A Second Look at Microsoft's Antispyware Tool

 
Jul 01, 2005

by Ryan Hartwich

In February I reviewed Microsoft's Antispyware tool (A Quick View Of Microsoft Antispyware (Beta 1.0.509), http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/Article.cfm/ArticleID:4403). Today Microsoft has released a 'refresh' to Beta 1. Here are my observations on the refresh and updates on Spybot and Ad-aware that I discussed before.

Spybot and Ad-aware have both had minor revision enhancements. Ad-aware didn't seem to change in any way other than an increase in scanning speed. The interface is still clunky to use when selecting spyware to remove. Spybot's interface is easy in the beginner mode but complicated in the advanced mode. Spybot has had a slight cleanup of the color scheme and look, and the scan speed has increased as well. Functionality for both applications does not appear to have changed. Both still score highly with me.

Microsoft's refresh installed quickly on a new system and upgraded easily on an existing system. (However, the 'update' feature inside of the program did not see the refresh as an upgrade; I believe Microsoft may enable this shortly. Until then, download the full package if you want to upgrade an existing installation.) Setup is fast and painless and I felt more confident of the software this time around, as I've placed it on about six computers in the last few months and Microsoft has had an additional four months to fix bugs.

Two weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity of fighting with a horribly infested machine. I ran all three antispyware applications no less than 10 times each over a two-week period. Each time more trojans and spyware were found. Run one and find 3-10 problems. Fix them. Run another, find more. Final solution: Buy a new system, transfer data, and reformat the old machine to kill the spyware. (It was time to replace the machine, anyway. Thankfully, it wasn't mine.)

The lesson I learned was that while all three applications are useful and generally do what they are supposed to, there is no simple cure for a really infected machine. Your best bet is to install multiple applications, scan frequently, and remember that prevention is better than post infection cleanup.

Should you use Microsoft's Antispyware application? Yes. The interface hasn't changed since February and except for a few minor popup nuisances with the application, I haven't had any significant problems.

Add a Comment
(If you subscribe, any new posts to this thread will be sent to your email address.)
  
Privacy | FAQ | Site Map | About | Guidelines | Contact | Advertising | What is ColdFusion?
House of Fusion | ColdFusion Jobs | Blog of Fusion | AHP Hosting