OK, I uninstalled my old evaluation copy of GIANT AntiSpyware and installed the new Microsoft version. As I suspected, it’s quite similar. Two noteworthy changes:
- In the Advanced Tools section, the System Inoculation item is gone. This appears to be taken care of during initial setup and in the Real-Time Protection settings, so it doesn’t seem like a great loss. The File Shredder utility is also missing in this build.
- The software doesn’t scan cookies or report “tracking cookies” as a spyware threat. The summary screen still shows Cookies as an item on the results list, but I can’t find an option anywhere that allows me to tell this program I want to scan cookies, and although there is a Cookies entry in the Help file, it points to a topic that doesn’t mention cookies at all. I believe that that text was removed from the Help entry but someone forgot to update the Help index.
Removing cookies from the list of things to be detected as spyware is a good move, in my opinion. As I’ve noted before (here and here and here), cookies are not spyware. This software appears to be aimed at removing browser hijackers, pop-up generators, adware, phony search tools, and other forms of deceptive software. Cookies don’t belong in that category. Kudos to Microsoft for making this fundamental change right away.
Update: Microsoft AntiSpyware runs only on Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP (including Tablet PC and Media Center Edition 2005), or Windows Server 2003. If you’re using Windows 98 or Windows Me, you’ll have to stick with third-party solutions.
Further update: Don’t install this beta if you are running Windows Media Center Edition 2005 and you have a Media Extender. The “Known Incompatibilities” include this one: “If you install Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) on a computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Windows Media Center Extender will not be able to establish a remote connection.” Glad I read the documentation first!
Ed Bott 
Ed, I have commented here before about my generally negative attitude towards antispyware software as a crutch for people who don’t take the time to try to understand how to prevent this crud from getting on your machine in the first place (and which often causes as many problems as it attempts to solve). However, this may be different because it is Microsoft and — presumably — they aren’t going to push antispyware software that actually conflicts with the optimal performance of its own operating system.
Despite my generally negative attitude towards such programs, should I give it a try? Will I take any kind of performance hit, or does it work more like, say, Diskeeper (with its aptly named “set it and forget it” feature) and operate more or less seamlessly with the XP Professional OS? As I ask this question, my system is currently running great without either spyware or anti-spyware software running on it, but despite my single favorite piece of computer advice of all time — if it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it — I have used beta software many times in the past and am comfortable working with it. TIA.
Absolutely agreed that cookies aren’t spyware and shouldn’t be detected or removed as such.
It’s quite striking how badly other companies (even companies I generally admire, i.e. Webroot) have done with this issue. It seems like they’ve been stuck in competition with each other — who can detect more stuff as “spyware” and make the issue sound bigger, perhaps for PR purposes. Certainly the Webroot surveys for Earthlink had this ring to them — reporting millions of tracking cookies as if this told the world something about the spyware problem.
Major kudos to Microsoft for getting this right the first time, and for being an industry leader in doing so. Here’s hoping the reviews praise this improvement.
Ken, this is a very clean, lightweight program. I have seen no impact on performance and wouldn’t expect to see any. The default settings do a brief scan once a day. It’s done in the middle of the night on my PC, so I just see a dialog box reporting the scan results when I arrive at my desk in the morning. You could probably change this to once a week and not be negatively impacted.
I would recommend this to you if you provide formal or informal support for other people, just so you can tell them how it works.
Thanks, Ed. I will. The key words for me here are “clean” and “lightweight.” 🙂
Read the Press Release from MS about the AntiSpyware tool and they also mention their new anti-virus strategy.
“…Microsoft Windows malicious software removal tool, which complements traditional antivirus technologies by removing prevalent viruses and worms from a PC, will be available beginning Jan. 11, 2005.”
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/jan05/01-06NewSolutionsPR.asp