What's New
Windows Defender Beta 2 released
Posted on February 13, 2006

The second beta of Windows Defender looks a lot better than its predecessor, but still misses far too much spyware.

Microsoft has posted the second beta version of Windows Defender, formerly know as Windows Antispyware for download. The site says 25 million active customers.

Microsoft said the new version has been redesigned with a simpler interface. Other features include a warning system that rates the severity of threats so the program is less intrusive for the user.

As promised, the user interface is much cleaner than that of Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (MSAS), which bore a strong resemblance to its predecessor, Giant AntiSpyware.

Windows Defender's main page is almost empty, with a color-coded message reflecting general program health and a few simple statistics such as the time of the last scan. You can launch a quick scan with one click or a full scan with two. Another click displays the history of all threats detected by Windows Defender and their disposition. For each threat it lists all the associated file and Registry traces, plus a link for more information online.

Of course, a beautiful interface isn't much use unless the product actually protects you against spyware.

"Of the six commercial keyloggers used for testing, both MSAS and WD detected just one, and they only partially disabled it. Where MSAS didn't block any of the keyloggers from installing, WD tried and failed to block one. WD did improve slightly over MSAS in blocking spyware, detecting two programs that MSAS missed and fully blocking one of them. But with spyware already on the computer, WD actually removed fewer threats than MSAS had. In three particular cases WD left behind significant executable file elements that MSAS had removed successfully. Overall, WD removed six spyware threats, detected eight without fully removing them, and completely missed one," says PC Magazine's Neil J. Rubenking.

The program's scanning engine has also been tweaked to detect and remove more spyware, and the program receives automatic updates, the company said.

The Real-Time Protection feature now better monitors "key points" in the OS for changes, Microsoft said. Windows Defender Beta 2 will continue to run regardless of whether the user has administrative privileges, a change that ensures it continues to monitor the computer.

Beta 2 supports the Windows XP Professional x64 edition. The German and Japanese versions will be available soon, Microsoft said.

Users of the current beta (Beta 1) will be notified about the upgrade. Otherwise, the beta can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.
SOURCE: Microsoft; PC Magazine