Over the last few months we have been working hard on creating the next version of the Microsoft anti-spyware technology. Today, we are announcing the new name for this technology… Microsoft Windows Defender. Does this mean a lot is changing?? Well... YES – and all for the better!! As part of our development process, we have been lurking in the newsgroups, listening and talking to customers to hear how we can make this release better.
 
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. 
 
New Signature Update Mechanism.
That’s great and all, but what about some technical info about Windows Defender? Well I have something for you folks as well…Instead of writing our own update engine for this technology, we have teamed up with Windows Update to deliver signatures to you through Automatic Updates. This is an excellent way of us utilizing an existing Microsoft technology to deliver spyware signature updates to you –neat!
 
There are many more cool items coming soon which I will blog about later. In the meantime, look for more announcements here and on the antimalware team blog (http://blogs.technet.com/antimalware).
 
-steve