TheFeniX

I do. Every day I'm at work I think about how the next person is going to call about some issue they're having. And more often than not, it's because they don't know a damn thing about a PC. That's fine, it's why I have a job.

NO, and I mean NO software is 100% secure. None, not Linux, not FireFox, not Unix, none of them. They all have holes created by programming errors. Linux had a critical vulnerability that caused one hacker to knock 7 (I think) of the core DNS Internet servers down. It happens.

Even besides the holes, the main reason people have such problems with Windows is because your average PC user has the computer sense of a walnut. Microsoft has begun a big push towards making PCs more secure, because so called experts pissed and moaned because they wanted to "rage against big brother."

Now that MS has started pushing security (for example):
1. SP2 automatically enables the Firewall AND automatic updates.
2. SP2 sets up a pop-up blocker.
3. SP2 automatically blocks ActiveX controls from being downloaded
4. MS ISA server has everything locked down by default and the user has to unlock what he wants to use.

you have these same experts bitching that MS products are too hard to use now. Hey, guess what: so is Linux. Security isn't the press of a red button on your keyboard and presto you're safe from everything. Security is an entire industry in IT for a reason: it's hard and it takes many layers to work right.

Microsoft will never win no matter what they do (not that I really care either way). People have already come to the conclusion that they are an massive and evil company and they will cram the facts to prove that anyway they can.

If Microsoft offered this for free, that would be great. It's like a freebie from them. I'm just not going to bash them for not doing it.

And Microsoft isn't the only company that does this. A few software vendors I've dealt with (I won't mention names at this moment) have forced my customers to buy new versions of their programs that had horrible security flaws and issues with crashing. They couldn't just go download ad-aware or spybot, they had to shell out $1000's of dollars.

"The only way to make your PC 100% secure is to leave it unplugged."

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phyllis

It was previously "Giant Antispyware", I've used it for quite awhile, and loved it...it would consistantly find and repair things that Adaware, Spybot S&D, Bazooka, etc didn't even find, let alone fix. I had to uninstall my "Giant" version, and reinstall the MS version, but I would definetly pay for it at MS, I think it's well spent (especially when you have a 9, 13, and unexperienced wife using the connection )

As for "false positives" ? Yes, Giant's version sometimes picked up on game updaters, etc, but just read the list, before clicking "fix everything", and choose to "ignore" that file the next scan, and no more issues with it.

Wolfie

Maybe I am cynical about M$, but isn't it in their best interest if people were to find problems with their computers that freeware doesn't catch...even if they are false positives???

Rampage

A huge part of my daily work is finding ways to make 22,000 or so corporate workstations more secure for the clueless user. This is an unwritten responsibility I have taken on in addition to my normal duties, which primarily include talking said clueless users through resetting passwords and moving toolbars.

It is perfectly okay for Microsoft to charge money for this product, because there is plenty of competition (much of it free). I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but having evaluated numerous antispyware applications for both desktop and Enterprise hardware, it is accurate at this point to say NOTHING catches everything at any given moment. Exploit ABC gets trapped by every product, but Mr. Hacker just wrote exploit ABC1 two days ago and so far 3 out of 4 products do not even recognize it; the 4th product sees it and claims to remove it, but after a reboot the same malware is present.

This happens all the time. As long as a product doesn't consistently squawk on known legitimate files or demand money for something it can't do right, I am willing to bend a little. The (good) guys writing antimalware apps are in the same boat as me; they just have more time to deal with it. So please lay off the MS bashing. I with Fenix; I have no problems with Firefox, but it's just an extra step I've never had to take. I've never picked up a virus through 18 years of computing and sharing files, and what little "adware" I've picked up was pretty benign stuff easily removed through manual removal or judicious use of readily-available applications.

I am evaluating the Microsoft Antispyware product, and it looks to be among the top in terms of ease-of-use for the average non-technical computer user. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

Rampage

Maybe, and I would agree with you if MS found a whole lot of false positives, but it seems they are just scattered misinterpretations of registry entries (at least in my case). Nothing that got me too worried. You just have to understand what it's doing; in this case, even if I had let MS remove the "offending" entry (which was just a domain name that had been placed in the Restricted Sites zone) it wouldn't have really hurt.

TheFeniX

PA FTW! dum de dum dum, taking up space because message is too short.

EDIT: Let me give you guys a taste of the basic info customers give me when they have issues:

These are taken verbatim from our trouble ticket system.

If anything, Microsoft is guilty of making Windows so easy to use that users can't even explain their problems well.

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ImJustMito

I am a support tech as well, and lately in response to the massive problem of spyware out there, I've stopped selling Norton Antivirus, and instead sell Trend-Micro's new PC-Cillin 2005. With basic setup it protects against viruses as well as Norton (if not better) but also has real-time scanning for spyware too, protecting the idiots of the world from viruses and spyware at the same time. Free trial is able to be downloaded, but if you buy it, it's the same cost as NAV.

As a standard Spyware removal tool, I still preffer AdAware SE, but unfortunately the free version doesn't do real-time protection, and the paid version gives real-time protection, but asks you about nearly ALL registry changes, which would be very bad for the general population since they wouldn't know what's good and what's bad.

Wyzcrak

Since running MS Anti-Spyware, I've had zero annoying anythings (as opposed to the few I had before running it).

Draw your own conclusions.

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T_BEAR

I think that the best anti virus software is panda antivirus. It detects more viruses, isnt a cpu/ memory hog, easy to use, and have updates everyday. I am going to try the ms beta anti spyware out now though.

CingularDuality

Antivirus and anti-spyware are too completely different things, though...

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CingularDuality

This (completely unbiased ) article suggests that the MS anti spyware program is, well, crap:
http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D87OHUOO0.html

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Rampage

And the article is generally regarded as, well, crap by many visitors to security-related forums. The "testing" performed was thorough at all, and really didn't tell anything.

TheFeniX

That's because Sasser and Netsky aren't worms or viruses, they're spyware, right? No, I mean spyware detectors have to pick up viruses, that's what they were designed for. Anti-virus and basic comprehension should be replaced by MS spyware protection.... STOP STARING AT ME, I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT BECAUSE I'M ON THE INTARWEB!

PS: most "hackers" write their trojans and exploits (in fact, all three he discussed in the aritcle) from taking apart MS patches, and using them to design their code. It would be the goons who don't have automatic update on who get owned.

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ImAWuss

Just another note on this... http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/20...0217029195.htm

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FREAKIN SWEET!!!!!


I am loving that this will be free as a retail product as well......

I love this app and will probably install it on all the computers in the ofice soon.

MS > all > mac > sun

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