Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta 1.0

[Copernic Reporter]

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta is a recovery tool that can help you start an infected PC and perform an offline scan to help identify and remove rootkits and other advanced malware. In addition, Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta can be used if you cannot install or start an antivirus solution on your PC, or if the installed solution can?t detect or remove malware on your PC.

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta is not a replacement for a full antivirus solution providing ongoing protection; it is meant to be used in situations where you cannot start your PC due to a virus or other malware infection. For no-cost, real-time protection that helps guard your home or small business PCs against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, download Microsoft Security Essentials.

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Download: Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper 32-bit

Download: Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper 64-bit

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Microsoft really seem to be taking malware and security very seriously these days.. sounds like a good product!

[gadean]

Very nice!! Thanks.

[The Laughing Man]

Thanks, another tool to add to my collection!

[Carbon Fiber]

Makes me think of their USB installer tool for Windows ISO files

Great to see this piece of software, could come in handy :)

[P!P]

It's almost seems like Microsoft's version of Combofix. I think Microsoft is trying to get rid of the whole "Windows is virus-ridden" mantra.

[JustGeorge]

Now if only Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware would do the same.

[deadite66]

will it auto-update the latest def's at runtime or will you have to redownload the installer when you need to use it?

[Buendia]

How does it work as bootable media? Any screenshots of the UI, functions, etc.?

[Glassed Silver]

Good stance, Microsoft.

Kudos to them. I like their new approaches to system security and "when things are too late" MS lately offered new ways of help.

I see good potential for this product and hope it might make it to the official DVDs Windows ships on, so you have a boot disc with the installer, system recovery and System Sweeper!

Glassed Silver:mac

[SuperKid]

Great tool!! thanks microsoft

[Calisto]

Looks pretty useful. In fact I could have used something like this a few weeks ago!

[Ezeh]

With malware and other viruses being the main problem many Windows users face, Microsoft should be investing far more time and resources into apps like this and Security Essentials.

[Holey]

Generic networking and wireless drivers for this, loaded onto the windows RE would be absolutely amazing.

You could run fully updated virus scans when your computer wont boot, without any additional software, t'would be amazing!

[Fraud OS 11]

While this seems to be geared towards removal of rootkits and removing malware offline/isolated, how many separate tools do we need? There's Malicious Software Removal Tool, then there's Microsoft Safety Scanner and now there's Standalone System Sweeper. Did they forget to merge some of them?

[alexalex]

Great tool!! thanks microsoft

Great tool ? I suppose you tested it on your infected Windows PC and the tool cleaned a Botnet, 3 Rootkits and 7 viruses. If it runs a version of the less than mediocre MSE (19th place out of 20 on AV-Test) that is worth to nothing in cleaning infected PCs, than it is not great.

There are many good recoveryCDs like Kaspersky, Avira, BitDefender, ComboFix.....

[coth]

is there any multiboot tools with mss support?

[Japlabot]

How does the booted version run, in WinPE?

The download is over 200MB, is this mostly the operating environment or the tool/definitions itself?

How come there needs to be two versions for 64 or 32-bit windows? Can't it include both versions?

Is there a pre-built ISO version available?

Can this be integrated with other bootable solutions such as UBCD or UBCD4WIN?

[Guy Arad]

will it auto-update the latest def's at runtime or will you have to redownload the installer when you need to use it?

deadite66: the tool binary itself doesn't contain any virus definitions. Every run the tool will download and create a bootable media containing an updated definitions.

[Bioran]

Any word on how effective this is? It sounds like a pretty nifty tool.

[Eric Veteran]

Great tool ? I suppose you tested it on your infected Windows PC and the tool cleaned a Botnet, 3 Rootkits and 7 viruses. If it runs a version of the less than mediocre MSE (19th place out of 20 on AV-Test) that is worth to nothing in cleaning infected PCs, than it is not great.

There are many good recoveryCDs like Kaspersky, Avira, BitDefender, ComboFix.....

I guess you tried it and it didn't work, then?

The actual report doesn't match the score on that site. report I don't see a "19th out of 20" anywhere...

MSE passes and has passed certification from your link and VB100.

[firey]

Great tool ? I suppose you tested it on your infected Windows PC and the tool cleaned a Botnet, 3 Rootkits and 7 viruses. If it runs a version of the less than mediocre MSE (19th place out of 20 on AV-Test) that is worth to nothing in cleaning infected PCs, than it is not great.

There are many good recoveryCDs like Kaspersky, Avira, BitDefender, ComboFix.....

Simmer down skippy. I for one.. actually prefer MS Software. It's their OS they know how it works, and they provide the shiz for free. If you are competent with computers, you shouldn't be getting a virus anyways.

[andrew_f]

Simmer down skippy.

Best phrase ever, using that!

[Arkose]

This isn't actually a new tool; it was previously exclusively available to enterprise customers as part of the Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset. The license for the beta indicates that the final version will be available to home users and small businesses, just like the full Security Essentials.

The Standalone System Sweeper uses the same definitions as Security Essentials, Forefront and the Safety Scanner so it will share their high detection rate. :)

While this seems to be geared towards removal of rootkits and removing malware offline/isolated, how many separate tools do we need? There's Malicious Software Removal Tool, then there's Microsoft Safety Scanner and now there's Standalone System Sweeper. Did they forget to merge some of them?

Each tool serves a distinct purpose. The Malicious Software Removal Tool is a small download that only detects a specific selection of critical infections. The Safety Scanner is a much larger download for more comprehensive scanning (including detection of things like adware). The Standalone System Sweeper serves a similar purpose but has the advantage of scanning while the system is offline, making it very useful for situations where scanning from within Windows is blocked by a running infection (fake AVs love doing this).

[Guy Arad]

How does it work as bootable media? Any screenshots of the UI, functions, etc.?

What do you mean by "how does it work?" ?

The tool can creates a bootable CD/DVD, USB or ISO (which can be then burnt or used some other way).

If it's CD/DVD, most computers will automatically prompt you to press any key to boot from the CD-ROM.

In case of USB, some computers will offer you to boot from CD-ROM but others may require that some key (usually one of the function keys) to be pressed and then display a boot selection screen.

You could also change the boot order in the BIOS.

I've attached a screenshot of the offline envrionment relevant for Standalone System Sweeper Tool Version 1.0.856.0.

Generic networking and wireless drivers for this, loaded onto the windows RE would be absolutely amazing.

You could run fully updated virus scans when your computer wont boot, without any additional software, t'would be amazing!

Holey,

Hope you are aware that every run of the tool (which is standalone) will create a fresh bootable media with update virus definitions (up to 24 hours old).

Will this help remove the fake antivirus/system utilities crap? Cuz Security Essentials doesn't help at all with it.

If you have issues with MSE not helping with certain antivirus it will be great if you can refer to: http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=hub

And report the problem.

is there any multiboot tools with mss support?

What are you referring as multiboot support?

If you have multiple operating systems installed, the recent version of the tool (1.0.856.0) will detect that after the offline envrionment boots and will let you select which OS you want to scan.

How does the booted version run, in WinPE?

The download is over 200MB, is this mostly the operating environment or the tool/definitions itself?

How come there needs to be two versions for 64 or 32-bit windows? Can't it include both versions?

Is there a pre-built ISO version available?

Can this be integrated with other bootable solutions such as UBCD or UBCD4WIN?

As a Microsoft employee I will look into providing you with more details (since I'm not at liberty to share at the moment).

Only thing I can say, is that there's no ISO pre-built ISO version available.