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Microsoft takes on net nasties
Australian IT ^ | JUNE 06, 2006 | David Frith

Posted on 06/06/2006 8:06:21 AM PDT by Salo

Microsoft takes on net nasties

MICROSOFT executives love telling stories against each other. Here's one that platforms vice-president Jim Allchin told at a recent Windows Vista reviewers conference about chief executive Steve Ballmer.

It seems Steve was at a friend's wedding reception when the bride's father complained that his PC had slowed to a crawl and would Steve mind taking a look.

Allchin says Ballmer, the world's 13th wealthiest man with a fortune of about $18 billion, spent almost two days trying to rid the PC of worms, viruses, spyware, malware and severe fragmentation without success.

He lumped the thing back to Microsoft's headquarters and turned it over to a team of top engineers, who spent several days on the machine, finding it infected with more than 100 pieces of malware, some of which were nearly impossible to eradicate.

Among the problems was a program that automatically disabled any antivirus software.

"This really opened our eyes to what goes on in the real world," Allchin told the audience.

If the man at the top and a team of Microsoft's best engineers faced defeat, what chance do ordinary punters have of keeping their Windows PCs virus-free?

Ballmer and Allchin didn't get to be such wealthy executives by ignoring a business opportunity, so last week, Microsoft launched Windows Live OneCare.

In doing so it seems to have begun a new battle in the PC security war because antivirus software vendors Symantec and McAfee have announced new products to challenge OneCare.

Described as an "all-in-one, automatic and self-updating PC care service designed to help consumers more easily protect and maintain their PCs", OneCare is at present available only in the US, where users will pay an annual fee of $US50 ($66).

DoubleClick thinks Microsoft has a hide to charge customers $66 a year to fix problems in its operating software that shouldn't be there in the first place, but no doubt many will pay up if it means an easy way of dealing with the increasing flood of viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware and other computing nasties.

There is no news yet of a OneCare release date in Australia or anywhere else outside North America, but you can safely bet it will be here soon.

Microsoft does offer a free online virus scanning and tune-up service that Australians can access online, although its features are not as comprehensive as those of OneCare. Called Windows Live Safety Centre, it is at http://safety.live.com.

Rivals Symantec and McAfee, which face losing big chunks of their multibillion-dollar businesses to Microsoft, aren't taking all this lying down.

Both have promised an Australian release of the rival all-in-one security products they are rushing to market.

Symantec has announced Norton 360, a consumer PC security service that will include online identity theft protection, backup and PC tune-up capabilities, and automatic updates.

It will work with Windows XP and the coming Windows Vista.

The full international release of Norton 360 is expected towards the end of the year, but Symantec is inviting would-be users to sign up for a beta version, expected in the next few months.

You can sign up at www.symantec.com/norton360 betaprereg

McAfee is calling its OneCare killer Falcon and has predicted a release date sometime between June 21 and September 23.

It is expected to contain antivirus, anti-phishing, spyware and root-kit detection features, along with automated backups and network security.

How well Symantec/Norton and McAfee will be able to compete with the Microsoft remains to be seen.

As commentators are pointing out, Microsoft has a huge captive audience to whom it can promote the new service: the many millions who download its regular security updates.

On the other hand, Symantec and McAfee can play on the distrust that many disgruntled users feel for Microsoft and maybe undercut the $66 fee. The war has just begun.

As a footnote, Symantec has just issued an automated back-up and recovery program for consumers.

Norton Save and Restore is said to make it very easy for home PC users to preserve photos, music files, financial information and other digital data.

It sells for $99.95 and until June 20 can be bought only at Dick Smith Electronics stores. From that date it will be more widely available.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: microsoft; spyware
It took MS this long to see the problem?
1 posted on 06/06/2006 8:06:23 AM PDT by Salo
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To: ShadowAce; N3WBI3; Ernest_at_the_Beach; TechJunkYard; adam_az

Pings.


2 posted on 06/06/2006 8:07:01 AM PDT by Salo
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To: Salo

Bush 2000 has another career.


3 posted on 06/06/2006 8:08:10 AM PDT by IncPen (The Liberal's Reward is Self-Disgust)
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To: Salo

I would have expected Ballmer to call the afflicted computer a p*ssy and throw a f***in' chair at it.


