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Microsoft Launches Anti-Virus Public Beta
Chris Gondek writes "The Register has a story reporting that Microsoft has released a free beta of its upcoming anti-virus application. According to Microsoft, the new anti-virus application known as Windows OneCare Live is 'like taking your PC in for a tune up at the service station'. Microsoft announced in May that it would be releasing an anti-virus application based on software developed by GeCad, a Romanian anti-virus company that Microsoft purchased several years ago." More details from InformationWeek.
I have had this for the past few months, beta testing it. I finally took it off after I received a known virus (the FBI one) saved the attachment, scanned it and it found nothing. I updated the program just to be sure and then scanned it again, still nothing. Oh well, so much for that idea. I went back to AVG Free. It wasnt a terrible product, but missing known viruses that have been around for a few days is really really bad...
Has already happened, happens often, and will happen again, in many anti virus products, including MS's.
One thing I've done to improve performance is to restrict the files it looks at to executables (and some of the more annoying scripting languages.) I still let it perform a weekly full scan on everything, but I don't real-time examine every picture or MP3. Yes, I realize I might get bit by a JPEG-delivered-virus because I'm not scanning .JPGs. But using anti-virus software doesn't mean I immediately start downloading crap from every .ru address out there anyway. I'm still mostly careful, use Firefox, disable most plugins, and keep other stuff patched.
John
The contractor, in most places, is required by law to replace the locks. Same thing if they do something stupid like putting all residential hinges on a commercial door. If they don't, they have to do it again. If they don't and the place is broken into as a result, they are civilly liable for damage caused.
It removes the "rootkit" but does not remove the DRM that the rootkit was installed to hide. The DRM is still there to restrict you to three copies. If you have their DRMware and want to get rid of it, go to sunncomm.com and click on their uninstaller.
John
It's a good idea to partner with Microsoft because if you make good enough software to get noticed, then you can look forward to a *truckload* of cash when MS buys up your work and releases a free version of it.
Companies want to make money.
MS has a lot of money.
=> Companies want to be friends with MS.
I wouldn't trust an M$ application to report on M$ operating system and other flaws even if I were offered large sums of money to do so.
:)
/. would argue that is already the case)
It all depends on how large a sum of money. If they give me a check for say $2 million dollars, then no problem, Microsoft is the answer. Of course I would retire at the end of the week.
A real fix would be for Microsoft to use this http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp or even this http://www.redhat.com/. Of course this would cut into their revenue stream but these are real fixes for the problem not bandaids like anti-virus software and spyware removal tools. I am sure an OEM branding deal could be setup for Microsoft to use either of those options. They just need to port some of their other applications to either of those choices. Of course they would then be competing against the likes of Apache, postgresql, mysql, and Openoffice/Staroffice.
In the long run that is what is going to happen anyway. Real alternatives are available today for most things running on Microsofts OS. As more and more companies and governments learn they can reap significant savings by moving away from Windows products Microsoft will either have to adapt or slowly become irrelevant. (I am sure some on
I've said it before and I will keep saying it, Microsoft is in a downward spiral. They will continue to lose customers at an increasing rate. Today there are viable alternatives to all of their products. A year or two ago that was not really true. Today things are much different. And now that Sun is releasing their development tools for free there are even more alternatives. We have reached a tipping point, expect to see over the next two years a steady increase in developers moving to one of the many alternative systems available. As that happens the third party products available for Solaris and Linux will explode which will in turn have users demanding to run something other than Windows.
And watch Microsoft continue to try and reinvent themselves. I expect any day to read where Microsoft will release their OS in a form that is zero cost, probably not as open source but using a license scheme where they can claim they compete directly with Solaris and Linux. They may even claim to have invented open source at some point, assuming they fail to attack it successfully in the courts.
AVG Free is a much better alternative
see: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
McAffee is worse than Norton. The only AV that I use is NOD32. I've never had a problem with it, it's tiny as far as resources taken, and it's price tag isn't really that high.
I've been looking the underdogs for a while.
I was running with AVG for a bit, but it's ability to repair infected files fell considerably short when compared to Norton. AVG was pretty much like taking a step back technology wise, but at least it was light weight.
I started picking through several freely available AV products not too long ago and came across aVast.
It has an excellent feature set and definately is on par with the big hitters in the industry. HTTP, POP, Imap, NNTP, ICQ, Outlook and Yahoo support. I think I missed some. It also features advanced file recovery.
Anyhow, that sounds like an ad, but I was trying to spit out the feature set as quickly as possible. I missed more then a few things, but I'm not trying to write a review.
My problem lately with the norton products is bloat and simply running dog ass slow even on newer computers. So, try aVast for a day (free for personal use) and see how you like it. (Sorry AVG, I can no longer pimp you, except where resources are very limited)
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra