Configuration.ini
This file can be found in
<$COMMONAPPDATA>\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Configuration.ini <$PROGRAMFILES>\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Default Configuration.ini
where there later are default settings used for everything not defined in the former. There might be a copy of the remote version stored as well when used in combination with sbNet.
Most settings described here are much easier available through the Settings page of the main application itself; this list is intended as a reference for system administrators who want to tweak a special default configuration file.
Contents
- 1 [Installation]
- 2 [Installation\StartmenuItem]
- 3 [Main]
- 4 [Main\AlertSounds]
- 5 [Main\Priority]
- 6 [Automation\ProgramStart]
- 7 [Automation]
- 8 [Automation\SystemStart]
- 9 [Automation\WebUpdate]
- 10 [Logfile]
- 11 [Look]
- 12 [BugReport]
- 12.1 UseDefaultMailer
- 12.2 IncludeSysInfo
- 12.3 IncludeResults
- 12.4 IncludeActiveX
- 12.5 IncludeBHO
- 12.6 IncludeBrowserPages
- 12.7 IncludeProcessList
- 12.8 IncludeStartup
- 12.9 IncludeWinsockLSPs
- 12.10 IncludeUninstall
- 12.11 IncludeServices
- 12.12 IncludeClipboardText
- 12.13 IncludeClipboardImage
- 12.14 IncludeSpyFiles
- 12.15 CarbonCopy
- 13 [Expert]
- 14 [Expert\Viewer]
- 15 [Helpers]
- 16 [Filesets]
- 17 [Durations]
- 18 [Windows]
- 19 [Tools.Visibility]
[Installation]
DesktopIcon
Possible values, updates existing icon with new state.
- NoIcon
- Easy
- Advanced
QuickLaunch
See DesktopIcon, but for the quicklaunch area which usually resided between the Windows Start button and the list of open windows.
Easy
Boolean; set to Easy=0 for no item for easy mode, 1 for an item. To force easy mode just on one special link, use the /easymode command line parameter.
Advanced
See easy, except for advanced mode. Advanced mode icons may use the /advancedmode command line parameter.
[Main]
EasyMode
Boolean; determines whether GUI starts in easy (EasyMode=1) or advanced mode (0; see mode menu).
Legals
Boolean; set Legals=1 to not show the warning about removing software on application start.
AutoSave
Boolean; Disable (AutoSave=0) to let any further changes not have effect. Useful mostly when using app from a bootable CD (e.g. WinPE, BartPE) where you don't want the config to remain on the system.
CreateBackups
Boolean; set to 1 to create backups ("Recovery", quarantine). Backups are stored in
<$COMMONAPPDATA>\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Recovery\
as .zip files, protected using the password recovery to protect them against accidental use.
CreateTrackBackups
Boolean; similar to CreateBackups, but this time for usage tracks. Usage tracks updates are located in the same place and format as standard updates.
CreateSystemRestorePointSpyware
Boolean; set to 1 to create system restore points for the fixing operation. These system restore points can by identified by their title 'Spybot-S&D Spyware removal.
CreateSystemRestorePointInternals
Boolean; set to 1 to create system restore points for the System Internals tool shown in advanced mode. These system restore points can by identified by their title 'Spybot-S&D System Internals.
ConfirmRestorePoint
Boolean; set to 1 to ask user for confirmation before creating a system restore point.
IgnoreIncludeFileError
Boolean; set to 1 to ignore messages that would inform you if parts of the detection database were created for a newer version.
We do not recommend you to disable this option unless you have a very good reason to continue to use an older version of the application, in which case special attention with search results is needed.
Confirmation
Boolean; set to 1 to ask for confirmation before fixing, restoring, and many other actions. This is by default turned on.
Compability
Boolean; typo (means: Compatibility), set to 1 to warn on starting the app if other conflicting security apps were detected. If you are a system administrator and know about incompatibilities, you can disable this by setting it to 0.
Priority
Priority of the scan, identical to levels known from Windows Task Manager. Can have the following values:
- Idle
- Lowest
- Lower
- Normal
- Higher
- Highest
- TimeCritical
Please keep in mind that Windows itself is responsible for scheduling the processing time each process gets assigned. These options will be regarded in relation to other processes, if Spybot-S&D is the only processing needing full processing power, it would still use 100% even if set to a low priority.
