Tutorial-Using SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition (Thanks to test1111):

In this tutorial we will be focusing on SuperAntiSpyware (Here after known as SAS) free Edition for home use, not the Professional version.

SUPERAntiSpyware features many unique technologies including:


" Quick, Complete and Custom Scanning of Hard Drives, Removable Drives, Memory, Registry, Individual Folders and More! Includes Trusting Items and Excluding Folders for complete customization of scanning!

" Detect and Remove Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers and many other types of threats.

" Repair broken Internet Connections, Desktops, Registry Editing and more with our unique Repair System!

" Real-Time Blocking of threats! Prevent potentially harmful software from installing or re-installing!*

" Multi-Dimensional Scanning detects existing threats as well as threats of the future by analyzing threat characteristics in addition to code patterns.

" First Chance Prevention examines over 50 critical points of your system each time your system starts up and shuts down to eliminate threats before they have a chance to infect and infiltrate your system.

" Process Interrogation Technology allows threats to be detected no matter where they are hiding on your system.

" Schedule either Quick, Complete or Custom Scans Daily or Weekly to ensure your computer is free from harmful software.*

" Dedicated Threat Research Team scours the web for new threats and provides daily definition updates.*



* Feature only available in SUPERAntiSpyware Professional version




System Requirements

Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 2003
300 Mhz CPU or above
128MB memory (minimum)

You can download the free version from here.

test1111's tutorial continued:

After the initial installation you will be presented with a message like following. Its advisable to say "Yes" to make sure the program has the latest and the greatest definition/program updates.



During the update process a similar screen will get displayed. Let the update process complete itself.



Once the update process is finished you ll be shown the following screen. Click on "Next" to continue.



Its optional to sign up to receive emails from the creators of SAS.Click on "Next" to continue.



Its recommended to use enable automatic updates but if you use a dial up or a slow connection to connect to the internet its up to you to decide. This setting can be changed later on if deemed undesirable. Once decided click on "Next".



This step is also optional but it's recommended to select/enable this since it will help to improve the free detection service provided by the developers of SAS. Read the information displayed on screen for more details. Click on "Next".



To complete the setup click "Finish"

test1111's tutorial continued (again):

A notice will get displayed that SAS is trying to protect your Home page of Internet Explorer being changed from malicious Infections. If you do not have any other protection enabled on the home page its advisable to click on "Protect Home Page" button. Also make sure "Display a notification window when home page changed" checkbox is checked as well. What you selected can be changed later on if required.



Following is the start screen of SAS. Some program information like definition database version/last update and scan date etc will also be displayed on the start screen.



You can access many of the SAS features using the small icon located on the System Tray area.



All you have to do is right click on the little bug icon and a menu will get displayed with various commands.



Down below is the description of each command listed on the menu(Extracted from SAS help file)

Scan for Spyware, Adware, Malware
Starts the SUPERAntiSpyware scanner to scan and remove harmful software that may be on your computer. You may access all of the scanning, quarantine, scheduling and program options from this menu option.

View Control Center (Preferences/Options)
Accesses program settings and configuration options.

Purchase/Upgrade to SUPERAntiSpyware Pro
Direct link to purchase SUPERAntiSpyware Professional.

Register/Activate SUPERAntiSpyware Pro
After you have purchased SUPERAntiSpyware Professional you will receive a registration code in the form of XXX-XXX-XXXX. You must enter the number here to register and activate SUPERAntiSpyware Professional. If you do not register, you will have 15 days to try the product before you must uninstall or purchase.
Note: If you are using SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition you do not need to register or activate.

Check for Updates
Instructs SUPERAntiSpyware to check for program updates. SUPERAntiSpyware Professional Users - This is done automatically every few hours unless you have configured SUPERAntiSpyware not to check for updates automatically. You may change this option in the General and Startup Options section of SUPERAntiSpyware.

Tell a Friend About SUPERAntiSpyware
Starts the Tell a Friend Wizard which enables you to quickly e-mail friends from your address book to inform them about SUPERAntiSpyware.

Find Out What's Running on YOUR Computer
Provides a link to SAS developers sister site FileResearchCenter.com which will provide you a free report of what is running on your computer. This report will show both good and bad applications that are running on your computer.

What's New in this Release
Displays the current modifications and additions to the current release of the product.

Contact Customer Service
Contact SUPERAntiSpyware.com customer service to report problems or ask questions regarding the product.

Help...
Displays the comprehensive program help.

Exit
Exits SUPERAntiSpyware.



For the majority of this tutorial we will be using SAS start screen not the right click menu.


Scan For Harmful Software

Scans your computer for Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans, Parasites, Worms and other harmful software that may be running and/or installed on your computer.

Click on "Scan your computer" button.



1. Scan Location-Under this you ll be able to view all your installed/removable disks and partitions. Select what you need to scan from here.

2. Quick Scan-Scan s the most commons places where malware infections resides on the system.
Complete Scan-Scans the entire system for Malware infections. More through scan compared to a quick scan.
Custom Scan-Use can select on the areas of scan he/she needs to perform.



"Scanning Preferences/Control center" will open up scan preferences window which will be discussed later.

It's advisable to do a complete scan after the initial installation to have a complete scan/disinfection of the system. Depending on the system time takes to complete the scan will vary.

Once the selections are done click on "Next" to continue



Scan will start and depending on your selection SAS will scan different areas of your system. If required click on "Pause" to pause the scanning process but let the scan process finish itself.



Once the scanning is completed if any malware is found SAS will show a similar screen plus a summary of the detections. Click "Ok" to continue.(Some images in here were extracted from the SAS help file)



All detected items will be displayed. Place a check mark on the items to be removed and click on "Next" to complete the removal procedure.


1. Trust/Allow Item(s)
Add the selected to trusted applications list. Be very cautious when adding applications to this list as SAS will ignore all these applications in the future scans

2. Manage Allowed Items
Manages the trusted applications. This option will be explained in detail later.

3. Report False Positive
If you think that any of the detected item(s) are false positives/legitimate non malicious programs use this function to send a report to the developer of SAS.

4. Explain Detected Item
To get more details of the detected item use this.



If no threats are detected after the scan process the following message will be displayed.

Scheduled Scanning

This feature is not available in SAS free Edition



Manage Quarantined Items

Click on "Manage Quarantine" to access quarantined items.



Previously detected/removed malware infection will be quarantined in here. Click an appropriate item and select "Restore" to restore the removed item to its previous state and "Delete" to remove the item from quarantine.

Note: Unless SAS falsely detected and removed a legitimate non malware its very dangerous to Restore the items listed in quarantine. Be extremely cautious when restoring items.



Configurations and Preferences(Control Center)

Click on "Preferences"



Note: Many of the explanations under here has been copied from the help file of SAS because it provides clear and good explanations of each listed item.

General and startup


1. Start SUPERAntiSpyware when Windows starts
SAS will start when your Windows system starts when checked.

2. Show SUPERAntiSpyware icon in system tray
SAS will show its icon in the system tray..

3. Show splash screen on startup
Displays the SAS splash / information screen when the program starts.

4. Use Windows XP style menus
Displays two-toned color menus and icons next to selected menu options. This option may not be available in other versions of windows

5. Integrate with Vista Security Center
Shows the update status within the Windows Vista Security Center. This Option may not be available in other versions of windows

6. Start-Up Scanning
Select what type of scanning to do when SAS starts.

7. Check for updates before scanning on startup
Check for definition updates prior to starting the selected scan (recommended).

8. Reset Program Options to Default Settings
Resets all options with the exception of scheduled scan option(Not available in free edition) to their default values



Scanning Control


1. Ignore files larger than 4MB (recommended by SAS developers)
Ignores files larger than 4MB. Typical spyware files are much smaller than 4MB.

2. Ignore non-executable files (recommended by SAS developers)
Ignores files that cannot be executed by windows, such as Text documents and Pictures.

