[Chachazz]

MS Windows AntiSpyware to become: "Windows Defender"

..........Windows Defender is about what Windows will do for customers, defending them from spyware and other unwanted software. Our solution has really been about more than just the standard definition of "spyware". We’ve always said we will provide visibility and control, as well as protection, detection and removal from other potentially unwanted software, including rootkits, keystroke loggers and more.

Making the engineering change from "Windows AntiSpyware" to "Windows Defender" took a lot of careful coordination across our team to ensure that the strings in the UI got changed, the help files all got updated, registry keys, file names and properties, as well as a couple of images all got changed. All this work was completed and tested last Thursday, and is currently making its way through our build systems in Windows to make it into the main build environment, where official builds come from.

....the sleek new UI and other improvements we've been making in it to help make Windows Vista the best operating system around! But Windows Defender is about a lot more than just a name change. The engine is now moved to a system service, and signatures are delivered over Windows Update. The detection mechanisms have also been radically improved by applying to spyware threats all the great detection technology we use in our antivirus engine.

(This sounds as if it it will be delivered with Windows Vista.....)

Read full article: MS AntiMalware Engineering Team Blog»

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It is going to be a part of VISTA!
The biggest announcement we are making is that Windows Defender will be a part of Vista when it releases. You will be able to run another spyware product instead of Windows Defender if you would like. Although I may shed a small tear, you will be able to disable or turn off Windows Defender and install whichever 3rd party anti-spyware application you would like. The really cool thing is that the Windows Security Center in Vista will be redesigned to detect if an Anti-Spyware application such as Windows Defender is running and operating normally.

http://blogs.technet...#commentmessage

[Chachazz]

It is going to be a part of VISTA!
The biggest announcement we are making is that Windows Defender will be a part of Vista when it releases. You will be able to run another spyware product instead of Windows Defender if you would like. Although I may shed a small tear, you will be able to disable or turn off Windows Defender and install whichever 3rd party anti-spyware application you would like. The really cool thing is that the Windows Security Center in Vista will be redesigned to detect if an Anti-Spyware application such as Windows Defender is running and operating normally.

http://blogs.technet...#commentmessage

[Chachazz]

Our solution has really been about more than just the standard definition of "spyware".
We’ve always said we will provide visibility and control, as well as protection, detection and
removal from other potentially unwanted software, including rootkits, keystroke loggers and more.

More on the "rootkit" detection for "Defender" :

Strider GhostBuster detects API-hiding rootkits by doing a "cross-view diff" between "the truth" and "the lie". It's not based on a known-bad signature, and it does not rely on a known-good state. It targets the fundamental weakness of hiding rootkits, and turns the hiding behavior into its own detection mechanism. There are three versions of Strider GhostBusters: ................Tools: SysInternals RootkitRevealer

Strider GhostBuster Rootkit /Microsoft Research» | More Info on MSR Strider» | Strider HoneyMonkey Project»

Links courtesy of Micron @ eXperience Windows»

[yurimxpxman]

MS antispyware = "Defender" in 'XP' now too bwahaaha lol