Microsoft Windows Anti-Spyware (beta) Software Review
A
recipe for making software that gets rid of the Spyware infesting the Operating
System that draws in Spyware like a moth to a candle. Microsoft vertically integrates the PC to the
nth level.
It's been common knowledge for a while now that Microsoft intends to provide
both Anti-virus and Anti-spyware software programs either as part of its
operating systems or as a separate commercial component. Back in 2003, the
company purchased GeCAD to acquire the rights to its anti-virus software, and
more recently in 2004, Microsoft bought Giant software company, a manufacturer
of anti-spyware software among other applications.
On January 6, 2005 Microsoft made the beta version of its new Anti-spyware software
publicly available for download. In keeping with the rest of the offerings
in this new growth market, Microsoft's product is targeted at novice users
primarily, offering a simple interface and many explanations to help users decide
what they want to eliminate from their systems, and what they don't.
This Windows 2000/2003/XP only product, currently named
Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (beta) is up for its public
test run. The version available for download now is free and fully functional.
According to the license agreement, this beta software will cease to function in June
of 2005 (or whenever Microsoft decides to stop it) so expect
a full version around that time. Bill gates recently announced that
Microsoft's anti-spyware software would remain free to all 'licensed users', so
there may well not be any major changes to the beta besides the
upcoming enforcement of the Windows XP verification program.
Unless Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (beta)
proves to be complete trash (which we very much doubt), Microsoft's future anti-spyware product should be a
guaranteed success; replacing the various dodgy commercial anti-spyware products out
there with a trusted brand seems like a sure recipe for
printing money, so Microsoft should be congratulated for going the philanthropist route, at least on this
issue.
Spyware scanning and removal
Microsoft's Antispyware beta is at its heart an update
based 'definition' scanner like most of its competitors, including the free
Ad-Aware and Spybot scanners. By this we mean it uses a frequently updated list
of adware and spyware files and registry entries and compares the contents of
your hard drive and memory to this list of 'definitions' to identify threats.
The software does have several additional features though, which help to make it
more viable as a future commercial product.
The spyware scanning application itself contains the options you would
expect, including a scheduling feature and full and quick scanning options.
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