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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.
IMHO, it's only a "good thing" from a relative standpoint. Sure, it's "good" that MS realizes spyware is enough of a problem that they decide to buy out someone who has already been working hard to solve the problem. (From a few recent comments I read over on ArsTechnica after they posted a spyware-testing article, Giant's product is supposedly quite good. In fact, arguably the best available right now, of the non-freeware spyware removers.)
As the parent poster pointed out though, this stuff isn't even an issue for non-Windows users. I'm using my PowerMac G5 tower right now, and it's rather nice not to have to wait while my anti-virus package loads up (further cluttering up a crowded system tray), and then having to wait while the thing does its automatic updates every day or two. No spyware/malware worries either. Just boot up and go....
I do PC on-site service calls for a living (Mac too, on the odd occasion we get them), and I can honestly say that virus/spyware issues generate the vast majority of my income right now. From that angle, I guess I should be happy there's such a big problem. But somehow I'm not... I often tell my customers about the Macintosh alternative (both the good and the bad), and at least 40% of the time or so, they decide it really sounds like it's "right up their alley" and they consider one for their next system purchase.
Call me crazy or whatever... but after 14 years of working with computers, I just feel like it should be as enjoyable an experience for people as possible. Using as much as 30% of your CPU time running background tasks like firewalls, virus scanners and anti-spyware packages seems so unnecessary....
Check out my website: Playfully Clever
So, now Microsoft are releasing third-party programs themselves for fixing their own bugs? If they're trying to make us trust their OS, I can't see the point.
[sig]
until there is a vulnerability discovered to install a virus through the anti virus application?
You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson: never try.
It seems any profitable application that gets developed on the Windows platform gets noticed by Microsoft and they immediately start buying up companies, releasing a free version, or making their own. They are trying to take out Adobe (Photoshop, PDF), Antivirus (McAffee, Norton, etc), they already killed Netscape, Office Suites, E-mail clients, and they are working on killing SQL servers.
Why does anyone think it is a good idea to partner with Microsoft again?
The more you know, the less you understand.
It's OK for newbies as it also reminds them to backup and defrag too. Also it turns the Windows Firewall into a proper one.
Think I'll stick with NOD32 though.
Conor "You're not married,you haven't got a girlfriend and you've never seen Star Trek? Good Lord!" - Patrick Stewart
some spyware installs with "legit" apps MOST seems to come in through the browser through one of the following:
1: users clicking yes blindly
2: users clicking yes becuase the system makes it extremely hard for them not to by overlapping windows or by reloading the page when they click cancel (yes i have seen this done)
3: security holes
while the spyware companies themselves may officially frown on the latter two there is no doubt that they are being used by less scrupulous sites on commission per install.
another problem is that the antivirus companies won't treat spyware like trojans (possiblly because they are scared of legal issues). a good on access scanner should be able to prevent any known shitware (viruses trojans spyware etc) from being run in the first place.
Check out my website: Playfully Clever
Beta ?
... stable like "bash" stable and not like IE stable ... which can pretty much be never/ever ...
don't know about you but if it comes to windows machines, microsoft and antivirus, the word beta just scares the shit out of me.
i will still suggest some other antiviruses to my friends at least until this stuff becomes stable
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
A week ago, I would have agreed with you wholeheartedly. My win2k box is behind a NAT box, I use Firefox exclusively, I keep Windows up to date, and don't visit suspect sites. I rarely ran anti-spyware, because it simply didn't seem to be a problem. But then my wife mentioned that she got redirected to some oddball website when she reloaded an unrelated site, and the alarms went off in my head. A couple of spyware sweeps later, I cleaned up a dozen spyware/adware programs that had been lurking (for how long?).
It seems that these programs are getting better at lurking in the background without calling any attention to themselves. I'm still not paranoid enough to enable the constantly-running antispyware features, but I'll definitely run a manual sweep more than once per year from now on.
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.