Monday, October 30, 2006

Windows Defender Ships

Microsoft have finally shipped a release version of their anti-spyware utility, Windows Defender, their free antispyware solution.

The user interface has been tweaked to be more in line with the upcoming Microsoft Vista and automatic updates for both the software and spyware definitions are issued via Microsoft Update. The warning system has been updated to adapt the alert level depending on the severity of threat and a new engine promises to provide better detection and removal.

Windows Defender is based on the well-established Giant Antispyware, which was acquired by Microsoft back in December 2004. Windows Defender replaces the Microsoft Anti-Spyware, which was an earlier incarnation of the product so, if you are upgrading, then please make sure you install any beta versions first.

While corporates will either have an anti-spyware solution built into their security suite or will use something stronger, if you don't currently have any anti-spyware protection on your home PC, then this is well worth installing. Mind you I still also use the excellent (and also free) Spywareblaster and Spybot Search & Destroy to keep my system free of bother.

No comments: