Spying on the spies

Better belated than never, but Microsoft's making a credible attempt to root out noxious spyware, which infects a significant proportion of home PCs running Windows, usually without the owner's knowledge.

MS bought anti-spyware firm Giant in December and now just weeks later it's released a spyware fighter of its own - just rebadged, of course. Officially, it's in beta (lots of typos, possibly a bit rough round the edges) but it does the job of turning your PC from a roach motel to a much more secure citadel.

Greatly annoying, however, is Microsoft's insistence that it first check you're using a legal copy of Windows. It's an unnecessary series of hoops to jump through.

The software is free - for now - but doesn't come up to the gold standard of other veterans such as Spybot (also gratis) yet it's heartwarming to see MS is taking some responsibility for the mess it created with the spyware magnet Internet Explorer.

Let's hope Mr Gates takes security more seriously for the next version of IE/Windows - due next year.