Microsoft Anti-Spyware beta

[austin]

As Microsoft bought Giant software company, a manufacturer of anti-spyware software among other applications and and on On January 6th Microsoft made the beta version of its new Anti-spyware software open for publc download. This product is for Windows 2000/2003/XP only. It is not knowen yet if Microsofts upcomming Anti-spyware and Anti-virus programs will be free of charge.

Microsofts Scanner is a 'definition' scanner much like Ad-Aware and Spybot. 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 the adware. Aswell as detecting this spyware it also gives you detailed infomation about the spyware that has been detected.

Heres a very sexy printscreen-
http://img220.exs.cx/img220/9965/antispymain8wi.gif

One of the best feature is 'real-time protection.' This is similar to the way the Zonealarm monitors software attempting to perform restricted operations on your computer. Also Microsoft antispyware beta uses 'security agents' to monitor areas of your computer which are vulnerable points for spyware and malware access. This means this product dosnt just get rid of spyware it also protects you from spyware.

Conclusion :

At the end of the day i felt impressed and pleased with this product. The program was easy to use, user-friendly and very very very very very very easy to get to grips with for people new to all this crap. When i did a little test on my friends Adware full computer i forund that This product detected more spyware than Ad-Aware did. Even tho i was impressed by this product i still felt that it or any other ant- malware product isnt good enuf to protect us from the evil world of the web out there. Boo-shank that is the end of my review, GOOD NIGHT!

- Review by austin

[Lewiji]

How does it perform? You seem to have missed the vital part in your review :p

[austin]

It perform very well with some great features

[Al2]

Yes :) It is quick at it? Or do we have to wait ages?

Also, is there any indication of whether its definitions are complete and up to date? If you pit it up against adaware, does adaware find even more when this one's finished?

Actually, that's not a good idea. This is only a spyware scanner. So it doesn't do adware? :( Missed a trick there, Microsoft!

[PoofBird]

Microsoft anty-spyware labels a lot of webportals as browser hijackers, when in fact they are not. It then advises you to use msn.com as your home page.

which is crap

also, for posting reviews: this is a highly moderated place (or should be)
you might want to read the rules: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16314

[austin]

It is very quick. The scan is supa' dupa' quick one of the fastest and still very affective.

[Al2]

I don't like the things PB says it does.

If I ever open IE and find msn.com is my homepage I'll go livid.

Unfortunately, spybot S&D thinks that having about:blank as your homepage is a browser hijack attempt and sets it. But I've told it not to.

And what about adware? Or would that mean that it would have to remove some of its own software first? :p

[austin]

I would never use IE, its rubbish, spyware and ads get to it.

[Dr-Electro]

I use Ad Aware primarily. I tried Microsoft Antispyware, Spybot Search And Destroy, No Adware and Ad Aware on the same machine. I ran each scan without removing any files or keys. This is a real-world application on computers I was servicing. I will run more comparisons in the future, too.

No Adware found a couple of files that it claimed were spyware when in fact they are installation files for legitimate MS software. Microsoft (My fingers want to type Miscorrupt. Mystery!) Anti Spyware found nothing at all. Spybot S&D found 13 tracking cookies. Ad Aware found 97 critical items and 25 non-critical items which turned out to by my password cookies and locator cookies.

In the 97 critical items Ad Aware found, 15 were malicious registry keys, but 5 of those were Alexa. Alexa still has its legitimate uses but has been hacked, hijacked and corrupted beyond belief. After removing all this spyware and adware, the system I tested ran considerably faster, particularly in IE.

I tried the same test on a different system from a different user and got similar results. However, this was a system used at home and work both. It had over 700 critical items found in Ad Aware. The most any of the others found was the 98 noted by Spybot S&D. After removing all the items found in Ad Aware's first scan, I rescanned the system with Ad Aware and found another 118 items. During the second scan, AVG jumped up with its bug box informing me that it had encountered a trojan horse in some of the spyware. After removing the malicious items with Ad Aware, the trojans were gone. Sneaky stuff, that spyware.

One further tip: Regardless which spyware killer you use, go to the quarantine area and delete all the quarantined archives. I have seen a quarantined archive launch a worm that successfully escaped and ate the OS. Not a pretty sight.

Conclusion:

Microsoft Anti Spyware's best feature is the real time protection. It is an effective stopper, regardless which browser you use. Ad Aware works the best, at least for me, in removing spyware and adware.

[killer_sean]

I use Microsoft Anti-Spyware and it's really good, it found pretty much all the spyware on my p.c and deleted it, it's running quite a bit faster now. I hardly ever get spyware problems any more. I haven't seen any advertisements to make msn my homepage though.

[Weevel]

Apologies for the bump but I thought I'd give this a try tonight and found Microsoft Antispyware fast (two minutes) and effective in clearing out the garbage.

I don't like the things PB says it does.

If I ever open IE and find msn.com is my homepage I'll go livid.

After running the program, cleaning and rebooting it tried to change my home page to a Microsoft page but gives you an option to block this in the process .. This is a feature the program boasts anyway, if your current homepage is being stealthily replaced the program will inform you beforehand and give you the option of blocking (nice to see it's not biased towards Microsoft)

It's easy to use and updated as soon as I went online; However I will continue to use my old antispyware for a few months to see which proves to more effective.

[reno]

Just have to add my two cents:

If you're using software such as Zone Alarm, you'd be better off not using Microsoft's anti-spyware software. Conflicts between the two are inevitable.

Considering Microsoft's consistent history of releasing as few updates as possible, I'm still skeptical of this software.

[Dr-Electro]

Now that you mention it, I have yet to see an update since it was released. Ad Aware gives me updates almost daily now. Those folks are really jumping on the new junk as it hits the floor. Unfortunately, they still can't keep up because the idiots who write that shit are writing new shit faster than anyone can keep up.

I have to say, "Thank God for Deep Freeze!" If the computers at work weren't frozen, I'd waste all my time killing bugs and spyware. Same for viruses, but that's a different topic.

[Playbus]

I have used MS Anti-Spyware and frankly, it impressed me. Which I felt was surprising, as I wasn't expecting it to impress me at first.

On the PC I was cleaning at the time, the MS package found over 100 items which were not discovered by either Spybot or Adaware, and immediately solved the horrible browser problems which my client was experiencing - again something which all the other packages failed miserably to do.

And I think the real time protection is an excellent feature for the less experienced user also.

When you have to start paying for it though, I don't think I'll be so enthusiastic.

[nathan123]

i was actually quite suprised at how well a microsoft program worked. but as its only a beta im sure they have time to screw it up just like everything else