3. Ignore System Restore/Volume Information on ME/XP/Vista
On newer version s of windows OS s a snapshot of the critical system files will be saved on regular intervals called as "System restore points". This is one of the known place for malware to get infected. The above option will ignore system restore points. With this enabled the opportunity of a doing a successful System restore will get increased but the downside is if the system restore point is infected the risk of getting re infected after a system restore will increased.

4. Scan only known file types (.exe, .com, .dll, etc.)
Scans only known/typical file types. This speeds the scanning process, but can leave spyware traces on your machine. Generally, traces are not harmful, but may be flagged by other scanners.

5. Close browsers before scanning
Close Internet Explorer prior to starting the scan. Often times leaving the browser open during a scan can result in additional spyware/adware being installed.

6. Scan for tracking cookies
Cookies will be scanned for urls of known tracking websites.

7. Resolve Links/Shortcuts during scan (.lnk)
On some systems attempting to resolve .lnk files using the MSI (Microsoft Installer) API can cause issues. This only occurs under rare circumstances. If SAS locks ups or "hangs" during the scan, you may wish to uncheck this option and attempt to scan again.

8. Terminate memory threats before quarantining
Certain spyware applications will attempt to "crash" your computer when they are terminated. If you have problems or crashes when quarantining and removing spyware, uncheck this option and try the scan and removal process again.

9. Scan Alternate Data Streams
Alternate Data Streams (ADS) are available on NTFS formatted drives. Certain spyware/malware applications may try and "hide" data in these streams. Enabling this option will increase the scanning time, but may be required for heavily infected systems.

10. Use Kernel Direct File Access
This option allows SAS to use "kernel direct" technology developed by SAS developers that can find spyware that attempts to hide itself from the operating
system. If you experience problems while scanning, disable this option.

11. Use Kernel Direct Registry Access
This option allows SAS to use "kernel direct" technology that can find spyware that attempts to hide itself from the operating system. If you experience problems while scanning, disable this option.

12. Use Direct Disk Access
This option allows SAS to bypass the Windows API and access the disk directly so that no file can "hide" from being scanned. This currently works for NTFS volumes only.

13. Display Scan Option in Explorer Context (Right click) menu
Add "Scan with SUPERAntiSpyware" option to the explorer context menu



Click on "Manage Allowed Items" to view a list of applications selected by you which will not be scanned by SAS



Click on "Remove" or "Remove All" to remove the selections if there is any and if you do not trust these applications any more or wish to remove.



Click on "Manage Exclude Folde5rs" to add/remove folders which will be excluded from SAS scanning.



Click on "Add" to add folders. Use "Remove" and "Remove all" to remove existing excluded folders from the list.

Real-Time Protection

This feature is not available in free edition of SAS.



Hi-jack Protection

This option will help you to protect the internet explorer Home page being modified/changed by malware.



If "Display notification when homepage changed" option is enabled whenever SAS detects a homepage change it will popup a similar warning message.



Statistics/Logs

SAS will optionally keep a log of each scanning session. This allows you to identify items removed, or check the status of your scheduled scans to determine if any items were detected and/or removed

Click on "View Log" to view and "Delete Log" to delete the stored logs.
Enabling "Keep a detailed log of scanning results" option will create a log for each SAS scan and "Save Empty/Clean Logs" will let you to save a log even if there's no malicious infections detected during the scan process



Repairs

The System and Browser repairs allow you to fix/repair items that may have been damaged by spyware/adware on your system. It is advised that you only use repairs for items that are damaged, as the repairs cannot be undone.

Note: Be very careful when using the repairs listed in this section. Do not perform these unless you know the outcome/effects.

A description of each repair will be shown once a repair is delected.Click on "Perform Repair" to execute the repair.



Updates

This allows you to control the update how the program/definition updates are being done


1.Automatically check for program and definition updates every 8 hours
Not available in free edition of SAS

2. Check for program updates when application starts
Enable/disable checking for updates when SAS starts

3. Definition Updates Reminder
Reminds the user if updates are not being done throughout the selected number of days



Help



Click on "Check for updates" to manually check for SAS program/definition updates. You will need an active internet connection to complete the update process.