"Overall we came away impressed with the Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (beta) software, though we felt that some things needed improvement. This application's strong suit right now is its appealing and simple interface, coupled with the real-time protection offered by its 'agents.' This type of protection is something that the major free antispyware applications out there just aren't providing right now, and it gives a compelling reason for using this Microsoft beta product .

Spyware scanning and elimination were both simple and very user-friendly. The range of spyware/adware/malware threats detected was impressive in comparison with Ad-Aware, but very inconsistent. On our three test machines, the Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (beta) software generally detected more infected files, but never managed to completely overlap Ad-Aware's results, in one case missing several infected files and registry settings.

This leds us to the unfortunate conclusion that a single anti-spyware product, even one as full-featured as Microsoft's new app, is still not enough to ensure your computer is fully cleaned. Whether this changes in the future will depend on the quality and frequency of Microsoft's spyware definition updates."