Microsoft releases anti spyware beta

[vabtz]

Not sure how this is going to or if it will effect affiliate marketing since it makes refreences to ads.

[microsoft.com...]

[MatthewHSE]

Special information for GIANT AntiSpyware users
Current GIANT AntiSpyware users with active subscriptions are advised to continue to use their existing software until those subscriptions end.

I wonder if this means MicroSoft bought the anti-spyware activities of the GIANT company?

Seems funny for the makers of IE to be marketing an anti-spyware product . . . I always thought they liked the stuff! ;) Perhaps this means the talk of spyware as a reason to switch to FireFox is beginning to cause alarm in Redmond?

[encyclo]

I wonder if this means MicroSoft bought the anti-spyware activities of the GIANT company?

They did several months back. The differences (I haven't tested either) apparently boil down to the fact that the MS version does not delete cookies - which is good news for affiliate marketing, especially if this program becomes the default tool for dealing with malware.

With this anti-spyware product (which I understand will not be free but probably subscription-based), it appears that if you create a chronically insecure operating system, charge through the nose for it, then you can also charge for anti-virus and anti-spyware "solutions" which clean up after the fact.

I think I'll stop there: must.. not... violate... the... TOS... ;)

[Chndru]

>>They did several months back

encyclo, Isn't it december?

[Conard]

Well, I had to download it and run it on one of my machines after SB search and destroy and AdAware and it did find 7 more problems and none of them were cookies.
I run a pretty clean network and finding these old registry entries and a couple of programs shocked me.

I would have to ponder a subscription for this but I'll keep it for now.

[Imaster]

I downloaded and tried installing it, but got the following error "Internal Error 2902.ixoFileCopy" and could not install the software.

I run XP with IE 6

Any idea whats happening?

[amznVibe]

This download is available to customers running genuine Microsoft Windows. Please click Continue to begin Windows validation.

Oh that is grand microsoft style.
So viruses and trojans will continue to be spread by non-verified copies of windows - ie. those in the majority not willing to give over their privacy rights to microsoft.

[kevinpate]

the multitudes who continue to plug along with win98 appear to be excluded. No matter, they still have valid non-MS options available.

[pmkpmk]

Isn't that a Firefox browser shown on the Screenshot next to the "Matrix"-like person? The title-icon pretty much looks like it...

[later]

Well, actually it isn't. The tool (I just installed it) has an archery-target as icon. In the reduced image though it looked pretty much like the Firefox icon :-)

P.S. Not bad - found 3 things Spybot S&D didn't find.

[Webwork]

If you love irony you've got to love this.

Must . . . not . . . rage against the machine . . .

[CritterNYC]

Unfortunately, Microsoft's tool has a rather high false-positive rate. It found "spyware" installed by eMule and Shareaza, both applications that come without spyware and install valid registry keys to enable edonkey protocol links. It also wanted to kill off part of Unreal Tournament 2004 on my machine.

And yes, I too appreciate the irony of the world's largest enabler of spyware releasing a paid antispyware product. (well, the beta is free, but the app will be paid)

[bill]

the beta is free, but the app will be paid

I haven't seen anything more than speculation about this. Has this been announced?

[CritterNYC]

haven't seen anything more than speculation about this. Has this been announced?

Microsoft has said they "may" charge. Nearly every tech analyst expects them to charge a cost to be competitive with McAfee and Symantec's antispyware products. The license to use the beta expires on July 31 or when the commercial version is released. I can pretty much guarantee you that they'll be charging about 75-90% of what McAfee and Symantec's products cost.

[MatthewHSE]

I went and downloaded this, didn't go through the Windows validation stuff but it still let me have the file. I ran it and it found only one problem, not related to web browsing, of course, since I use FireFox, but some backdoor kind of adware program that appears to have been bundled with what I thought was a legitimate application. Spybot didn't get that one.

I went ahead and turned on the real-time protection, and wouldn't you know it the first (and only) thing it found was the following:

Microsoft AntiSpyware has detected that the Window's Messenger Service is currently running . . . this service has been a wide source for pop-up message spam . . .

Another bit of irony: this program has a feature for "Browser Hijack Restore." Let's see, I've never had any problems with that, not since switching to FireFox! ;)

[pmkpmk]

The hugest German tabloid "newspaper" (the one with the boobs on page #3) had a news-snippet on the tool on the front(!) page.

So every German computer user with an IQ below room temperature (i.e. regular readers of this "newspaper") will download and install it.

I can't yet decide whether this is a good thing or not.

But I'm sure Microsoft Germany is looking forward to the day this is going to be converted into a charged service.

[pendanticist]

I've been running it on my oldest W2000 machine and have not found it to be any better than AdAware.

Here is what I've found it does NOT give you the capacity to delete...much less tag as bad.

Avenue A
mediaplex
doubleclick
servedbyadvertising
hitbox

and a few others I can't recall at the moment.

Having said that, my confidence in AdAware far outdistances MS's spyware tool.

Oh, just for the record. I installed MS's spyware tool selecting all the "Recommended" options.

[JAB Creations]

It works great on my computer but the idea of Microsoft making a PROFIT off of the program which some say is a remote concept of a browser...

This is an outrage...

[Chndru]

It is just a cheap way for M$ to make sure your browser's homepage always points to MSN as well as making MSN Search as the default search everytime you run it :).. Nice ploy!

[pmkpmk]

Oh? Does it? Then they need to enhance that a bit more since it did not work on my Firefox.

[bill]

This is an outrage...

This is an unconfirmed supposition...I'll wait till I hear it from a more connected source.

[larryhatch]

I read somewhere that the MS spyware beta only worked on Windows XP or the like.
I guess that leaves me out, running Windows 95 (late model) - Larry

[pendanticist]

I read that somewhere too. However, the website validated my OS and allowed me to install it on both my 2000 and XP machines.

If it worked on surveilance cookies...but of course these are the ones that MS feels it needs to know about so it does not give you the capacity to delete them.

[EliteWeb]

Shouldn't Microsoft just make their Operating System less vulnerable to this instead of leaving same issues that work already for allowing spyware and making a product to protect against it.

I think that MS should let the other people do this such as AV and other companies doing it already. :P

[JAB Creations]

I think MS is seeing the potential of having a bad OS and bad browser. People turn back to them looking for an answer to their problems not realizing that they are the source of their problems.

[edited by: tedster at 2:34 pm (utc) on Jan. 20, 2005]

[pendanticist]

Worthless to me, so I un-installed it.