Major UPDATE for microsofts antispyware

[@tt!tud3]

I downloaded and ran it.

It works very well really.

Cool, thanks for the info. They always pick a corny name, Vista, defender.. gah

[corrupted_code]

Apparently a lot of flaming has been going on with the new Windows Defender beta 2. I read a few of the reviews here, and I'd actually have to agree with their thoughts. I honestly thought Microsoft would improve on it, but they've actually degraded it quite a bit!

Anyway, the link can be found here if your curious on people's opinions: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=120271

[nihil]

A.J. , J_K9 , and corrupted_code ,

This is turning into a somewhat interesting discussion. I will freely admit that I am a "Microsoft watcher" as I find it fascinating how such a corporate leviathan reacts to external stimuli

I can see that MS would "dumb down" the AV and antispyware applications. They are really aiming at the home user and SOHO markets. They must also be looking at that market in the developing World?

I take the "firewall" that comes with SP2 of Windows XP as an indication of their marketing model. They want something simple, that will automatically update itself, and provide some sort of basic protection for computer illiterate customers?

My personal view, is that they are not attempting to compete with the "professional" providers, they are just taking a different angle in protecting their OS market. This means providing some sort of basic protection against obvious attack vectors. I still believe that the hidden agenda is protect Windows, rather than protect our customers.

They must be as aware as we are that a lot of non-professional/commercial users will get a proprietary product in their "software bundle" and will not update it, will not renew it etc...........

As an intellectual exercise, try a little "straw poll" amongst your colleagues, friends and family, fellow students. The questions are if they have [a] Heard of, [B] Use, [C] Update [D] Use alternative product:

1. Norton/Symantec
2. McAfee/Computer Associates
3. Panda
4. Kaspersky
5. PC-Cillin
6. AdAware
7. SpyBot Search & Destroy
8. Ewido
9. A-Squared
10. AVG
11. WinPatrol
12. DiamondCS
13. NOD
14. Avast!
15. ZoneAlarm
16. SpyDefense (Everest)
17. Spyware Blaster
18. Hijack This!

And I am sure that there are many others that can be added to the list

Just a few thoughts...................

[brokencrow]

M$'s stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they dominate the desktop market with an easy-to-use operating system. On the other hand, they made it easy-to-compromise by designing it the way they did (for example, IE's integration and crap like ActiveX). I'd think one of their greatest fears is the general public coming to grips with enough of the technology that juries might actually be able to grasp that their products may indeed be inherently defective. CYA indeed.

[rcgreen]

It is no secret that Microsoft wants to take over the antivirus
functionality and put the historical leaders of this segment
out of business, but they are under pressure from governments
over this type of behavior in the past.

From what I've read, it seems they will be selling an antivirus
program to compete with norton and McCaffee. They would
have made it "free", but were afraid of antitrust action.

The problem with antispyware is that the Windows API is too
spyware/malware friendly to begin with. If they tightened that
up, spyware would die on the vine. Better yet, they could slap their
own GUI on Linux and get over themselves and join the real world.

[Negative]

At least they corrected all of the spelling errors and typo's that the "old" one had
The new Software Explorer is pretty nice, too.

[morganlefay]

Also AFAIK, the MS antispyware does not handle cookies, which other products do.

Not sure if this is true....the old one had a tracks eraser...which deleted cookies, history, temp files an recent doc files.....??

Handles cookies in which way????

As for using other products......all listed have a licensing cost...in a business environment...
License clearly states when installing on a MS OS "free for personal use"

Not sure if that applies to linux distros in a business environment??? EULA may be different????

MLF

[morganlefay]

Ok...just installed the new version....and it appears nihil is right...because the tracks eraser feature is not there anymore....


Neg is right that software explorer is VERY cool

Sorry Johnno..............and for the double post...

MLF

[dalek]

I think the reason, there is less eye candy on this version, is because a lot of it is now done behind the scenes, so to speak, as you notice, it doesn't reside in the notification area anymore, every so often, when a change is detected it will pop up and notify you, prompt for direction then go back with a little green checkmark and then fade away.

Yeah the Software Explorer is a nice feature, I think the big difference between the two is the former MSAS allowed the editing of IE browser features, such as BHO's and HOSTS file. Other then that, I think this is good for a Beta 2 version, can only get better?

Aslo I think this was a way for them to divest themselves of anything that was Giant related, including the icon.( seeing's as how they bought them out).

At least they corrected all of the spelling errors and typo's that the "old" one had

...majored in English Neg??

[nihil]

Hi Morgana~ ,

As I understand it the MS product does not scan cookies for tracking cookies etc. It just doesn't look at them at all.

Yes, the tracks eraser did clear them but has now gone from the product.

I use FireFox set to clear cookies on exit, which goes part of the way. Another useful tool for managing them is WinPatrol.

My point with the items on the list was to ask private users that you know. I would guess that a lot of them wouldn't even have heard of them, and if they have an AV it probably shipped with the box and is not updated or may well have expired.

It is my suspicion that it is these users that Microsoft is targetting.