On another topic, why are we not hearing anything lately about rootkits? Everything published in the past three months indicates that is progressing rapidly and already leaves current antivirus/antispyware technology useless. The demo given by FSU back early Summer left everyone speechlees, including Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and others who were in attendance. I suppose we're going to ignore it and it'll all just go away.

"Builds"??? They bought it. Just like they bought AntiSpyware, Defrag, and many other "products" they market as in-house creations. Sybari "built" AntiGen, NOT Microsoft. So much for facts.

*sigh*

I guess I have to re-iterate. Reading the article helps:

"Antigen will soon be bolstered by Microsoft's own antivirus scan engine"

I say, bring it on. While MS protection software isn't the end-all to security concerns, it's far better than nothing. I've been testing one-care, and it's not all bad. Also, I'd rate MS-Antispyware as one of the top 3, the other two being Spybot and Webroot's Spyware Blaster. A new Anti-virus is nothing to complain about. And if it's free then that's awesome. My main PC has Avast Pro as A/V, Mcafee Firewall Plus as FW backed up by my linksys and nforce hardware FWs and MS Antispy and Spybot handling possible Spy/Ad/Malware.....So I'm cool. All I paid for my protection was $35 (For 1 lic. AV Pro).
My laptop is my beta machine, it's got MS Onecare and MS Antispyware on it as well as Mcafee Firewall Plus for FW and it's been unaffected by viruses and spy/ad/malware, and let me tell you, that's not from lack of trying. Sites I wouldn't dream of going to with my PC, I readily jump on with the laptop. Being the beta machine, I have a 1 DVD image, ready to restore if anything goes horribly wrong, so I get very adventurous with it. I've had LOTS of things on it, that could have infected it by now, and nothing has - thanks to MS. The A/V in Onecare isn't the best (when it comes to speed), but it seems to be sitting with the big boys on detection. MS-Antispyware has its qwirks but, duh - it's BETA. You wanna see quirks and false detections, use Ad-Aware, and that's not beta. In any case...my laptop's fine (I use SARC on it as well weekly, since one-care IS beta). And I use spybot to scan, not protect (as a backup, to see if MS-Anti missed anything).
So, I mean.....most of you ranting about MS software and how worthless it is, probably haven't really tried much. You can't install something for a week and decide it's horrible.
I consider myself impartial, because I have no issues being critical in regards to MS when I have to. But give credit where credit is due...

Edit:

I meant Webroots SpySWEEPER.

I agree with your assessment of OneCare and MS AntiSpyware for the most part.

"...the other two being Spybot and Webroot's Spyware Blaster."

Did you mean Webroot's SpySweeper or JavaCoolSoftware's Spyware Blaster?

Didn't care for MS AntiSpyware, don't care for MS AntiVirus, not their pathetic firewall.

Antivirus: Kavpersky AV 5.0
Firewall: Linksys (hardware) / Sygate Pro (software)
Spyware: Spywareblaster, Ad-Aware, Hijack This, Blacklight (rootkits).
Misc: CCleaner, RegCleaner

Sys Monitoring: All-Seeing Eye

With this setup I've yet to be touched by Virus, spyware, or system changes I don't approve.

With that said, testing products from MS are worthless.

Note: I have tested MS antispyware and was very unimpressed by the false detection! Created a file notpad.exe in your windows/system32 folder and run MS Antispyware, it'll detect the empty file as an old school backdoor

Kavpersky AV 5.0 - $50
Sygate Pro - $40
Ad-Aware - $40
Blacklight (when released) - $60

That's about $200 if you go the legal route. MS's is the free version.

As for the notepad.exe, that's as it should be. For security reasons the only file called notepad.exe that should be in that folder is MS's. It has to do with the order of the PATH variable being processed.

Deleted, Not getting into it. Was off topic.

I hate to break it to you, but you probably have spyware on your system with that setup. I don't know your browsing habits, so I can't say for sure.

Ad-Aware is not the best anymore as far as Spyware removal. Even if it was, one solution is never enough.

Learn to read, notpad.exe, see no "e."

easy on the paint chips.

I'm an IT for over 300 company's. We clean spyware on a regualr basis. So thanks for your home tech advise but no thanks, I'm stating what keeps me clean for over 3 years. My point is w/ All-Seeing Eye, even if spyware was installed on my computer, it would prompt me right away. Anything in IE that trys to come in is blocked by Kaspersky Script Scanning.

It bugs me when people try and argue over something they obviously haven't detected.

Note: The list of my software solutions isn't all my protection, but that is enough to keep your system clean.

