Windows 7 (and Vista) have done pretty well in protecting people’s computers against viruses, malware and spyware. A lot of this is because of Windows Defender, Microsoft’s own tool to scan and remove threats. They have created a beta program for a new “offline” version of the tool, which will run via disk or usb stick. Worth a shot if you’re trying to solve these issues.

It’s currently in beta, so expect some problems and bugs while they continue to refine the software.

A friend was offered to pay for antivirus software on her new computer and I wondered why when there are plenty of good products available for free. This week, Microsoft unveiled their own tool, called Microsoft Security Essentials. I’ve replaced my copy of FreeAV with it to test it out for a while. So far, it works quite well but has about 50 MB memory footprint. Still, I’ve decided to keep it.