Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Mary asks about Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
I hope you can help one confused older lady, every month there is a windows malicious removal tool that is in the critical updates. What is it, what does it do and if it is something we can run how does one go about it? It’s there and I hope I am not the only one that is clueless here. Thanks to the two of you for keeping us all out of trouble. Mary

Our Answer
Hi Mary. Thank you so much! Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a malware scanner that sifts through your computer looking for malicious software. Upon finding any malware – it will (supposedly) remove it for you. However, we can’t judge its efficacy because it’s never found anything on our computers – but that means nothing. We are constantly checking our computer for evilware so we are not good testing grounds for this tools. If you had malware on your computer and it wasn’t detected by your security software, perhaps Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool would remove it for you. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is a 14MB download and it’s free – so it wouldn’t cost you anything but a some time to download it, install it and run it manually.

Critical updates updated the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – so when you install it (if you do) the next time Windows Updates are releases the tool will be updated. You can then run the updated tool to check for badware and so forth.

If you’re worried that your computer may be infected it wouldn’t hurt to download Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool and allow it to scan your computer. It took a long time to scan our computers, but that’s probably our fault for having way too much junk, right EB?

Microsoft has this to say (don’t get all excited!):

“The Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom—and helps remove any infection found.

When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malware was detected and removed.”

You can’t beat the price – it’s free. Just be careful when you’re downloading it that you get the right version for your computer. There’s a 64bit version and a 32 bit version. We’re just saying – so you can say we didn’t say. See?

Those using 32bit Windows XP/Vista and Windows 7 can download the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=16

Those of you running 64 Bit Versions of Windows can download the tool from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=9905

We hope you find nothing at all wrong with your computer, Mary.