I’ve been using the new free Microsoft AntiSpyware tool released in beta last week. What impressed me in particular is it’s real-time preventative approach.
Not only does it do what products like Ad-Aware do – searching, finding and killing nasty stuff on your PC – it also sits there in your system tray monitoring what’s going on on your PC. It pops up alerts and other messages in response to activity, either when there is something to be concerned about or just to let you know that an activity has happened that the program thinks is ok.
It’s definitely a product worth trying. But, there are some downsides to it.
A review in PC World magazine highlights some major negatives which, while aren’t to do with the actual antispyware functionality, might nevertheless concern some people:
[…] Microsoft skeptics will likely find plenty to criticize. For example, a browser-settings lockdown feature can only restore Internet Explorer browser settings to point back to MSN as your home page, IE as your default browser, and MSN Search as your default search engine. Another feature that erases your history files works primarily with Microsoft programs – skipping Firefox, Opera, and AOL software.
Walt Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal has similar criticism:
[…] Even worse is the way the program handles another spyware problem, the hijacking of Web-browser home pages and search pages. This is a spyware technique in which the home and search pages in a Web browser are replaced by pages selected by a spyware company, and it’s nearly impossible for a user to restore his or her own selections.
The usual way of handling this, with programs like Spy Sweeper, is to detect the page changes and to restore the user’s original choices. But the Microsoft program tries to replace the spyware pages with home and search pages from MSN, Microsoft’s own online service. This smacks of the same kind of coercion the spyware authors are using.
On browser hijacking, I don’t think this is a major issue at all – as long as you don’t use Internet Explorer. Use Firefox and that’s all history, in my experience.
But Mossberg also raises concerns about some of the product’s capability:
[…] the scans missed some spyware found by Spy Sweeper. In particular, Microsoft missed “tracking cookies,” small files deposited by Web companies, often without your knowledge or permission, that track your online activities. The Microsoft program deliberately doesn’t look for these. Microsoft officials say they are concerned that some legitimate cookies, such as those that store Web-site login information, could be unfairly labeled as spyware. They promise to add tracking-cookie detection in the future.
Concerns such as these reviewers express mean I wouldn’t yet ditch programs like Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy – seasoned products that do a thorough and reliable job.
There are still plenty of choices.
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.
