Microsoft System Sweeper

[Buddahfan]

I am not sure what they mean by beta.

Exactly the same tool has been working for years as part of msdart as pointed out earlier in the thread.

I expect the idea of having a downloader to create your boot media, and having it's own shelll ( instead of being inclluded in recenv ) is the beta part.

System Sweeper itself has been around an age.

The msascui.exe ( the actual scanner executable ) is dated 2008.

I found MSAScui.exe in the Windows Defender directory. On the one computer that I checked it is file version 6.1 and dated 7/13/09.

 

[SIW2]

What is the relevance of that?

 

[huffman]

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta

Has anyone tried this software?

Does it work as advertized?

 

[kado897]

Yes it does, more or less. It is still beta so some of the functions like updates don't seem to work for me yet. One warning. It is vital that you get the right bitness (x86 or x64) for the computer you are going to run it on.

 

[huffman]

I guess I will wait until it comes out of beta.

Right now I use Malwarebytes and it seems to work fine. The only issue I see with it is it takes nearly 4 hours to run a full scan (two 1TB hard drives). This is also true of MSE.

Anyway thanks for the info

 

[kado897]

You are welcome. System sweeper will take even longer if you let it. It will do a deep scan into containers such as cab files that Malwarebytes doesn't do.

 

[Corrine]

I have tested this tool. It doesn't work on my system (Win 7 Ultimate)! Error Code 0x8004cc05

Yes, I used my 32-bit OS for both creating the bootable USB-stick and testing thr tool.
Bonni24

I realize that Bonni24 posted about Error Code 0x8004cc05 a couple of months ago. However, I was researching this issue after someone posted the same problem as a comment to my blog post and thought I'd share what I learned here.

Error Code 0x8004cc05 appears to be more common on systems with an AMD processor. I also found that Error Code 0x8004cc05 is also more likely on systems with a 3.5" floppy drive. Disabling the floppy drive either via Device Manager or BIOS appears to solve the problem.

1) To Disable in Device Manager:

Go to Device Manager. Select it and Expand FloppyDiskdrives. Select FloppyDiskDrive and right-click selecting disable.

2) To Disable in BIOS:

Restart your Computer, pressing Del to enter into BIOS. In CMOS Setup, click FloppyDrive A and select Disabled. When you Save your Changes in Bios, you won’t see FloppyDrive in Windows.

In either process, I suggest restarting the computer to ensure the changes took effect. Reverse the process to re-enable the floppy drive.

​

 

[Dave76]

Good information, thanks Corrine.

 

[Corrine]

Thank you, Dave76. (Apologies for the delay in responding. Family has been visiting from out of town.)

After seeing several recurring errors, I documented the suggested solutions for Error Code 0x8004cc04, Error Code 0x8004cc05, and Error Code 0x8050800c here.

 

[Britton30]

Good info on the Stand Alone Sweeper Corrine. The Secret Garden is very helpful too, you must be very busy. :shock:

 

[Dave76]

You're welcome Corrine, you have a great site.

 

[Corrine]

Thank you, Britton30 and Dave76. I don't have as much time to devote to Security Garden as I'd like but refuse to be a strictly "copy/paste blogger".

 

[seth500]

Yes that is a nice site Corrine I will probably wait until it comes out of beta as well I'm not much of testing beta software I usually wait until the real deal comes out.

 

[Corrine]

Thank you, seth500.

As to the Standalone System Sweeper beta, it is always advisable to avoid beta software on a production machine. That said, as explained in the tutorial, Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper, it will "help you start an infected PC and perform an offline scan to help identify and remove rootkits and other advanced malware". Thus, if your computer is running fine, there is no need to run the tool.