Spyware: January 2005 Archives
Matthew Fordahl identified as an AP technology writer wrote a recent review titled Microsoft Anti-Spyware Ineffective.
The article begins by berating Microsoft's viral cleanup tool for not ridding his dumbass family members infected machine. Clearly he does not understand what this utility is supposed to be. That's like screaming because McAfee's Stinger utility doesn't clean every virus off the machine. This is particularly galling when the problem is obviously spyware, and not viruses.
So half way through the article he finally gets Microsoft Antispyware installed. I dont understand people who criticize MS Antispyware. 1. Its a beta release. 2. Its still basically Giant's product. The first thing this guy criticizes is the GUI. Clearly the author has not used other Antispyware products. This interface is head and shoulders above that used by Adaware, Spybot Search and Destroy etc. He is unable to get the machine clean, blames the product and reloads the operating system (In my opinion revealing his complete lack of technical skills).
As usual, Microsoft is criticized where other products are not.
Microsoft released a beta of their antispyware software this week. The release notes caution to disable realtime scanning to avoid interference with Enterprise management tools.
As you might expect, I found the GUI to be quite nice compared to other antispyware programs. That's not Microsoft being GUI-centric, its still the same as what GIANT was using in their software. I liked the install encouraging users to run a scheduled scan and have automatic updates. My first scan found a false positive in WinPCap. I was able to tell it to ignore that forever.
There is not currently any Enterprise management capability to this software. GIANT was working on controlling setting via Group Policy so we hope Microsoft will continue down that path. I have also heard they are looking at releasing updates via SUS so there will be centralized updates.
The program looks pretty nice and will likely be a future leader in enterprise antispyware applications. But for now, I'm happy we've made the decision to go with Webroot. I just hope we get Webroot deployed before Microsoft has a viable enterprise antispyware solution.
