I’m glad that you stumbled across the blog (I believe you’ve been here once before… hopefully you’ll be back many more times)…

Microsoft is different from other AV Vendors in that they provide much more than just AV, however when looking at them as an AV vendor you have to, in my opinion, accept them as “just another AV vendor”… They are new to the field and they have to be expected to make a few mistakes…

As I said, every vendor has had file parsing vulnerabilities… Microsoft’s first one was discovered quickly and maybe it’ll get enough press that it’ll be their last… Then again maybe it won’t…

I’ll have to download WinPatrol and give it a try… I have heard good things but I’ve never used it myself… never saw a need to… The feature that interests me the most is actually the RIDS in WinPatrol Plus, so maybe at some point I’ll fork out the money and do a review of it.

Thank you for reading Bits from Bill. I thought your assessment of my post was fair even if you disagree. While I point to Microsoft security programs I’m just as concerned at the threats from vulnerabilities found in MFC and other components commonly used by other programs.

I do think it’s different for Microsoft than other AV vendors. People choose those programs. Microsoft is the gatekeeper. I’m not a Microsoft basher but I still think it has to be embarrassing.

My intention certainly wasn’t to promote WinPatrol as a replacement for Defender. There are plenty of features still valuable under Vista so rumors of Scotty’s dismiss are premature.
We’ll always have our little cult following and you’ll see that I will continue to add new features which are missing from Windows.

I’m glad I found your Blog. Since you keep it up regularly with good info, I’ve added you to those Blogs I read regularly.

Thanks again,
Bill