4 posted on 06/06/2006 8:08:29 AM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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To: Salo
"This really opened our eyes to what goes on in the real world," Allchin told the audience.

So all those effin' screams and emails and calls and articles and stories in the various media never piqued your interest before?

5 posted on 06/06/2006 8:11:01 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll. 17,400+ snide replies and counting!)
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To: Salo

....so now they want to charge us all an annual fee to try to deal with problems that Windows shouldn't have in the first place!! I hadn't been one of the Microsoft-haters before (just don't devote any thought to them), but I might start now!! They should be addressing these problems as basic product support, not as an opportunity to screw us over again. I recently had a really bad infestation that took an expert quite an effort to clean up - it would block any changes to the registry aimed at getting rid of the sucker, but fortunately there was a script available at some techie website that finally did the trick.


6 posted on 06/06/2006 8:12:46 AM PDT by Enchante (General Hayden: I've Never Taken a Domestic Flight That Landed in Waziristan!)
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To: Salo

Everybody likes to bash Microsoft, but you wouldn't leave your doors and windows wide open and invite any stranger to come into your house and hang out forever.


7 posted on 06/06/2006 8:14:18 AM PDT by D-Chivas
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To: D-Chivas

No, you wouldn't, but you would expect the home-builder to have installed doors with locks and windows that lock form the inside, not charge you extra for retrofitting your house with the, or (a better analogy still), steadfastly refuse to put decent locks and doors on your house, then charge you a monthly fee for a fancy burglar alarm system.

Sorry, but MS's cavalier attitude toward security deserves 'bashing'.


8 posted on 06/06/2006 8:19:32 AM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: rdb3; chance33_98; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Bush2000; PenguinWry; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; ...

9 posted on 06/06/2006 8:21:02 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Enchante

Most unsolvable problems can be solved by running virus and antispyware programs from safe mode.


10 posted on 06/06/2006 8:33:35 AM PDT by js1138 (Well I say there are some things we don't want to know! Important things!")
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To: js1138

We did that, it didn't help with this one.


11 posted on 06/06/2006 8:35:54 AM PDT by Enchante (General Hayden: I've Never Taken a Domestic Flight That Landed in Waziristan!)
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To: js1138
Most "unsolvable" problems can be prevented by running an appropriate firewall in the first place.

Call me a cynic, but I think Microsoft believes many of their customers are suckers, and I'm starting to agree with them. If people can't be bothered to download free antivirus programs or even turn on the built-in XP firewall, but yet complain that they then get infected, why shouldn't MS try to cash in on them to the tune of $50/year?

The smart folks are gonna use the free solutions...but then the smart folks aren't infected in the first place.

12 posted on 06/06/2006 8:45:05 AM PDT by Turbopilot (Nothing in the above post is or should be construed as legal research, analysis, or advice.)
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To: Turbopilot
Nor will they be using MS products when the alternatives will suffice.

The smart folks are gonna use the free solutions...but then the smart folks aren't infected in the first place.

13 posted on 06/06/2006 9:36:17 AM PDT by Salo
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To: Turbopilot; Enchante

I've never had virus or spyware on any machine that had preventive software installed, but I clean up computers for other people and companies.

On machines where kids have installed all kinds of spyware, I find doing a Windows repair/reinstall almost always works. This replaces all the windows programs, but keeps other programs installed.

If this doesn't work, doing a complete reinstall will work. It doesn't require reformatting, so it leaves all your data files intact, but it does uninstall all third party programs. These can be reinstalled from the original disks. In any case, this does not require a couple of days, and most of this can be done unattended.


14 posted on 06/06/2006 11:06:06 AM PDT by js1138 (Well I say there are some things we don't want to know! Important things!")
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To: Turbopilot

This reminds me of a Far Side cartoon showing a brick, with a note attached to it, that had been thrown through a window. The note said, "Window broken? Call ACME Window Repair."


15 posted on 06/06/2006 11:13:01 AM PDT by dfwgator (Florida Gators - 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions)
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To: Salo
"Windows Live Safety Center Safety Center Beta Windows Live Safety Center is currently experiencing technical difficulties Sorry, the web page you requested is not available. We apologize for this temporary outage. Please try again later. Windows Live Safety Center home page"

Heh heh heh...hacked?

16 posted on 06/06/2006 8:56:03 PM PDT by Khurkris (Don't blame me. I never answer the phone.)
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