Microsoft Readies Antispyware App

Paul Roberts and Joris Evers, IDG News Service

Microsoft is preparing for release to the public of a beta version of antispyware technology it purchased last month, but it will delay promised antispam and antivirus improvements to the Exchange e-mail server, according to information provided by the company.

Microsoft is on target to release a public beta of its antispyware software by January 16, one month after the company acquired the software by purchasing Giant Company Software, a company spokesperson says.

The Redmond, Washington, software maker will release a free evaluation version of Giant AntiSpyware, though a spokesperson declined to identify an exact release date, or to discuss the functionality to be included in the release program.

Microsoft would not comment on information published on Microsoft enthusiast Web site Neowin.net that a beta version of the software, code-named Atlanta, has already been distributed to internal testers. Neowin.net also posted screenshots supposedly taken from a product called Microsoft AntiSpyware.

The company commonly tests products internally first, a process it calls "dogfooding"; but the spokesperson would not say whether the antispyware software had been distributed to employees.

When it purchased Giant, Microsoft said that the beta would run on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems and that the company would use the public beta release to collect and evaluate customer feedback on the product, and to make decisions about future distribution of the antispyware product.

Uncertain Future

The future is cloudier for Exchange Edge Services, an add-on for Exchange Server announced by Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates in February 2004 at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco.

Last month the company axed Edge Services, saying the program will not be released this year as an addition to Exchange, but will instead be rolled into the next version of the Exchange Server product. Microsoft hasn't yet set a release date for that version, but insiders expect a new Exchange Server to emerge in late 2006.

With many customers still upgrading their Exchange e-mail servers to Exchange Server 2003, released in 2003, the change in timing for Edge Services will have little impact on customers, according to Microsoft.

Nevertheless, one analyst says that some customers who bought upgrade rights on Exchange may be upset by Microsoft's move.

"The new [Exchange] road map means there will be no major upgrades for customers who bought upgrade rights on Exchange in late 2001 and early 2002," Rob Helm, director of research at Directions on Microsoft, writes in a research note. Those customers, many of whom signed three-year agreements, will need to sign a new agreement or buy new licenses when the next version of Exchange ships, he writes.

Exchange Edge Services is an intelligent message transfer agent for the edge of a company's network; it offers security, spam filtering, and virus protection. In October, Microsoft back-pedaled on its commitment to deliver Edge Services in 2005, before canceling the addition in December.

Microsoft plans to release some elements of Edge Services with Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2, due in the second half of 2005. But the company says it needs more time to build a product that meets customer requests for such broad capabilities as support for messaging policies to help meet regulatory compliance requirements.