Software update: Microsoft AntiSpyware 1.0.501 beta

Microsoft today released the first public beta of its AntiSpyware program released† Version 1.0.501 is from this location and takes up approximately 6.23MB of hard disk space. As the name reveals, this program is capable of scanning a Windows computer for the presence of spyware. After scanning, an overview of the spyware found is shown and in a separate column a brief description of what kind of spyware it is and what it does exactly. Of course it is possible to remove the found spyware from the system.

We’ve taken the liberty of quick-testing Microsoft AntiSpy. The undersigned’s work machine, on which the last spyware scan was performed last December, has Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.05, Spybot 1.3 and Microsoft AntiSpy 1.0.501 beta installed. All three programs have been provided with the most recent updates and we then let them run their course on the test PC. Ad-Aware was able to find one tracking cookie, while Spybot only found a DSO exploit related to Internet Explorer. Of the three applications, Microsoft AntiSpyware found the most spyware: the program detected four spyware entries that were present on the computer. Unfortunately, none of the three programs was able to report the known spyware, but AntiSpyware came out on top in this quick test.