Windows Anti Spyware (BETA) Your Views!

[AngelfireUk83]

Now it's probably already got a post somewhere in here but I would like to ask 2 questions.

1) If you've used this program or still do how would you rate out of 10 I've yet to use it. Has it got a good scanner for spyware and does it slow down system performance.

2) When will this come of BETA form I understand there's a lot of XP users out there so trial & error and user input is what there after. But it's been out for a while surely it should be out of BETA form now.

[BrutalDrew]

It is the best IMO. It has already been proven at plenty of sites that it is among the top in terms of detection rate. However, no anti-spyware tool is perfect. That is why I recommend using something like Ad-Aware along with it. It also has great real-time protection and while using it I did not notice any impact in performance.

As for when it will come out of beta, I have no idea.

[Xtreme Barton]

great tool probably an 8 out of 10....

but like metioned above it should be used with multiple tools...

beta .. good question i have wondered too... but microsoft is usually slow at releasing final product, otherwise the flamers burn them down real quick...

i would imagine it being final when SP3 and/or vista is released... maybe a beta 2 will be released in the mean time...

[Aphex_Tom_9]

just installed it...and it picked up something i thought i had taken care of...i like it!

[Xtreme Barton]

be sure to run latest updates too...

[outhouse]

you need 5 tools none of them from MS

2 blockers spywareblaster and spywareguard and 2 cleaners addaware and spybot search and destroy and a firewall i like zone alarm

without keeping your antivirus and windows up to date it doesnt matter what U use

[Xtreme Barton]

you saying that ms does nothing ??

[Enablingwolf]

I liked the MS spyware until..

I disabled it to not startup with Windows. I set it to not grab updates automatically. Pretty much shut it off until I need it. Lo and behold it was bouncing off my firewall everyso often. After that, I dont install it anymore. I tell a proggy to not work until I ask it. Then it pesters me to call home. Not cool in my book.

[Xtreme Barton]

well just a thought ..

i never have anything run by itself unless need be .. there usually alike ..

but when ran when i want they do a good job that others cant ...

[dfonda]

I liked it . Its Fast.

[Mr.Guvernment]

dont think it is great - uncle had it, swore by it, - i installed Spybot and found about 7 items it let in.

dont trust it - MS has also lowered certain things on the program because MS is now in deals with those companies - known for releasing spyware and ad-ware.

[FudgeNuggets]

It seems okay, it doesn't grab the same stuff that AdAware and Spybot do, but AdAware and Spybot have been referred to as over-zealous cookie-deleters form time to time as well.

Windows Defender is the new version of Ms AntiSpyware and it works through Windows Update. I'd prefer it to be nested into the security section of the control panel rather than into the taskbar/systray though. I think that'll be done in the next version.

As for firewalls, the XP firewall does pretty good for me. I found that ZoneAlarm was bugging me way too much.

Since the SP2 updates with firewall, Windows Defender and pop-up blocker, spyware has not been an issue on my machine. Prior to that I'd agree about needing SpyBot, AdAware, ZoneAlarm and spywareblaster, but not any more.

[tropicaldawn]

I use it in conjunction with AdAware and together they seem to do a good job. :)

[synthetic_fenix]

I like how it asks if you would like to let a program add itself to the startup folder or to edit the registry to startup when windows starts up. I have had many different programs I have installed and told them to not start with windows and they try to set them selves upt to do so anyways, but Microsoft Antispy asks if i want to allow it or not and i just block it.

[n0aH]

Its not bad....the realtime protection is always nice.. but in addtion to it i use
Spybot SaD
and
Ad-Aware

[IAmMoen]

Yep. Always use multiple things. Sure it might miss somethings but Adaware and Spybot might miss others. I have all three set up to scan every morning at 8am before I get up for class. My msi mb has a function to turn the computer on whenever I want so it boots up then runs all the tests, THEN logs on to the net (dorm network logon and the like) and is ready to go by the time I need it.

[eaglescouter]

The anti-spyware from Microsoft seemed to actively find and fix some problems. However I have not found anything with Windows Defender, not even on machines that were crawling with trojans, viruses and spyware.

Additionally I had to service a PC this week, it was running Windows Defender on a clean install of XP, (Win firewall and an active AV both running) and we found 6 trojans and 2 viruses that Defender totally ignored. The system was running Defender as a startup program, with active monitoring activated, all updates were current, and Defender reported that the system was running normally, no problems found...... Thumbs down on Defender

[Enablingwolf]

The anti-spyware from Microsoft seemed to actively find and fix some problems. However I have not found anything with Windows Defender, not even on machines that were crawling with trojans, viruses and spyware.

Additionally I had to service a PC this week, it was running Windows Defender on a clean install of XP, (Win firewall and an active AV both running) and we found 6 trojans and 2 viruses that Defender totally ignored. The system was running Defender as a startup program, with active monitoring activated, all updates were current, and Defender reported that the system was running normally, no problems found...... Thumbs down on Defender


I agree it is a dud.

Let me add that I did not care that it was out. Reading your post got me interested once more. I was disinchanted even with the first version.

It still calls home even if it is told not to. I had to turn on more then I wanted to run it. For a basic update/scan run I needed to enable the wuau and that really it is not needed for the operation of my machine. I will update as I see fit and updates that I need. What got me, is the fact it kept calling home and bouncing off my firewall even though I told it not to startup and or update as it wants. I was encoding a video for upload to my site as the program was trying to make its call home. Do Iallow it and just let it interupt my work? Do I stop all tasks and figure out what is going on? I finished my task and took the pest out.

One more round of unistall and aviod. I just to like to have control over my computing enviroment. Plus I inserted a test and it flat out missed it. I even went to a site I knew "gave stuff out"... It also missed it. Another miss by MS and security. The hassle and misses are not worth the layer it should offer.

[Tebore]

Windows Defender is a joke. It's a perfect example of MS buying out competition and screwing up what the competition was good at.

CA and their eTrust was excellent until MS put their hand in it and made it useless.

Anti-Spyware was good because it was just rebadged GIANT software.