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