Ad-Aware - Free
Blacklight - Free

Look bro, you can get free food at the mission, but I rather spend some money on a real meal. Meaning, 100 bucks for a year isn't a problem, thats 9 bucks a month. You probably spend more on your beer or ciggs. Does that protect you?

If money's an issue cancel your ISP.

"I'm an IT for over 300 company's. We clean spyware on a regualr basis. So thanks for your home tech advise but no thanks"

I am glad that you don't work for any companies that I know. And the companies that you say you work for must not really check your work. You are using software that leaves spy/adware and viruses on systems. I can't see you doing a good job using those tools.

"It bugs me when people try and argue over something they obviously haven't detected."

I haven't detected Ad-Aware? I'm confused. I didn't realize you were talking about a corporate environment. In that case, it is more than likely that everyone is logged on as either power users or limited users. Then, I would say that that is enough.

In the vast majority of cases though, people are signed on 24/7 as administrator and think Ad-Aware will be enough to protect them. That's the myth I was trying to disprove.

Why are my comments deleted?

They're not being deleted.

See the little link that says "Show comments with negative score"?

They're being scored negatively, and negative comments are not shown by default.

If you're going to delete my posts at least have the decency to post what I'm doing "wrong" so I can stop.

I love how someone keeps deleting my comments.

I guess the truth hurts. :)

Microsoft should an expert on viruses. they have been the target for so long. I question the integrity of their product. Microsoft's forte ,if you will, is operating systems. I am NOT FULLY CONVINCED OF THAT ,EITHER.Thus should we bet our horses on an unproven product, when there are plenty of anti-virus software available ? What is next in the Microsoft arsenal, a P2P program ? Is Microsoft just fishing or do they fear, finally ,the competition. Do they see the ghost of their own demise. Windows XP was a bust. How many companies will buy into pretty Vista? Windows on acid.. Is the Operating System undergoing a devolution ?

Windows XP was a bust? Hello?

"Antigen will soon be bolstered by Microsoft's own antivirus scan engine, the company said, which all customers will receive as a free upgrade."

Wow. That's a bummer. I'm glad they're working on it, but by making it free to everyone, I'm not sure how effective it will be. If everyone has it, it will be the number one targeted piece of software for exploits. It would essentially be the same situation we have now.

Whether antivirus is free or not makes no difference to me. If the the best product costs some $$, then so be it, I'll pay for it. I will not compromise my machine's security by placing second-rate, free av software on it. However, if the free MS offering passes credible testing with flying colours, then I'll give it a test run. But, as you say, it likely will be a hot target for the malware writers. Is it only that most people use MS that it gets targeted so much, or is it also because of an enormous hate-on that crackers have toward MS?

Betanews should change the title of this article.

This is a lie: Microsoft Builds Own Antivirus Engine.

This is true: Microsoft markets newly purchased Sybari Antigen under the new name "Antigen".

Reading the article helps sometimes:

"Antigen will soon be bolstered by Microsoft's own antivirus scan engine."

"Their own" is just what they own - what they bought . . . So much for the originality of Microsoft.

No offence intended to those who were "acquired" by MS. But MS should NAME those who do the work for them, specially if these are originators of what MS sells as "our MS own".

Umm... ok

So I guess Dell shouldn't have just their logo on their PCs either. They don't build any of their hardware. Their logo probably shouldn't even be on it if I follow you correctly. Instead they should have all the manufacturer's names on there:

"Buy a Dell, made by Intel, ATI, nVidia, Maxtor, Plextor, and heck, even McAffee. We didn't write it, so we gotta give credit."

Everyone does a similar thing. And MS has never hidden the origination of the technology they use.

I love how it's alright for Goo'Hoo to buy other companies and churn out their stuff, but when MS do it...

Why should MS need to name anyone? When they acquire a company, it is their property. The acquired forfeit their rights to be named or given credit. On the other hand, they get tons of money. It all works out.

Looking forward to this. The MS AntiSpyware program has yet to fail me and is quite reliable.

LOL its never done ANYTHING for me...useless product

Actually, it's done a decent job in my experience. It doesn't catch everything, but no anti-spyware program does that I've seen.

MS Anti-Spy is one of the many tools I use to clean up friends' computers.

Actually, it is the own solution of Microsoft to the same extend as Microsoft AntiSpyware is the program of Microsoft. Microsoft acquired a Romanian company which made RAV Antivirus, and which makes antiviral solutions for Ms now, together with Sybari.

edit: I meant about this company: http://www.ravantivirus....ages/shownews.php?i=153