Anti-virus built in to XP SP2?

As Dana pointed out, this is an interesting article about Microsoft adding a built-in virus scanner to Windows XP SP2. I’m torn, obviously. On one hand, for all those home users who never seem to be able to use AV properly, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing. Although many still won’t remember to update it, is it going to be automatically self-updating? If so, is that necessarily a good thing? I can see arguments either way. On the other, is it going to be like the firewall or zip utility that’s built in to XP now, where they aren’t as good as other products on the market? And is that going to force out the better products?

I also need more information on these incompatibilities with SP2 and other AV products. There’s no way the built-in virus scanner could replace all the functionality I get from Symantec Corporate Edition, but if Symantec won’t even work with SP2, I’m not going to be installing the service pack to begin with until that’s fixed. I get the feeling this is going to bear keeping a close eye on over the next few weeks and months.

Update: Some more links Re: SP2 details.

Similar Posts

  • Tech stuff

    Microsoft music, movie player collects log of users’ entertainment when will these companies learn that we don’t trust them enough to just sit by and let them track us. I don’t have WiMP here at work, and don’t have 8.0 at home either come to think of it, anyone know what file you need to…

  • Well Ok then

    I just noticed, that last post actually did go out to the mail list, so maybe that’s working again, although no one at Blogger seems to have even acknowledged that there was a problem. *shrug* Whatever… But then again, maybe it’s not working… Follow these topics: Uncategorized

  • Election fatigue

    You may, or may not, have noticed that I haven’t really said anything about any interesting work projects lately. In fact, I’ve barely talked about my job at all. Fact of the matter is, I do work for a political/lobbying organization and this is election season! Granted, we’re involved in state-level politics and not the…

  • Finds

    So last night, after trying to get some html files into a readable format for my PocketPC (A plus study notes mostly.) I had a thought. “What if I could just take the text of the files and make a quick and dirty Microsoft Reader file out of it?” That would solve the difficulty I…

  • Job search spam

    Andy’s post today reminded me of a similar experience I had. I submitted a resume in response to an ad on a nationwide job board. Actually a reputable one at that, but obviously they don’t control everyone who posts jobs there. Within minutes of sending the resume in response I got an email, letting me…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Your post must include a link to this post.

How does this work?
Write a response on your own website and include a link to this post. Then submit your response’s URL here. Your response may appear here after moderation. To update or remove it, edit or delete your original post and submit the same URL again. Learn more about Webmentions.