Remover Spyware – Microsoft Windows Defender

Are you looking for free spyware removal for Windows? Are you looking for a spyware program that also seeks out and blocks pop-ups too? Then I think Windows Defender maybe the answer for you. Now, I have to say that I thought my boss was talking bollocks when he slid this review assignment to me, but I went to Google and found myself looking at Microsoft’s site for Microsoft Windows Defender. Growing up in a house of UNIX administrators, I never thought I would find myself thinking that Microsoft cared even the slightest regarding security; however, here I am, reviewing a product of their design created to defend Windows! The Microsoft Windows Defender product ships as a standard feature with Windows Vista (hey, it’s Vista compatible! – I kid).

To install to your computer, the first step is to click get it now, then you download the 5Mb file to your hard drive and open the MSI. Now, just a little note regarding Microsoft products and this only applies to the users running “backed up” version of Windows Operating Systems; however, the operating system has to have passed the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tests prior to installing this product. So anyways, once you finish clicking through the installation process you’re ready to run Microsoft Windows Defender.

Using Microsoft’s Windows Defender was surprisingly unordinary from any other Windows product, it integrates fully with the operating system and updates via Microsoft update. Now, there is a caveat regarding this software, it doesn’t work. While it performed great at stopping the adware software tests I threw at it, it only stopped about 5 of the 10 spyware tests I administered, maybe mom and dad were right after all, I mean it did catch half of them. The ones it did catch, it removed them sloppily, I found some registry entries still existing, I found that it completely missed some of my “tools” that I installed on the computer, things like Trojan horses, viruses (though it shouldn’t have caught those anyways), and a root kit. The one place that Microsoft Windows Defender absolutely excelled in though, was its heuristics based protection, what this does is monitor key areas of the system for changes, when those changes occur, Microsoft Windows Defender can seek out and eradicate the creator of the changes.

I’d like to talk for a second about getting support regarding this product, getting help about the Microsoft Windows Defender software is almost prohibitively expensive, after two free phone calls the telephone tech support costs skyrocket to $35 per call, though E-mail and online (internet based) support are still free. Microsoft Windows Defender is far from perfect, but it’s better than nothing. Microsoft has even gone on record saying this is not a total solution and one should still keep their antivirus software. Well, I think this is a good first step for Microsoft in re-establishing its namesake.

You can get this software for free with Windows Vista or from the Windows Download area for Windows XP Professional.