MS Windows Defender beta 2 out

Well to those who beleive MS ruined this software i partially agree
There is a real gem in it

The software explorer, hidden in tool menu
it give you the list of software running / autostarting / having net connection
with approved ms stamp or other information.

Only for that tool, i consider installing this software, however i would like to have it standalone

BTW to those bashing againt MS, read some of the new Office 12 UI blog
it's really amazing.

 

how do i upgrade?

 

you have to manually download it from the official microsoft website. however, in order to gain access to the download, you must have a valid liscence key for windows.

the link for it is here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...e7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&DisplayLang=en

 

i found a blog on Windows Defender and a poster commented that its now missing the following:

Browser Hijacks
IE Toolbar exploits
Tracks Eraser
Downloaded ActiveX protection
Monitor IE Settings
Hosts File monitoring
Shell Execute Hooks
Browser restore
Cannot download any updates via proxy servers

a step backwards, nah?

 

Actually, in the past, MS AntiSpyware Beta is one of my favorite anti-spyware not because it detects lots of spywares but because it has many protection agents that monitors our system in real-time. But after several months of using it, I found out that it really can cause some slow down of my system and also the updates is slow compared to other antispywares. So I have no choice but to uninstall it and removed it from my pc and I was right... I immediately feel some speed in my system.

Do you think this is still the same...I mean could it still can slow down our system? or this is already much more lighter and don't eats up lots of our RAM and system resources?

 

There is usually a trade-off between speed and security in most areas of computer protection. But there were some 25 real-time "agents" that MSAS ran which could be individually toggled on or off. It would have been much much better from everyone's pointof view if they had retained the same spectrum of cover but simply toggled off those they thought were less essential as a default. That way, you'd have the speed in the default setup of WD, yet you could enable ALL agents if you were paranoid and have the full protection at the sacrifice of system resource use and speed.

But, being MS, they obviously know best so they have decided which agents to include in the new WD and none of the others are available. So if you need cover equal to MSAS, you'll now need to turn to Counterspy and the like, since MS don't offer it any longer.

Which just shows how really clued up MS are about security and shows why one should NEVER entrust any aspect of security to MS, and that includes OneCare and Live as well.

I'm not as blindly anti MS as I may seem, but I am continually frustrated by MS's juggernaut approach to rewriting the books about what email, security, internet, browsing and so on should be, using their corporate weight and momentum to bludgeon through detrimental changes which devalue security and common sense in the long term. They are BAD for the internet community as a whole when they do it.

 

I can't even install it, I get an error that says please load the windows 2000 security software prerequisite pack.
Any ideas?

 

Hi,
My first impression from Defender...
Security aspect is down - does not block scripts, does not alert to various important changes etc...
Twekability is down.
This could be nice for someone who wants plug-and-play results, like working with Norton, but for anyone with the ability to interact at individual level of each of the options that existed in Anti-Spyware and are now gone, this is a major blow.
For novices, this might be ok, just like Windows firewall. But for the 'experts', the tools is too simplistic.
Mrk

 

Looks obvious that it is going the way of Windows Onecare which has the same lack of features and the same UI. I believe it is MS objective to have Defender as part of One care by its release in the next few months. I briefly tried OneCare, but wasn't too impressed, although the service is geared to newbies.

 

crap idk where my key thing is.

 

For us Win2000 users it requires GDI+.

• Download redistributable files for GDI+
• Unzip the gdiplus_dnld.exe file into your C:\WinNT\System32 folder

 

I had to disable it to get my windows auto update to work any idea what box I uncheck to allow auto updates?

 

My oh my. What has M$ done. Again. Quite happy with the AS replacement I choose some months ago. I won't mention it in this thread so as not to be divisive. PM reponse is available though.

 

Hi,
Updates:
Ran this crap on a pc I knew would give false positives.
Found filseclab firewall as trojan.
Found BartPE VNC plugin as malware.
Wehn I gave it the instruction to ignore it got stuck 20 min on applying actions without doing anything. After that started with an error. Crap....!
Mrk

EDIT - MAJOR EDIT, PLEASE EVERYONE MIND THIS! UPON FINDING FALSE POSITIVES, THIS CRAP STALLED ON TRYING TO IGNORE OR ALWAYS ALLOW. FOR 20 MIN. UPON UNINSTALLATION, THIS DESTROYED THE MASTER BOOT ON THE COMPUTER, AND I HAD TO RESTORE IT BEFORE I COULD BOOT BACK INTO WINDOWS. BEWARE PEOPLE.
TESTING THIS DIARRHEA ON TWO COMPUTERS WITH SIMILAR RESULTS!
I ADVISE EVERYONE TO STAY WITH MSAS...

 

Hi shoe

No problems here running Windows Update. Following reading your post (and with no changes to the out of the box defaults) I tried a manul Windows Update. This worked normally and indeed it seemed to load quicker than normal so I don't know whay you have had this problem.

Also no sign (yet) of the problem detailed by Mrkvonic. So far so good or perhaps I am just lucky at present. Anyway, will keep testing for the present. Hopefully, MS will progress this version quicker than they did MSAS given that it is the latest one.

Regards



Baldrick

 

So what is the general thoughts from you all on Windows Defender? Thumbs up, or thumbs down?

 

I usually give a thumbs down to all these kinds of software products that are just huge resource huggers. Same goes for this new antispyware product (Windows Defender). Sorry to say that Microsoft is leaning to simplify their products more and more. They are not leaving much room for us more experienced users, whom know what we are doing when changing options etc. But then again, most of the computer market today is over-populated with non-experienced users. From people who buy a real powerful machine just to do word documents and powerpoint to those who buy complicated software and waste the time of customer service, which then leaves us with no alternative than to look for our answer in the wilder security forums.

dja2k

 

hat are the latest definations?

 

I have not tested this out yet myself, but just reading the comments here and other sites, this product does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

It's a shame that they did away with so much. And I know Defender is going to be included with Vista as well. Sad indeed when MS$ keeps touting security but in the end deny us security that we once had.

 

how can i have it scan my E drive? i go to custom scan and choose E drive but it starts with my C drive. any help would be apppreatiated

 

OK so I guess I won´t be installing this anytime soon, can´t believe that MS removed a couple of features, plus a pretty scary story of Mrkvonic, thanks but no thanks!

 

That is the latest

 

you can still get the first beta at http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,24761,00.asp