Is Microsoft's new Anti-Spyware program any good?

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Summary: Microsoft's Anti-Spyware (now called Windows Defender) turns out to be a reasonable anti-spyware solution.

The program, Microsoft AntiSpyware, was released to the public in Beta form last week. You're right, Microsoft's entry into the Anti-Spyware arena did get a lot of press.

And yes, I've tried it, as have many others.

And it doesn't suck.

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Microsoft AntiSpyware is actually an acquisition for the company. Last year they purchased GIANT Company Software (ah, the irony of Microsoft purchasing a company named "Giant"), and have repackaged Giant AntiSpyware as Microsoft AntiSpyware.

I've actually been running Microsoft AntiSpyware as my sole anti-spyware solution for several days now. I used to run Spybot Search and Destroy. So far I'm quite pleased with the application's performance. It did, for example, find and fix a couple of registry setting that Spybot had missed. And in fact, if you follow the early reviews, Microsoft AntiSpyware does seem to be finding spyware that both industry leaders Spybot and AdAware are missing.

Let's be clear, though - Microsoft AntiSpyware is Beta software. There are lots of different definitions of what that means, but ultimately it means "it's not done yet". While the core spyware scanning and detection engine seems solid, I noted several problems in the user interface, both technical and usability issues. Examples might include simple things like buttons and highlighting not lining up. By usability I mean that it isn't always obvious in the user interface exactly what you need to do. The former I expect to be cleaned up by the time the product is formally released, but the later I'm afraid might persist in version 1.0 of the tool.

Both issues are somewhat offset by the fact that program installation is easy and clean, and that the default settings mean that the average user rarely needs to visit the program again, but can just trust it to do its thing in the background or as part of a nightly scan.

One thing I do like about Microsoft AntiSpyware is the level of information that's presented as possible issues are found. I also like the ability to send feedback about the threats found to "The SpyNet AntiSpyware Community" for presumably improved future detection and elimination of spyware threats. Don't worry, participation in that community is optional, so you won't send information about what spyware has been found on your machine unless you choose to do so.

Once you've installed Microsoft AntiSpyware and run your initial scan, the most common interaction you'll have with it is the occasional alert that it will give you when some other application attempts to make a change to a sensitive area. For example after installing the program, I later made a change to a start-up program. Microsoft AntiSpyware presented me with a dialog describing what was happening and gave me the option to allow, or prevent, the addition to my start-up programs.

A final warning that's popped up in some discussion groups. As Microsoft's tool identifies certain types of spyware, the manufacturers of some of those spyware applications are beginning to protest as having been identified as such. The question is, will Microsoft bend to their pressure and relax the rules? There really is no formal definition of what "spyware" really is, so at the fringes the manufacturer's of the various anti-spyware programs each have to set the rules that their programs will use to determine what is and what is not spyware. Microsoft, being the new and very large player in this field will clearly annoy a few spyware vendors. We hope that Microsoft will hold a firm line, present a clear definition of what spyware is, and not bend to outside pressure.

But on that issue, only time will tell.

As for me, I'm running with it. In fact, I took an even deeper plunge.

I installed it on my wife's computer.

Related:

• Ask Leo! - How do I keep my computer safe on the internet?

• Ask Leo! - What's the best Pop-Up Blocker? Anti-Virus Software? Anti-Spyware Software?

• Ask Leo! - So just how sneaky can spyware be?

• Ask Leo! - How do I remove and avoid spyware?

Article 1472 | Posted January 10, 2005