Recently Renamed DEFENDER

Spyware/Malware Removal Application

Commerce is a fact of life. And, the Internet is the new frontier for making money. Malicious web sites will force small applications or browser plug-ins to be loaded onto your system... without your knowledge. Then, these applications can harvest your EMail address book, contact lists, web surfing history, and personal/financial information. All it takes is a typo to be on a bad web site.

Microsoft has entered the market of spyware & malicious application removal, as of January 2005. I usually don't list "Beta" software (still under development). But, this one has proven to go beyond both "Spybot" & "Ad-Aware" in the ability to remove stubborn malware. If you are plagued with issues after running the others, it may be time to try this one. Purchased from a company called Giant Software, Microsoft renamed it Antispyware. In mid-February of 2003, Microsoft released the "Beta 2" version, as DEFENDER. The main difference is that the "Beta 1" release would work on Windows 2000. The "Beta2" version works on XP with SP2, and higher. And, the definition files are delivered through Windows Updates. Remember that "Beta" applications are considered still under development, and may have unforeseen issues with other applications. I personally haven't run across any, yet. There has been an annoying lag in the definition downloads, from February until now (March 20th). Manually forcing Windows Updates will usually find and install the definition files. Hopefully, this will be corrected, soon. "Beta 1" is no longer available. But, the last released version was on January 20th. It will run for 6 months past that time.

Features :

• Notification of System changes by applications
• Definitions update
• System scan
• Selectable removal of detections

Download Microsoft's Defender (Beta 2) from http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx