Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta): a first look

Kai Schmerer ZDNet Germany

Published: 11 Jan 2005

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Performance
So-called 'tracking cookies', which identify a PC and are used by some Web sites to track user behaviour, are not currently recognised as spyware by Microsoft AntiSpyware.

Both Ad-Aware and Spy Sweeper discover tracking cookies and classify these programs as critical. After scanning, both of these utilities suggest that you delete the tracking cookies. With other spyware, the beta version of Microsoft's product performed better than its rivals. For example, AntiSpyware finds NewDotNet (nduninstall6_28.exe) and QuickSearch Toolbar. NewDotNet is given the second-highest threat level ('High'), since the IE plug-in adds subdomains of 'new.net' to your name resolution system. QuickSearch Toolbar, which gets an 'Elevated' threat rating, hijacks Internet Explorer's search URLs to direct traffic to quicksearch.com. Neither Ad-Aware nor Spy Sweeper recognises these programs.

However, the classification of the file sharing utility eMule as Adware Bundler shows that Microsoft still has some work to do on spyware recognition. The original version of eMule has nothing to do with spyware, but is simply an efficient file sharing client. However, there are modified versions of eMule that do install spyware on your PC. The Microsoft program also equates eMule with eDonkey2000.

As far as scanning performance is concerned, Microsoft AntiSpyware is faster than Spy Sweeper but slower than Ad-Aware. The Microsoft program examined over 21,000 files on the hard disk and nearly 9,000 Registry entries for spyware in just over six minutes. Ad-Aware took two minutes less, while Spy Sweeper needed 14.5 minutes for a full scan. The quick-scan test placed Ad-Aware first again, followed by Spy Sweeper and finally Microsoft's AntiSpyware.

Tests were carried out on a PC equipped with a 3GHz Pentium 4 processor and 1GB of RAM.

Anti-spyware scan performance
Anti-spyware program	Complete scan	Quick scan
Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta)	06:12 min	01:04 min
Ad-Aware SE Professional	04:13 min	00:18 min
Spy Sweeper	14:35 min	00:48 min

• Introduction



• Download & installation



• Performance



• Conclusion

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