Major UPDATE for microsofts antispyware

Greeting's

First of all its no longer "micosoft antispywre" now its called "windows defender" :rolleyes:

It was released yesterday, although when you update microsofts antispyware it does not show up in updates. You have to manually download and install this (you'll have to uninstall microsofts antispyware 1st)


More information is provided here :

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

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Microsoft encourages all Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) users to download and install Windows Defender (Beta 2).

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Do they really think that calling it 'Windows Defender' is going to make more people use it? I mean, if I knew nothing about computers I'd say it was a rifle :p Plus, changing the name is just going to confuse more people....

Ah well, I'm going to stick with my trusty Ad-Aware, avast, SpyBot S&D and a-squared on Windows. And ClamAV on Linux. :)

There's no way I'm going to help M$ get rid of the companies it is now competing against.

Cheers,

-jk

Hi,

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although when you update microsofts antispyware it does not show up in updates

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I just looked at mine. There is now a message on the first screen that says it expires in xxx days, which is 31st July 2006. And to "contact Microsoft for an updated version"

I guess they are just trying to spread the load on their servers?

:)

EDIT: J_K9 also remember the business relatiopnships that MS has with some spyware/adware outfits. It won't detect those "by design" ( and this time I believe the "by design" rather than "urrrrrrrrrrr it does that does it?" :D )

What do refer to when you say it won't detect those? The other anti-malware apps not being recognised (as malware)? :p

Still, Microsoft are depleting their market share, however small that amount may be....

Hi J_K9

Microsoft deal with some "adware" outfits. Their adware/spyware stuff is not reported by MS antispyware. Also AFAIK, the MS antispyware does not handle cookies, which other products do.

Given the availability of free anti-malware applications, I don't think that MS are taking anyone's "market share" as such. I suspect they are trying to shore up their operating systems instead.

On an historical note, I still have Windows 3.x which shipped with "Microsoft Antivirus", back then IBM were also in the AV arena. Both applications being bundled with their products. In a way, MS are just revisiting their original position.



:)

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Originally posted here by nihil
Microsoft deal with some "adware" outfits. Their adware/spyware stuff is not reported by MS antispyware. Also AFAIK, the MS antispyware does not handle cookies, which other products do.

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Oh, ok. That really sucks (and is automatically a reason not to use it?)

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Given the availability of free anti-malware applications, I don't think that MS are taking anyone's "market share" as such. I suspect they are trying to shore up their operating systems instead.

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No, but some anti-malware products do have a retail price when shipped with an AV or firewall... You're right though about why they're doing it - but I can see them writing an antivirus product in a while, and if that's also distributed for free, then what would be the point of purchasing a commercial AV/firewall/anti-malware app?

Maybe I'm just being paranoid and all they're trying to do is make the average user's computing experience slightly better... ;)

Hi,

http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/

Microsoft bought into the AV industry back in 2003.

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then what would be the point of purchasing a commercial AV/firewall/anti-malware app?

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Ease of use, speed effectiveness? and most of all do you really trust Microsoft?

After all, if MS do it and "give it away" they are not doing it for your benefit, they are doing it to defend their products and their corporate image, at least with a third party you know where you stand.

:)

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Originally posted here by nihil
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/

Microsoft bought into the AV industry back in 2003.

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But have not released a free AV product...

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Ease of use, speed effectiveness? and most of all do you really trust Microsoft?

After all, if MS do it and "give it away" they are not doing it for your benefit, they are doing it to defend their products and their corporate image, at least with a third party you know where you stand.

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I meant that the average user would not see the point of upgrading to a commercial solution - I think most of us on this site know better than to trust Microsoft...

If they were to do "give it away", I agree that would be their intention - but they would have to release regular updates to keep their corporate image intact, and therefore the average Joe would benefit by having an up-to-date AV which came with his PC. _Which he shouldn't rely on_, but he doesn't know that, does he? ;)

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But have not released a free AV product...

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Techincally that's not true. Their OneCare Live Beta is out and it's free (at least for the time being as long as it's in beta.

A.J.

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Originally posted here by avdven
Techincally that's not true. Their OneCare Live Beta is out and it's free (at least for the time being as long as it's in beta.

A.J.

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You got me there avdven! ;)

I wonder if it'll still be free past the beta stage. I might run a few tests to see how good it currently is :)

I downloaded and ran it.

It works very well really.

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

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

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 :D

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

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.

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.
:cool:

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

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

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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

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

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).

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

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...majored in English Neg?? :cool:

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.

:)