Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper is a standalone antivirus software tool that allows you to create boot media for offline virus and rootkit scans.

I am always thankful for reader tips. In my how-to article where I explained how to install Microsoft Safety Scanner on Windows PE, I got a tip that Microsoft is offering another free standalone antivirus software, Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. The tool is only in beta, but it appears to work well.

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper

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Kaspersky Rescue Disk is an offline antivirus tool that runs on Linux and allows you to repair a Windows installation with Linux tools.

After my review of Microsoft Safety Scanner, readers have recommended to look at Kaspersky Rescue Disk. The offline antivirus tool can be launched from a boot CD or a bootable USB stick.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk – Graphical User Interface

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In this tutorial you will learn how to deploy and configure Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) 2012 with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012.

In Part 1, we installed FEP 2012 on the SCCM 2012 server. Now, it’s time to see what changes have been made to the SCCM environment so that we can deploy and configure the FEP environment.

The FEP installation makes a number of changes and additions to the SCCM console. In no particular order they are:

• Software Library – Packages – FEP Deployment
• Software Library – Packages – FEP Operations
• Software Library – Packages – FEP Policies
• Monitoring – Reporting – Report – Forefront Endpoint Protection (10 new reports)
• Monitoring – FEP Status
• Assets and Compliance – Device Collections – FEP Collections (24 new collections)
• Assets and Compliance – Compliance Settings – Configuration Items (24 new items)
• Assets and Compliance – Compliance Settings – Baselines (8 new baselines)
• Assets and Compliance – FEP Policies

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This short tutorial describes how to use Microsoft Safety Scanner as a free offline antivirus tool with Windows PE 3.0.

A while back, I reviewed Safety Scanner, Microsoft’s free portable antivirus software. My major complaint was that it was not possible to use Safety Scanner as an offline antivirus tool on Windows PE 3.0. Fortunately, a 4sysops reader, mentioned that you only have to increase the scratch space of the Windows PE image to make Safety Scanner run. Note that only the quick scan and full scan features work on Windows PE. Customized scans are not possible because you can’t select folders under Windows PE.

Microsoft Safety Scanner as offline antivirus tool on Windows PE 3.0

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This tutorial describes how to integrate Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) 2012 in System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012.

With the move away from Forefront Client Security to Forefront Endpoint Protection, Microsoft did away with the MOM backend and instead made use of the infrastructure available to System Center Configuration Manager to install, manage and deploy FEP.

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Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free portable antivirus program that can be launched from a USB stick.

The Microsoft Safety Scanner was just released a few days ago. The free portable antivirus tool only comes as a simple EXE file and is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit version. The EXE file contains all the virus signatures.

A portable antivirus program is useful whenever you want to scan a PC that lacks antivirus software. If you don’t have a Microsoft antivirus scan engine installed (Microsoft Security Essentials or Forefront), you can use the Safety Scanner if you need a second opinion.

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You can protect Exchange on seven layers: cloud, perimeter, Edge Transport Server, inner firewall, Hub Transport Server, Mailbox Server, and clients.

The best security solutions are layered ones, taking a defense in depth approach so that there is no single layer between vital information resources and disaster. Nowhere can this be more critical than in protecting your Exchange infrastructure from malware attacks. In this post we will go over the seven key layers you should have in your game plan.

1. Consider a cloud solution as the first line of defense

The right place to stop malware (and spam) is as far away from your systems as possible. Using a solid SaaS solution is a great way to filter out malware and spam before it ever gets to your perimeter. This saves you on bandwidth, CPU cycles, and storage space and can reduce the number of threats crossing your border by an order of magnitude.

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ClamWin is a nice free portable antivirus software. The program is most useful if you have to disinfect a PC where no antivirus tool has been installed or where the protection of the installed AV program failed. If you launch it from a DVD or from a write-protected USB stick, you can be sure that the virus won’t infect ClamWin.

This free portable antivirus tool can also be helpful if you need a “second opinion” about a virus. You probably know that it is usually not a good idea to install two different antivirus programs on the same PC. These tools are often deeply integrated into Windows and don’t like it if a rival patrols in their territory. However, as a standalone application ClamWin doesn’t have to be installed and therefore it is no problem to run it on a PC where another antivirus application is installed.

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Half a year ago, Microsoft announced that they would discontinue Windows Live One Care and instead would offer a free alternative with the code name Morro. Microsoft Security Essentials is the new name and the beta is now available. You can’t download it anymore through Microsoft, but it is still available at Softpedia.

Windows Live One Care

One Care was not really a success. Its market share was only 2%, which is a little embarrassing for a giant like Microsoft. I suppose some security software vendors heaved a sigh of relief when they realized that OneCare was no real competitor for their antivirus tools. I guess the trembling starts again now. It is one thing if small companies such as AVG or Avira offer a free anti-malware tool, but a completely different matter if the Windows maker himself comes out with a free tool. Moreover, the free version will Microsoft help to improve the detection rate of the Forefront products

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I don’t know if you saw that in my article about the GiPo@FileUtilities, some readers noted that Symantec Endpoint triggered an alarm when they installed the tool. AVG Anti-Virus, the AV software I use at the moment, had no complaints though. Thus I was uncertain if this was just a false-positive. Most anti-virus tools use heuristics to detect viruses for which there are no signatures yet available. Many viruses share specific characteristics which can be detected with rules-of-thumb.

One reader uploaded GiPo@FileUtilities to Virustotal to clarify things. I must admit I didn’t know about this useful free service, so perhaps you don’t know about it either. Virustotal uses 38 different malware scan engines to analyze the files you send them. There are many well-known brands among these such as Trend Micro, Symantec, F-Secure, or Sophos.

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Vnunet.com has an interesting article about the latest test results of Virus Bulletin. Major vendors such as Sophos, Trend Micro and Kapersky failed to protect against some of the viruses in their collection. I found it quite interesting that Microsoft, a newcomer in this field, passed their test.

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Microsoft new malware database is online now. Such a virus encyclopedia is quite useful if one of your machines gets infected by a virus and your antivirus software is not able to get it under control. You can then search for technical background information and ways to get rid of the pest. It is advisable not to rely on just one virus database, though.

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Techworld.com has an interesting article about a new test from AV Comparatives. According to this new survey Microsoft OneCare ranks 14th out of 17. Some time ago, I blogged about a report where Microsoft’s scan engine had the poorest detection rate of all tested antivirus tools.

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I wanted to try Forefront Client Security (FSC), Microsoft’s new desktop antivirus software for the enterprise, already for quite some time. Today, I thought I could just have a quick look at it even though I am still busy exploring Windows Server 2008.

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It’s my first day after vacation, and I am somewhat overwhelmed by the number of new releases relevant to my work, even though, I tried to keep myself updated through my RSS feeds. This post is more or less a to-do-list for me. If you are sys admin in a Windows shop, you’re probably in the same situation.

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