plus! has had a hard time getting a response out of the software giant too. We sat down with him last night and asked him a couple of questions regarding his feelings on the recent change.....
Q: What do you think to the recent change in antispyware detecting your application as spyware rather than the installer?
A: the recent changes in the MSAS definitions are puzzling and some people seem to interpret them incorrectly. What it does currently is detecting files after installation. The software is not really asking a question, it's warning about a dangerous threat to remove. The problem here is that this has nothing to do with the well known sponsor application distributed with Plus!. What MSAS does it detect files that have absolutely nothing to do with the sponsor, wether or not the ads were installed. Removing files such as msgplus.exe serves no purpose except for removing the Messenger add-on from people's computer and, if the sponsor was installed previously, removing the only proper way to uninstall the ads too. MSAS is actually damaging my users' computers and they don't seem to care about it much, that's what I don't understand. Detecting the installation of the sponsor during the setup of Messenger Plus! would be the proper thing to do, for everybody.
Q: Have you been able to get a response from Microsoft in regards to this problem?
A: I have emailed them two times since the beginning of the year, with no success. The answer I got everytime was pretty generic, basically saying that Messenger Plus! is flagged correctly as a software bundler and that's beside the point. If anything is a software bundler, it's the setup of Messenger Plus!, not Messenger Plus! itself which has no code whatsoever to reinstall the sponsor. MSAS detects Plus! and removes it from people's computer but they fail to remove the sponsor itself properly. The only thing MSAS does to my users is causing troubles by doing half the job it is supposed to do, and by doing it incorrectly. I'm not pro-advertisement, I understand why some people don't want any on their computers and that's why I've always kept it an option in my software. However, I can't understand why a software like MSAS couldn't simply detect that the sponsor is installed along with Messenger Plus! and launch the real uninstaller itself. I've done my part of the work to ensure people can quickly remove the ads installed, I'm waiting for Microsoft to do theirs.
Patchou has now begun a petition regarding the change and hopes that this will make Microsoft re-think their definitions.
Source
3. Sign the Petition at
http://www.msgplus.net/petition.php
So they finally did it!They are spoiling such a nice tool.Why the heck did GIANT sell it to them
According to the free program which is currently in BETA, the main executable, msgplus.exe, has now been flaged as a "Serious Threat" and will be blocked from running. Reports have came in that even explicitly allowing the software to launch sometimes fails. The threat level was only raised in the most recent update, before it was just marked as a moderate risk.
Patchou made this statement: "If they were detecting the setup, I could concede that a threat exists, as the user still has the choice to install the sponsor or not. But they are detecting msgplus.exe which does not harm your computer in any way"
For those of you who entrust Microsoft AntiSpyware to "Remove" Messenger Plus! are in fact stuck with the actual sponsor program. Dwergs stated, "Who's causing disaster to your system now? And it's not the first time that Microsoft makes doubtful changes to its spyware definitions".
Patchou has contacted Microsoft personally, so all we can do is ignore the warnings and wait for the threat level to be knocked down again.
www.mess.be
___________________________--
2.Several days ago MSN Messenger fan site Mess.be reported that the latest definitions for Microsoft AntiSpyware detects the actual Messenger Plus exe as Spyware.
Messenger Plus! bundles adware (C2 Lop) which is optional during the install stage. This recent change means users are advised of a threat coming from "msgplus.exe" even though this exe contains no spyware or adware. If you remove the "threat" using Microsoft AntiSpyware this fails to remove the C2 Lop adware and removes the Messenger Plus! un-installer. In simple terms this means if you have the spyware installed, Antispyware doesn't remove it but removes the un-installer of Messenger Plus so you can't remove it afterwards!
I have personally alerted Microsoft to this problem and their response has been disappointing. "The tactics used by spyware/adware vendors continuously evolve and present major challenges. We are looking into the issue that you raised about the removal of C2 LOP when a user chooses to remove Messenger Plus, and want to ensure our removal is complete as possible....We encourage software bundlers not to include spyware/adware in the first place to avoid the problems that arise once spyware has gotten on a user's machine."
Patchou, the author of Messenger Plus! has had a hard time getting a response out of the software giant too. We sat down with him last night and asked him a couple of questions regarding his feelings on the recent change.....
Q: What do you think to the recent change in antispyware detecting your application as spyware rather than the installer?
A: the recent changes in the MSAS definitions are puzzling and some people seem to interpret them incorrectly. What it does currently is detecting files after installation. The software is not really asking a question, it's warning about a dangerous threat to remove. The problem here is that this has nothing to do with the well known sponsor application distributed with Plus!. What MSAS does it detect files that have absolutely nothing to do with the sponsor, wether or not the ads were installed. Removing files such as msgplus.exe serves no purpose except for removing the Messenger add-on from people's computer and, if the sponsor was installed previously, removing the only proper way to uninstall the ads too. MSAS is actually damaging my users' computers and they don't seem to care about it much, that's what I don't understand. Detecting the installation of the sponsor during the setup of Messenger Plus! would be the proper thing to do, for everybody.
Q: Have you been able to get a response from Microsoft in regards to this problem?
A: I have emailed them two times since the beginning of the year, with no success. The answer I got everytime was pretty generic, basically saying that Messenger Plus! is flagged correctly as a software bundler and that's beside the point. If anything is a software bundler, it's the setup of Messenger Plus!, not Messenger Plus! itself which has no code whatsoever to reinstall the sponsor. MSAS detects Plus! and removes it from people's computer but they fail to remove the sponsor itself properly. The only thing MSAS does to my users is causing troubles by doing half the job it is supposed to do, and by doing it incorrectly. I'm not pro-advertisement, I understand why some people don't want any on their computers and that's why I've always kept it an option in my software. However, I can't understand why a software like MSAS couldn't simply detect that the sponsor is installed along with Messenger Plus! and launch the real uninstaller itself. I've done my part of the work to ensure people can quickly remove the ads installed, I'm waiting for Microsoft to do theirs.
Patchou has now begun a petition regarding the change and hopes that this will make Microsoft re-think their definitions.
Source
3. Sign the Petition at
http://www.msgplus.net/petition.php
So they finally did it!They are spoiling such a nice tool.Why the heck did GIANT sell it to them