I personally dont find the new AntiSpyware acquisition by Microsoft that big of a deal for me directly.  Why?  For a few reasons:

1. I dont visit the typical site which are prone to take advantage of my browser.  And when I do I monitor my processes very closely.  Nor do I install stupid things which I do not trust.

2. I dont have clicky fingers.

3. I know what I'm doing.

Through education and a few useful (free, non-beta tools) one can literally wipe a machine clean, easily.  I'm not talking about the typical tools either.  I have never installed crap like SpyBot, Adaware or any of the others.  I have two *better* tools at my disposal.

...drum roll..  Process Explorer and AutoRuns from Sysinternals.com.  With a little bit of digging you can find everything you need to know about your system.  Take some time and get used to these tools.  Consider the DLL's for each process using Process Explorer.  Look for oddballs, strange paths.  After time you will get used to your system and be able to immediately spot the crap that creeps into your system.  I will continue using these tools until MSFT decides to  include their AntiSpyware tool at the OS level, and is always free.  See my last paragraph on some thoughts with this.

So what IS the big deal?  Well I have friends and family that are simply not as confident and able to do the job as well as I can.  I have pointed at least 3 or 4 people to the tool all of which have came back to me with positive comments.  So it does have a use.  :)

So is this product always going to remain free?  Are they going to roll it in as a paid service like everything else that is pumping up for Longhorn?

Off topic, but have you noticed that MSFT is positioning themselves for a more service based approach?  They have the whole MSN Spaces, the Outlook Live stuff, they bought Giant (AntiSpyware), which I'm sure we will see that as an online service soon enough.  Its almost as if MSFT is planning on giving the base OS out for free, and then packing a bunch of paid services on top of it. 

Will people really pay a time based subscription fee for online services when they can simply go to other vendors? 

2 Comments

• RFDavid said Thursday, January 27, 2005 10:48:00 AM

  "Will people really pay a time based subscription fee for online services when they can simply go to other vendors?"<br>Only stupid people.

• antasm said Thursday, January 27, 2005 12:15:00 PM

  "1. I dont visit the typical site which are prone to take advantage of my browser. And when I do I monitor my processes very closely. Nor do I install stupid things which I do not trust."
  
  Yea, I've noticed that too. Simply not frequenting anything related to "Warz" or "p0rn" or things of that ilk - Shock! Gasp! I don't get spyware!