Windows Live Safty Center. Anti Virus, spyware, port scan etc

http://safety.live.com

Exellent

use IE... kinda obvious but hey

M$ is comming back with a vengance

I just happened on this today when upgrading defender to beta 2..... interesting. Wish Once Care was free too though. The performance tuning looks interesting, will probably revert my customized settings back to XP standard though.

FudgeNuggets said:

I Wish Once Care was free too though.

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It seems interesting however that Microsoft appear to be selling an application or service rather than repairing the issues in the Operating System that allow malware in general to be such an issue.
I can not help but wonder how other antivirus and malware companys are going to react to this product, is this a Microsoft anti-competition style lawsuit in the making ?

UnseenMenace said:

It seems interesting however that Microsoft appear to be selling an application or service rather than repairing the issues in the Operating System that allow malware in general to be such an issue.
I can not help but wonder how other antivirus and malware companys are going to react to this product, is this a Microsoft anti-competition style lawsuit in the making ?

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Because of Microsoft's cash reserves, they can afford to undertake a project for free (Windows Defender, or whatever the corny name they have is) and undercut the competition with it.

I give it a few years before a lawsuit comes out. Remember that AV software is a $14 billion market that Symantec owns 48% of.

I'm not quite sure I got your meaning, menace but the "problems" with XP are fixed via patches and service packs, the spyware removal stuff is free. The system scans are free the only thing you're really paying for is the Antivirus portion which isn't unusual but I'll continue using avast because it too is free and really better than Norton, Innoculan, McAfee or any of the other pay solutions.

FudgeNuggets said:

I'm not quite sure I got your meaning, menace but the "problems" with XP are fixed via patches and service packs, the spyware removal stuff is free. The system scans are free the only thing you're really paying for is the Antivirus portion which isn't unusual but I'll continue using avast because it too is free and really better than Norton, Innoculan, McAfee or any of the other pay solutions.

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Perhaps I do not explain things well, so I will try a little harder... many of the problems that allow Windows to have such a prolific range of malware and viruses compared to other OS's are routed deep within the design of the Windows Operating System itself, technology such as activeX are known to facilitate such issues further.
Microsoft could do more to secure the Operating System from issues related to viruses and malware imho, decent registry protection would for example would help greatly however rather than take the type of action they appear to have chosen, which is to make a profit from their obvious failings.

What I am attempting to suggest, is that many of the things that allow such a wide range of Virus and Malware activity in Windows are within the operating system itself, and how interested in fixing these things will Microsoft be when they can make money out of them ?
Its also worth remembering that Windows Defender is only free while its in beta, nobody knows what the future holds..

A bit off topic but I think that once Vista comes out which employs the same kind of protections (mainly an admin login being required to make changed to stuff like regitry etc...) that it will be no more or less secure than OSX or whatever Linux flavor you please. I just think that MS is a target for the people looking to do evil because of their bigness, arrogance and greed.

a bit on topic: I could be wrong but I think I recall MS saying that Defender would be free and in beta forever as they are incorporating it into Vista (at that point non-beta). They'll likely discontinue releasing updates for it at a certain point after Vista is released though.

Just a headsup, but this is not a free no strings attached product, it's free for 90 days if i'm not mistaken

Silversinksam said:

Just a headsup, but this is not a free no strings attached product, it's free for 90 days if i'm not mistaken

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No your not mistaken, but after 90 days it costs you $49.95

btw, symantec did file suit against MS regarding thier antivirus under the anti-competition stuff. Saw an article on nbc a month or two ago on it. Don't know what became of it though.

Also, aside from certain annoyances in microsoft anti-spyware the scanning and setting changes it can do are quite nice. Its "services" however are freaking irritating as ****

the $49.95 is just for that which is mentioned in the box, the firewall and antivirus, the performance tune-ups and the backup and restore. The functions that are on the main page are always free. They're two different products/services Safety Live is FREE while Live One Care is pay.

even more odd is when I attempt to use it ( it requires activeX and I remove that from windows ) I recieve error messages in languages other than my native english

FudgeNuggets said:

the $49.95 is just for that which is mentioned in the box, the firewall and antivirus, the performance tune-ups and the backup and restore. The functions that are on the main page are always free. They're two different products/services Safety Live is FREE while Live One Care is pay.

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Thanks for clarifying that, I thought they were one and the same thing due to poor web design and the fact that I probably did not look hard enough at the page
You are correct

UnseenMenace said:

even more odd is when I attempt to use it ( it requires activeX and I remove that from windows ) I recieve error messages in languages other than my native english

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Ive had that problem with a friend's comp before. Windows update wouldn't work a lot of the time and the errors would always be either German or some Asian language. It was hilarious.

So how long before MS starts charging a service fee for security updates.

UnseenMenace said:

No your not mistaken, but after 90 days it costs you $49.95

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Isn't it great when a company can make money off its own mistakes?