Microsoft’s New Beta Defending Against Trojans And Viruses?

After running our first deep scan with Windows Defender, the latest beta of Microsoft’s AntiSpyware, we were greeted with a laundry list of found pests. “Odd,” we thought, since the previous night’s scan of last the Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1 found nothing. So we took a peek under the logs and what did we find? Tons of stuff in Norton’s quarantine queue! Yeah, looks like Microsoft is quietly adding its rumored anti-virus component into this beta test.

It’s been known for some time after the various purchases Microsoft has been making of anti-virus type companies that something was coming and looks like that something has come. While it didn’t seem to find any indicators of viruses (though we’re good ‘ol boys here at SvenOnTech and we keep our undies clean of such things), it’s not to say that Windows Defender can’t find any.

This leads to the question that we posed yesterday and that is: Will Microsoft charge for Windows Defender when it’s released? Sources at Microsoft have recently commented that Windows Defender would be free for both Windows XP SP2 and higher as well as for Windows Vista. Though the sources have also said that there will be two different Defenders. One will be for the legacy OS and the other for the new release. Could the difference be that Vista users will get a free viruses protector built into their OS? Since Vista doesn’t seem to have much beef in the feature set and merely eye candy, this may be one way to coax people to upgrade.

Wouldn’t that be interesting? Microsoft playing the same game for anti-virus it did for the Web browser. Netscape is pretty much dead because of it and one wonders what would happen to McAfee and Symantec and its offerings in the anti-virus space if Windows Defender for Vista does pack free virus protection. While I felt for the gang at Mountain View, I can’t say my heart goes out the same way for McAfee or Symantec. (Sorry, Art.)

[tags]beta,virus,protection,windows defender,antispyware,built-in[/tags]