Microsoft has released the beta version of their new spyware detector software. It's a bit of a misnomer to call it a "beta version," since it's basically the software they recently bought from another company.

I downloaded and ran the program this morning, and it located and removed two instances of spyware, one that I know for sure is a serious threat to computer security, and that AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy overlooked. That alone is enough to cause me to recommend that those of you who are concerned with computer security should install this program.

It can be configured to run in the background, and will supposedly prevent any spyware from being installed in the first place. Since I have no long-term experience with it, I don't know if the program will actually do that or not. For now, however, it's worth a try. Even better, it's free.

To download the program, go to the Microsoft homepage at:

www.microsoft.com

You should see a box on the middle-right side that references the download for the security program.

Thank you.

Thank's for the tip Shortie. I downloaded and ran it and found 16 threats. Pretty good since I usually run other spyware and virus protection once a week.

I like that this one gives you a more in depth survey of your computer and suggests what actions to take. I'll see how it does in the long run. The license will run out July 31, 2005. After that I might consider purchasing the full version.

I saw your comments this am, downloaded it and had 5 spywares that got past all the things I had to protect the computer. Thanks.

Softwares so far that will not run under MS Spyware running:

FreeRip 2.9.x - won't rip CD's

Winamp 5.0 - won't play audio worth crap. Video playback skips.

NTI2000 CDMaker+ - won't burn audio CD's

(and came bundled with the new burner?!?!)

These programs passed Adaware and SpyBot as clean.

Watch any multimedia players/encoders you have. If the MS programs gutted out anything to do with Brilliant Digital, then they probably won't work anymore. This is my educated guess so far. Then again, I have/had no clue what Brilliant Digital is - yet.

Paolo wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2005 8:06 pm Watch any multimedia players/encoders you have. If the MS programs gutted out anything to do with Brilliant Digital, then they probably won't work anymore. This is my educated guess so far. Then again, I have/had no clue what Brilliant Digital is - yet.

Brilliant Digital is software that is installed surreptitiously whenever you install the file-sharing service known as "Kazaa." It's purpose is to allow the remote enabling of a network service, which means your computer will become part of an Internet network. I don't know of any instances that have occurred where computers so enabled have been used for malicious purposes, but the potential is certainly there.

An explanation of what Brilliant Digital software can do, and how to remove it, can be found at this URL:

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-875274.html

For the record, yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Section B, has a column by Walter Mossberg where he does NOT recommend the Microsoft program yet, prefering instead Spy Sweeper.

Thanks, Shortie.

However, this computer has NEVER had Kazzaa installed on it?

Paolo wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2005 6:46 pm Thanks, Shortie.

However, this computer has NEVER had Kazzaa installed on it?

Kazaa is just the best-known user of the Brilliant Digital software. Others also incorporating its features are:

FastTrack

Grokster P2P

Altnet's Network Services

I thought this quotation from a Brilliant Digital press release was interesting.

An example of Network Services is ad serving. When a user opens a new Web page, and the banner ad which appears on that page is delivered by a third party ad serving company, such as DoubleClick, the third party ad serving company incurs infrastructure, management, bandwidth and processing costs for every single banner ad which gets served. Often times, the same ad gets "served" millions of times each month. Using Altnet's proposed solutions, all of those ads could be delivered to the users via the Altnet network, thereby saving costs for third party ad serving companies.

In my humble opinion, any software that makes DoubleClick's job easier is bad stuff. Maybe some people like it when their surfing is tracked from site to site, and then pop-up ads are configured to their particular tastes and predilictions. I don't.

In and of itself, Brilliant Digital software is not "bad," per se. However, the use to which it's put is not beneficial to those of us who respect copyright laws, which, as the husband of a many-times published writer, I certainly do.

As I wrote above, Brilliant Digital is installed without the knowledge or informed consent of the computer user (who really reads every word in the User Agreements, anyway?). That fact alone makes the software suspect.

If the computer user is a member of a file-sharing network, then Brilliant Digital software, or an equivalent, is required. Not all file sharing is illegal, so it's entirely possible that the program could be used legitimately. However, the potential for abuse is so great, and the doors that are opened unknowingly into one's computer are so wide, that I don't want that particular software on any computer I own or administer.

Erm, I installed the antispyware program, now my browser keeps returning my starting page to about:blank. Which interestingly features an irritating popup about Microsoft AntiSpyware. I've tried everything I can, changed the settings, ran scans, everything short of uninstalling the program. (too lazy to do that) An Antispyware program that installs spyware? Amazing!