I am experiencing a little vendor lock in from our friends at Redmond. See, when I run their Microsoft Anti-spyware along with any other non-Microsoft Windows remote desktop program, like ultraVNC or tightVNC, Antispyware goes nuts and starts to massively try to analyse for threats. It doesn’t understand that when I tell it “take no action” for tightVNC to leave it alone–instead it consumes enough resources to make the machine quite sluggish over the remote tunnel. If anyone’s listening out there, please fix this!

7 Responses to “Microsoft Antispyware and TightVNC”

1. Ron says:

   7/18/2007 at 11:21 am

   The settings seem to be profile specific. Whil you can go in and set it to Always Ignore VNC under one profile, as soon as the next person logs in it will flag VNC again on the next scan. I have this issue in my environment on shared PC’s.

   Reply
2. Hoss says:

   10/25/2006 at 4:40 pm

   follow these instructions and it should take care of the problems with *VNC and M$ Defender

   http://www.cwu.edu/~itstraining/TechTips/windef.html

   Reply
3. Bill Nesbitt says:

   10/19/2006 at 10:33 am

   While I have not noticed the CPU usage others have reported, nor in 5 years of using various versions have I ever seen SpyBot or Symantec have problems, but Windows Defender doesn’t even offer “Allow” as an option for RealVNC and eventually forces a complete uninstall of the server application, despite repeatedly hitting the “Ignore” button in the strange dialog window it pops up when VNC is detected. (I suspect Ultra & Tight will have the same effect.)

   I realize this is an obvious sign that Microsoft is jealous that they didn’t invent the idea, and that thier own Remote Desktop solution is so unsecure, that any user with a brain will uninstall it on site. But if anybody has a workaround (other than removing Defender), please reply.

   Thanks,

   Bill Nesbitt
   IT Administrator
   InnoNET, LLC

   Reply
4. Bill Trail says:

   6/15/2006 at 10:03 pm

   Yes – I also agree. I’m running UltraVNC server. Not only does MS Defender go crazy so do AdAware and Spybot and SpySweeper.

   My problems go one level deeper. The combination of Norton AV / Defender / AdAware / Spybot / SpySweeper – which all run in auto mode in the wee hours each Sunday (Monday a.m. actually)… they all, quite literally, REMOVE my UltraVNC server… and kill the program and its folder contents.

   I have to remember to re-install the program every time right before I leave my office. I have a static IP and the appropriate 5500, 5800, and 5900 ports forwared in my LinkSys router.

   I’m so darn good at reinstalling WinVNC that it only takes a minute – but sometimes I forget and then I have no remote access. So I’ve reloaded an old copy of Symantec pcAnywhere (which doesn’t alert the scanners) and I now use THAT to gain temp access – and remotely re-install my precious WinVNC.

   Anybody else seen anything this crazy? Please email me directly at billtrail @ gmail.com. Thanks.

   Bill Trail – Penny Computer Systems, Inc.
   Macon, Georgia
   June 15, 2006

   Reply
5. Paul Mead says:

   12/2/2005 at 7:42 am

   I agree – there is a problem building here – I am also seeing remote machine CPU hogging by Antispyware, when remote controlling a PC running VNC

   Reply
6. Elliott Back says:

   11/8/2005 at 2:40 pm

   It’s running the VNC server on your machine that’s the problem!

   Reply
7. Toby Simmons says:

   11/8/2005 at 11:51 am

   Hmm. That’s odd. I run both on my machine with no issues, whatsover. Are you running just the VNC client, or are you running a VNC server on your local machine?

   Reply