RecoveryAged
Show recovery entries older than a specified value greyed out, to indicate their age (e.g. helping user to clean up old entries).
To set up the amount of days, take a look at the registry setting called RecoveryAged.
[Main\AlertSounds]
AlertSpyFound
Boolean; set to 1 to play a sound if malware was found.
To set up the sound file, take a look at the registry setting called WaveAlertFile.
AlertNothingFound
Boolean; set to 1 to play a sound if the system scan came up clean.
To set up the sound file, take a look at the registry setting called WaveCleanSoundFile.
[Main\Priority]
ApplicationOneCPU
If the CPU is HT or multi-core, this would limit the application to one core.
ScannerOneCPU
If the CPU is HT or multi-core, this would limit the scanning process to one core.
Both options to limit the amount of used cores are only visible in the user interface if the user account using the application has sufficient rights to change this setting.
[Automation\ProgramStart]
It's recommended to use command line parameters instead of these.
AutoCheck
Boolean; set to 1 to start a scan immediately when the app starts, might want to use /autocheck.
AutoFix
Boolean; set to 1 to auto-fix after a scan; might want to use /autofix.
RerunAfterFix
Boolean; set to 1 to re-scan after fixing to trail left-overs or restoring malware.
AutoImmunize
Boolean; set to 1 to immunize on app start; might want to use /autoimmunize.
DontAsk
Boolean; set to 1 to skip questions during automation, might want to use /minimized and/or /taskbarhide.
WaitStart
Boolean; set to 1 to wait a specified amount of minutes before starting a scan. Needed only if we want other background tasks to finish loading. You might also want to have a look at /waitstart for better use in automation.
WaitPrograms
Boolean; set to 1 to wait until other specified apps have closed (e.g. when scheduling multiple security apps to run on system start). You might also want to have a look at /waitprograms for better use in automation.
WaitMore
Boolean; set to 1 to have the user interface wait before auto-closing, but only if malware has been found (giving the user time to react). You might also want to have a look at /waitmore for better use in automation.
[Automation]
SystemStart=NoAutomation
[Automation\SystemStart]
AutoCheck
See [Automation\ProgramStart].
AutoFix
See [Automation\ProgramStart].
WaitStart
See [Automation\ProgramStart].
WaitPrograms
See [Automation\ProgramStart].
WaitMore
See [Automation\ProgramStart].
AutoClose
Close after automation operations have finished. In automation using command line parameters, you would use /autoclose.
[Automation\WebUpdate]
Use SDUpdate.exe with command line parameters for better control of updates.
AutoCheck
Boolean; set to 1 to check for updates when app starts, similar to /autoupdate.
AutoDownload
Boolean; set to 1 to auto-download updates. Removed in 1.6 since with separate SDUpdate.exe, you schedule this through /autoupdate.
RemindUpdate
Boolean; set to 1 to remind the user if he has not updated for more than 7 days.
CheckBetas
Boolean; set to 1 to show beta updates.
CheckAllLanguages
Boolean; set to 1 to look for updates in each available language; if set to 0, only updates for english and the currently selected language will be shown.
CheckSkins
Boolean; set to 1 to check for new skins (user interface color schemes) when looking for updates.
CheckSignatures
Boolean; would download PGP signatures of files up to 1.3. Removed in 1.6 since PGP is unknown to the vast majority of users.
UseProxy
Boolean; set to 1 to use a proxy to download updates. The actual proxy information is stored in the registry as ProxyAddress; to always have the updater show a button to set up the proxy right when using it, see /verbose.
[Logfile]
WriteCheckLog
Boolean; set to 1 to write complete check details to debug file Checks.txt; logs are stored in
<$COMMONAPPDATA>\Spybot - Search & Destroy\Logs\
WriteFixLog
Boolean; set to 1 to write complete fixing details to debug file Fixes.txt.
IncludeLogDetails
Boolean; set to 1 to include date and time in debug filename (Checks.yymmdd-hhnn.txt).
OverwriteLog
Boolean; set to 1 to overwrite existing logs (if no timestamp is used obviously), otherwise (0) new results would be appended.
[Look]
BlindUser
Boolean; set to 1 to improve user interface for blind / disabled users. Only needed if automated detection of screen reader software is not working, since Spybot-S&D supports the Accessibility interface to detect this mode automatically. The command line parameter equivalent would be /blinduser.
