Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT)

I am a member of AAA. I believe it is inexpensive smart insurance for my wife and me. In October I had a flat tire on my truck and it took a cell phone call and a 45 minute wait to get my flat tire removed and my spare tire installed and I was ready to go. That one call was financial justification enough for me to renew my membership.

When it comes to our computers, I feel the same way. I don't like paying for software, and rarely do I need to do that. A case in point of affordable insurance is Microsoft's MSRT. The price is right. It's free! Microsoft updates this program every month in an effort to keep its customers' PCs running trouble-free. It is distributed with your Automatic Updates. So why do I write about it here?

The answer is this. I just downloaded all of this Tuesday's updates and noticed that the December version of MSRT was included. However, I do not believe that the MSRT, when downloaded thru Automatic Updates does a full scan. I say this because every month I also download MSRT manually and run a Full Scan, and it takes several hours to run! So I suspect, but am really not sure, that the automatic download and install of MSRT  runs only a Quick Scan.

I like to download the tool monthly and let it run a Full Scan. I start this when I can let it run the full scan, maybe at bedtime or when I am headed out the door for a few hours. To me this is high quality and cheap insurance, and it makes sense to me to do this.

You can click on that image above to enlarge it.

The MSRT can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.aspx. Go to this site and click on "Skip the details and download the tool".