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With everyone bashing Microsoft about how easy it was for Internet Explorer 6 to become hijacked with spyware, it’s only natural that Microsoft decided to do something about. Originally release as Microsoft AntiSpyware, Windows Defender is a free tool designed to prevent, remove, and quarantine spyware on Windows, XP, 2003, and Vista.
Windows Defender not only features scanning of the system similar to other free anti-spyware on the market, but also includes a number of Real-Time Security Agents that monitor several common areas of Windows for changes which may be caused by spyware. It also includes the ability to easily remove ActiveX applications that are installed, and integrated is support for Microsoft’s SpyNet. SpyNet allows users to report to Microsoft what they consider to be spyware, and what applications and device drivers they allow to be installed on their system.
Like a lot of spyware programs, Windows Defender may annoy you at first with it’s constant systray popups so that you can verify what you’re running is safe. But after a little configuration, I found it extremely powerful. It was able to remove a lot of spyware that some of the other big names out there couldn’t.
Here’s the featuer list for Windows Defender:
* Spyware detection (obviously)
* Rollback in case you remove something you actually wanted
* Scheduled scanning and removal
* Internet Explorer integration
* Automatically updates
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