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Microsoft Releases AntiSpyware Program
Nathan Weinberg writes "Microsoft released this morning Microsoft AntiSpyware, the product of last month's acquisition of GIANT. As I write in my report on my site, the program is very powerful, and certainly measures up to and may even beat Spybot and Ad-Aware. However, it's also pretty buggy, and Microsoft might have already sneaked in a pay subscription service."
This is just scary:
1. Release buggy browser
2. Sell antispyware software
3. Profit?
Direct and indirect download links
I'd like to see some better real-time scanning... Adaware's ad-watch isn't very for end users. It monitors for system config changes. Not effective when the user doesn't have a clue.
Spybot S&D immunizes your browser, but spyware can get in other ways too through adware programs. It helps but isn't perfect.
If Microsoft can get a good, real-time scanning software package going, then it might just be onto something.
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Well, let's hope this program will be free for all people who are plagued with IE hijaking programs. With patches so slowly coming, this might be a good PR for Microsoft who is taking some hard hits from critics.
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
Does nobody see this as a potential problem, as Microsoft will now have a vested interest in NOT fixing their O/S so that spyware can't get in?
Microsoft refuses to patch their browser wich is the cause of most "crapware" at least for all the AOL people and now they relese a sftware product to clean up or try to clean up what is initially their fault. As long as they don't bundle this with the OS it is not anticompetetive. But microsoft itself is. I mean they now bundle a firewall so no one needs to get kerio or zone alarm. If this thing get's bundeled along with the Antivirus the bought someone is gonna sue them again and then the government is going to look the other way because they are gonna say windows can't work with out. I just hope I'm wrong.
Expire? Why should it expire if it is free?
Because it's a Beta. Most Microsoft Betas expire.
- AMW
It is just Giant rebranded with a few things missing(which I assume is just because it is in beta). Giant was a very good anti-spyware program so I expect the MS rebrand will be just the same.
The real question will just be how much effort MS puts into keeping the definitions and program updated as new types of spyware come down the pipeline. As effective as the program is right now, it is how effective it will remain in the ever changing world of spyware that is what really matters.
No beta will answer that question, only the test of time will. But, this is just Giant rebranded and it is a very solid platform, which is why MS bought it in the first place.
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
I pretty much have to agree with you here. I still beleive that Windows 98 is probably the most used Windows out there. Every time I happen by someone's house that isn't very computer savvy, they're running Windows 98.
Why?
Because that is what came with the computer. Remember that to most people, a computer is just an appliance like a TV or a VCR. At the same time, I see the number of Windows 98 machines dwindling simply because for the cost of repairs on one of these machines, you can buy a brand-spankin' new Dell box with Windows XP on it and a printer.
With the threat of people jumping ship to another OS, MS may make back their money by just keeping their customers?
WinPCap is also automatically set up and installed by tons of worms and trojans. It's pretty much the main building block of the script kiddies backdoor script.
Unless you're doing something advanced like nmap or ethereal, you have no reason to be running it, and if it's there it's probably there to spy on/exploit your network.
OpenVPN uses it still, as does CoLinux, but let's face it, few people in this tool's audience use those.
XBConnect no longer uses it, IIRC, they have their own packet-capturing engine/scheme/whatever now.
At any rate, if you don't know what WinPCap is - it shouldn't be there, and certainly shouldn't be running.
Give the anti-MS stupidity a rest, you come off like a moron who knows nothing about computers.
We should be wondering why AdAware et al don't warn you about things like WinPCap. It exists to capture packets in promiscuous mode, it is by it's very definition spyware. It spies on every packet your PC sees.
They should also at least warn you about things like VNC, PCAnywhere, and other RDP servers - because plenty of people have RDP services running they don't know about, because they didn't put them there.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
What about to the companies making the spyware in the first place? Do they have a case against Microsoft if they make changes to their dominant OS that intentionally break spyware?
I don't think improving security in an OS, even if it harms third parties who make a profit off your bad security, is going to meet the standards for abuse of a monopoly in the same way that tying a new application that adds features instead of fixing problems to the OS would.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
support proper file-locking and implement unix-style permissions
What are you talking about, windows has a better permission structure with ACLs than any unix system did. Most modren unix systems have been adopting Windows style ACLs lately. File locking also exists in windows, and also part of ntfs. Ofcourse you would not have these features in FAT.
If anything is the problem is that people are administrators on their computers and this would be solved if they went the apple sudo model, which I prefer the most.