DisplayHeader
Boolean; toggles the grey bar at the top of the interface naming the current page. Removed in 1.6.
InfoPanelHighlight
Boolean; would use the system "highlight" color scheme for the infos shown at the top of each page. Due to differing results on various Windows versions, this was removed in 1.6.
[BugReport]
UseDefaultMailer
Boolean; set to 1 to use system default mailer (Simple-MAPI) interface to send email.
IncludeSysInfo
Boolean; set to 1 to include Operation System details in report.
IncludeResults
Boolean; set to 1 to include scan results in report.
IncludeActiveX
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of installed ActiveX IE plugins in report.
IncludeBHO
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of Browser Helper Objects in report.
IncludeBrowserPages
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of browser start and search pages in report.
IncludeProcessList
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of running processes in report.
IncludeStartup
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of system startup items in report.
IncludeWinsockLSPs
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of network drivers in report.
IncludeUninstall
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of installed software in report.
IncludeServices
Boolean; set to 1 to include list of system services in report.
IncludeClipboardText
Boolean; set to 1 to include current clipboard text in report.
IncludeClipboardImage
Boolean; set to 1 to include current clipboard image (e.g. for screenshot) in report.
IncludeSpyFiles
Boolean; set to 1 to attached files detected during scan to report email.
CarbonCopy
Boolean; set to 1 to send a copy of the report to yourself.
[Expert]
ShredTracks
Uses shredding algorithms to permanently get rid of deleted files by overwriting them a few times before actually deleting them.
ShredRecovery
Uses shredding algorithms to permanently get rid of deleted recovery items by overwriting them a few times before actually deleting them.
ShowResultsButtons
Shows more options on scan results page:
- Select All
- Filesets popup selector
ShowRecoveryButtons
Shows more options on recovery page:
- Select All
- Select product
[Expert\Viewer]
HelperUseFiles
Boolean; set to 1 to use something different from Explorer to show a file if user is trying to locate it from the scan results list. See [Helpers].
HelperUseFolders
Boolean; set to 1 to use something different from Explorer to show a folder if user is trying to locate it from the scan results list. See [Helpers].
HelperUseRegistry
Boolean; set to 1 to use something different from regedit to show a registry entry if user is trying to locate it from the scan results list. See [Helpers].
[Helpers]
Files
Command line to show file in external helper app, see [Expert\Viewer]:HelperUseFiles.
Folders
Command line to show folder in external helper app, see [Expert\Viewer]:HelperUseFolders.
Registry
Command line to show registry entries in external helper app, see [Expert\Viewer]:HelperUseRegistry.
[Filesets]
Format of this section is
filename=1
to indicate files that should be used during a scan; optionally
filename=0
to indicate files that should not be used. This later is necessary to persist disabling a file, since the GUI will auto-accept new files as enabled when loading.
No paths, just plain filenames.
[Durations]
This is a cache used to remember how long scanning each file took on this system.
[Windows]
- ListResults.Column0.Width=421
- ListResults.Column1.Width=100
- ListRecovery.Column0.Width=210
- ListRecovery.Column1.Width=100
- ListLanguages.Column0.Width=210
- ListLanguages.Column1.Width=344
- ListStartup.Column0.Width=210
- ListStartup.Column1.Width=100
Toggle the width of columns in the lists that are identified by name here.
- SplitterResults.Maximized=1
- SplitterResults.RestorePos=232
- SplitterStartup.Maximized=1
- SplitterStartup.RestorePos=232
The results and startup page have additional info panels available by a button on the right. This toggles how wide this info panels are and whether they're shown (Maximized=1 means visible).
- ListSettings.Style=3
- ListTools.Style=3
Show these lists as list or icons, 0 = icons, 1 = small icons, 2 = list, 3 = report. Supported are only 0 and 3.
[Tools.Visibility]
When you enter the tools page, some tools are visible on the left, some are not. This allows you some "favorite" structure. Boolean values, set to 1 to show in list on left (always shown in main list).
- aToolsViewReport
- aOnlineBugReport
- aToolsShredder (will disappear after 1.6)
- aToolsResident
- aToolsActiveX
- aToolsBHOs
- aToolsBrowserPages
- aToolsIETweaks
- aToolsHosts
- aToolsProcessList
- aToolsSystemInternals
- aToolsRun
- aToolsUninstall
- aToolsWinsock
Names are hopefully clear.