Damn, a day late and a dollar short!  Sure could have used this last week.  Funny thing is - I actually had Microsoft helping me with the computer and they never mentioned this.  I was shocked that Microsoft would help (for free - no charge) in the first place, and other than not telling me about this tool, the assistance was decent (not excellent, but not bad).

Thanks for the tip. I KNOW I will be getting some use out of both.

I don't know how long that's been there either, Dr Guy. It seems to be a new thing, though. Hadn't seen it mentioned around the net.

I downloaded both. One for mine (64 bit) and the 32 bit for those I know running 32 bit Windows. Now all I need is the media. Hmmm

Not sure I understand. What media? DVD? CD?

Either or. I have two USB sticks but one is full and the other I use for recovery. Had to use it once already but that was before I upgraded to Win 7 Pro.

Programs with detection tools need regular updating, and microsoft are not so committed to this program that they would do that, hence why it is not promoted.

Can't agree, Mystikmind. If that were the case, they wouldn't have gone to the trouble of creating the sweeper to begin with, would they? No, it's about services which can become marketable or a 'one stop shop' type of thing. More logical.

"they wouldn't have gone to the trouble of creating it to begin with" ..... oh yea, wow, how silly of me!! because no one 'ever' goes to all the trouble of creating software and then the priority for its use and or distribution changes afterward.

They might, however, it's more logical to think that the effort to create was made because they intend to develop and continue it.

Sort of a "1/2 empty vs. 1/2 full" situation. I also think competition will make all anti-malwares better. I believe you're entitled to hold your view and I, mine.

i love the glass half full analogy! Whereby a positive assumption is exactly equal to a negative assumption split only by individual perception!

I can admit that i usually prefer to make negative assumptions about Microsoft, well because their Microsoft!!

But really the concept of the glass being half full is useless and the real question is, does it fulfill the purpose which you require or not? For example, if your want to fly a jet across the Atlantic and the jet's fuel tank is half full... but you need 3/4 of a tank to reach the other side,,,, Is it of any benefit to be positive and see the tank as being half full and take off anyway rather than being negative and seeing the tank as being half empty and realize it is insufficient to the task?

Just downloaded the 32 bit version (win XP)  onto a flash drive.   Looking forward to figuring out how it works,,, and having a better safety net with all the malware out there, lurking...

Seriously?

Not to go OT or anything but during my system diagnostic I opened the security event viewer and found several errors. Clicking on them revealed Microsofts Anti-Malware tool, which I didn't even know I had had encountered a problem and failed. Just saying.

You probably should have gotten a message (or maybe did but weren't at the computer?) to research it, I'd suggest doing so at microsoft.com.

Here's a link to look up any error code you might have gotten:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2520970