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Microsoft's new
Anti Spyware!
We have been testing a new anti-spyware
tool made by Microsoft, and we're happy to report that
it carries on the Microsoft tradition of great software
at a great price. It's called Microsoft AntiSpyware and
it not only detects and removes spyware, adware and
other "malware" (malicious software) programs - it
actually prevents many of them from infesting your
computer in the first place by using real-time security
agents to monitor what's going on. There are three
separate monitors: Internet, system, and application
monitors.
Why another spyware program? According
to our readers, this is one of the biggest
computer-related problems they encounter, along with
spam. And many of you have told us that none of the
other anti-SPYWARE products on the market leave you
completely satisfied with the results.
Microsoft AntiSpyware features "Active
Protection," which alerts you to suspicious activity on
your computer before harm is done, and it includes the
most comprehensive and fastest growing database of
SPYWARE signatures in the business. Another great idea
is the SPYWARE Fighters' Network, which lets users
immediately report new SPYWARE to be added to the
database. We like that this information is sent
anonymously. The results page that displays
when AntiSpyware finds SPYWARE on your system is easy to
interpret and contains details that let you make an
informed decision as to what you want to remove and what
you don't. And if you're not sure about some files, you
can quarantine them and get them back or delete them
later.
AntiSpyware goes beyond protecting
against SPYWARE programs, too. It also includes a
"History Cleaner" that will get rid of some of the data
that hides in logs and temp files and could be used
against you. It even has a "Secure File Eraser" that
overwrites deleted files so the data doesn't remain on
your hard disk to be recovered with sophisticated
computer forensics techniques.
The installation wizard was
straightforward and super fast; it took less than a
minute on our Windows XP machine. You do have to restart
the computer after installing. When you reboot, you'll
see the "Target" icon in the system tray, indicating the
program is active. Double click it to open the setup
wizard. You'll have the choice of enabling automatic
updates so AntiSpyware can download the latest SPYWARE
signatures. You'll also have options to enable active
protection and join the SPYWARE fighters' network.
That's all there is to it - next you can run a scan for
SPYWARE, and you can choose to run a scan every night at
2 a.m. (you can change the time after completing the
wizard).
The graphical interface is simple,
intuitive and icon-based. Scanning is fairly fast; it
took about 16 minutes to scan 138,874 files and 6,686
registry keys. AntiSpyware detected the SPYWARE programs
that we had deliberately installed on our test machine,
plus a few more. As with any scanner, there were a few
"false positives," too - programs that we had installed
deliberately and wanted to keep. AntiSpyware lets you
take separate action on each detected threat, so that
wasn't a problem (if you prefer, you can set a single
action for all detected threats using the Take Action
button). Each listed threat shows the threat level, from
low to high (for example, cookies are low threats) and
you can view details about each (for example, the date
it was installed). We especially like the fact that you
can choose to "always ignore" a particular threat, so
you don't have to keep telling AntiSpyware what to do
with it each time you perform a scan.
Active Protection works nicely, too. If
you install software that tries to install SPYWARE along
with it, AntiSpyware pops up a window warning you of
this, and gives you the option to allow it or remove it.
All in all, we were impressed with the beta's
performance and ease of use. We think Microsoft has
another winner. We'll warn you when the product is
released! In the mean time, don't buy any other
anti-SPYWARE. This one detects, deletes AND protects.
Try It here free |
