Microsoft AntiSpyware

[robinev]

Microsoft has released a version called a "beta" of the anti-spyware software they bought recently.

The outfit they bought was called Giant software. The MS product is now called "Microsoft AntiSpyware".

I downloaded and installed it and was happy to see that it found a spyware program that Ad-Aware had missed.

But it also did one very nasty thing: It changed my browser's default homepage to msn.com from news.google.com.

[webado]

Originally Posted by robinev

Microsoft has released a version called a "beta" of the anti-spyware software they bought recently.

The outfit they bought was called Giant software. The MS product is now called "Microsoft AntiSpyware".

I downloaded and installed it and was happy to see that it found a spyware program that Ad-Aware had missed.

But it also did one very nasty thing: It changed my browser's default homepage to msn.com from news.google.com.

LOL! it would, woulnd't it? I hope yuo were able to change it back.

[robinev]

Yeah. I changed it back to news.google.

But the problem is that there is a somewhat hidden option to restore browser settings to a default if something hijacks them. The defaults are set to msn.com, not surprisingly. That's fine. There's an option under "Advanced Tools" to change the restore setting to something other than what they've defined. But I'm guessing many users would have a hard time finding it.

The nasty bit in this is that the software didn't offer a dialog before changing my desired setting. It is, however, beta software. I suspect they'll get enough complaints about this to change the feature before release.

[motorwatchercounter]

I have been looking for a decent anti spyware programme for a while. I still run adaware and spybot but these do not find a lot of things so I am looking for one to buy.

I downloaded it and tried it. It didn't change my default page which I have set as blank. 1 deep scan later It didn't anything. Strange as I have been using the free trial of spysubtract which shows the google file that is loaded if you use their search browser. The spysubtract trial gives you 30 days and it functions. Most trials tell you you have problems but do not allow cleansing unless you purchase the product.

One thing though. My firewall caught it trying to connect to the giant web site (presumably MS but they forgot the cut & paste) half way through the scan.

[robinev]

Microsoft's product is free for now. My guess is that it will remain free even after the beta product is replaced.

It includes some features that aren't available in the free version of Ad-Aware, including scheduled scans and active watches.

I too saw it requesting outbound access. One of the two requests lets it send information to a database of infections. It did that because it found a spyware program on my machine. But it did ask before sending that information.

[motorwatchercounter]

Originally Posted by robinev

Microsoft's product is free for now. My guess is that it will remain free even after the beta product is replaced.

Call me a cynic however!!! MS seem to be hit and miss with their marketing and pricing. I like the clear history, cookies etc. Spysubtract has this also.

It would make an ideal integrated product with IE/XP. The only way this is possibly going to be free is if it is integrated to maintain/increase a market share of something or if it collects info for marketing. With all the good spyware programmes going for $30 each it may be too small for MS. It seems their programes are free or really expensive.

We may see XP with a decent firewall, AV and spyware and not full of holes (yeh, right) Given the economy of scale this would not cost much more than the XP we have now.

[robinev]

Call me a cynic however!!!

OK. But many folks talking about Microsoft tend to be rather cynical. It seems difficult for that company to do anything that would satisfy some folks.

As I see it, what's important in this product isn't any sales potential from it, but rather its contribution to protecting them from criticism when folks get one of these spyware infections. I'd expect it and the anti-virus product coming in a few months to be integrated into future versions of Windows itself, maybe even in a pre-Longhorn service pack.