Microsoft Getting in the Anti-Virus Game?

Sometime in 1994 Microsoft made it clear Windows 95 would have a built in disk defragmenting utility and undelete (Recycle Bin) functionality.

Everyone was worried that Norton would go out of business as a result. Didn't quite turn out that way - but still the demand for those specific products pretty much evaporated.

Microsoft's version of these tools was pretty minimal - but most users didn't need anything more.

In the last year Microsoft has been going on a rampage. They've started giving away pop-up blocking technology and a firewall with XP SP2.

So far Microsoft has dabbled in anti-spam - but hasn't done much client-side. Microsoft has some spam blocking functionality in Outlook - but it doesn't seem to get widely used (possibly because it sucks). Outlook Express spam filtering is pretty much non-existent.

Microsoft has just rolled out a beta anti-spyware application based on technology purchased from Giant software. Giant used to be a major player in spam eliminators. Now they're planning to introduce some basic anti-virus software. They say its intended to compliment other parties anti-virus applications as opposed to replace them - but it's hard to see how that would work.

Over the last few years computers have increasingly become infested with spyware and viruses, frequently making them unusable. Its refreshing to see Microsoft taking interest in providing badly needed software to help address problems they are at least partially responsible for creating.

Obviously they have profit motive in mind. The question is do they intend to profit via improved user experience with their products, or do they intend to eventually charge for this functionality? Here's hoping for the former.

Oh, and lets hope they don't start giving away decent software for stopping spam e-mail. That would be bad.

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