Datasheet

Windows Defender
Spyware, a form of malware, has become one of the fastest growing external
security threats in recent history, costing individuals and corporations con-
siderable time and money. In its simplest form, spyware gathers Internet
surfing habits and other information of user activity, without the user’s
knowledge, to be sold for marketing and advertising purposes. Outside of
being considered by some as a violation of privacy, gathering this information
consumes valuable CPU and memory resources of your computer, sometimes
bringing your system to a crawl. Users often spend time and money to rid
themselves of these intrusive programs to return their system to a normal
working state.
The Microsoft answer to the spyware threat is Windows Defender (as shown
in Figure 1-2), which is an easy-to-use and effective tool that can detect and
deal with spyware both in real time and by means of on-demand scanning.
Because Windows Defender is native to the Vista OS, you finally have a tool to
deal with this growing problem without the need to purchase expensive third-
party products. Some of the features in Windows Defender offer the following:
 Easy-to-use interface: Windows Defender provides an intuitive interface
that is accessible via Security Center or independently.
 Quick scan: Defender affords you a quick and easy way to perform a
scan of only those areas that most often hold spyware — such as spe-
cific areas of the Windows Registry and the Windows\System32, pro-
gram files, and user directories — rather than scanning your entire
system.
 Full scan: This gives you the ability to scan your complete system at the
click of a button. The tool scans every drive and directory on your system.
 Custom scan: This option provides an interface for the user to cus-
tomize a scan that better fits their needs. With a custom scan, you can
select specific drives and folders that you want to scan.
Figure 1-1:
The User
Account
Control
prompt.
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Chapter 1: Getting Up to Speed on Vista Security
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