The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is designed to remove prevalent malware from your computer if it is running one of the following variants of the Windows Operating System: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, Windows XP, or Windows 2000. The tool is updated once a month by Microsoft and is free to use. Some computer users have gotten confused and think that the Malicious Software Removal Tool can take the place of a anti-virus program – they are mistaken! This tool is great at detecting and removing malware that is already on your computer and active…if it is on the list of prevalent malware that Microsoft maintains. If it is not, or not active, then the tool will miss the infection and you can still be at risk. The tool is helpful, however, and it is better to only run this tool instead of running no anti-virus or malware detector! Microsoft also consciously designed this anti-malware tool to not remove Spyware and have moved that capability to anti-virus program, Windows Defender.
Downloading and Using the Microsoft Malware Removal Tool
The tool will work on Windows XP/Vista, and Windows Server 2000/2003/2008. If you have a different variant of the Windows Operating System it will not work. The tool can be manually downloaded or you can turn automatic updates on for Windows which will update the tool automatically every month. The tool will run as a background process on your computer. If it detects malware running on the computer, it will display a notification icon for you to read and ask to conduct a full malware scan of the computer. The scan will then prompt you to remove the malware from the files and computer. Similar to other anti-virus programs that “clean” files, you can experience some data loss when the tool removes the malware from infected files on the computer. Some files may also be impossible to restore to their original condition, but this is no different than other anti-virus or malware removal tools that you may have used.
Malware Infection Reports
If you do use the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool it will send information back to Microsoft in the event there is malware detected or the program has an error. No personally identifying information is sent back to Microsoft, and you do agree to this communication in the EULA when downloading the tool.
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