Sneak Peek At Microsoft's New Anti-Spyware Program

[xierox]

Slashdot:

Ant writes "Broadband Reports mentions Neowin's sneak peek of Microsoft's upcoming anti-spyware software recently acquired community favorite Giant spyware; Microsoft has code-named their re-hashed version of that software 'Atlanta.' It is currently in an internal beta test. There are screenshots of the application in action."

- Xierox

[Double//Cut]

hrmm, /me wonders why the hell M$ would spend money on a new program to defeat spyware usually brought in by their own product.

If M$ wanted to remove spyware, remove IE

(IMHO)

[Spyrus]

some more info

http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?i...&category=main

http://communities.microsoft.com/new...yware&sLCID=us

Looks a lot like micorsoft just pasted their name on the giant software.... I hope they develop this program a bit more and enhance it.

[ric-o]

Hmm, doesn't look like M$ changed the GUI at all. It looks just like CounterSpy by Sunbelt-Software which incidently uses Giant's antispyware engine.

Would be nice if M$ improved it to _dig_ deeper into the system especially since THEY wrote the O/S.

DoubleCut: Love your comment about the irony of M$ buying this company...you're right, they should fix the core issues (vulnerabilities) that spyware uses to infect systems!

xierox: thanks for sneak peek, sorry AO wont let me green ya.

[xierox]

Originally posted here by ric-o
xierox: thanks for sneak peek, sorry AO wont let me green ya.

No worries, man. I didn't do it for them anyway.

- Xierox

[whatthe]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5...=zdfd.newsfeed

Microsoft is also keeping quiet about whether the application, which will be compatible with Windows 2000 and later versions of the operating system, is designed to be an integrated part of Windows, like a security patch, or if it will be distributed or sold separately.

Realistically how many people would buy it with so many others on the market? I guess a lot of people may just go with it because they are more familiar with the name Microsoft than the other companies.

[xierox]

Originally posted here by whatthe
Realistically how many people would buy it with so many others on the market? I guess a lot of people may just go with it because they are more familiar with the name Microsoft than the other companies.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. From what little I read, the program that MS is modifying is supposed to be rather good. However, I see no reason to purchase it, as a combination of free programs (Ad-Aware, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, and Firefox) already keep me spyware free. Hopefully Micro$oft will take note of this and will instead offer it free to its customers, otherwise I fear that it may do poorly.

- Xierox