Engineering: Spurning the MSRT

Each month I'm offered Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool as part of Windows' updates. Does it provide anything that my Zone Alarm security suite (including weekly scans) doesn't already give me?Chris Wilson

JS: The Malicious Software Removal Tool does much less than other products, including Zone Alarm, and it offers no protection against viruses. However, it does no harm to run it. MSRT removes some common bits of malware, which helps people who have no other form of antivirus protection. It also scans your PC's memory to see if any malware is running, and stops it. Finally, while Windows Update never installs MSRT on your PC, you can download and run it separately if you want to scan your hard drives. This can be useful if you think your anti-malware suite might have missed something. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 890830 for more details.

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