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This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (August 2008) |
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 A screenshot of Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool |
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| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
| Stable release | 3.2 / 2009-12-08[1] |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Platform | Microsoft Windows |
| Size | 8.7 MiB |
| Available in | English, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish |
| Development status | Active |
| Type | Anti-virus |
| License | Closed source freeware |
| Website | http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/ |
The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool is freely-distributed software developed by Microsoft for its Windows operating system.
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Features
The program is updated on the second Tuesday of every month via Windows Update, at which point it runs once automatically in the background and reports if malicious software is found. It records its results in a log file located at %windir%\debug\mrt.log and then deletes itself from the computer.[2] To run it manually at other times, users can download the tool from Microsoft and start "mrt.exe" from the command interface, by going to the system32 folder, or by using the Run command in the Start Menu.
As released, the tool is configured to report anonymized data about infections to Microsoft if any are detected.[3] The reporting behavior is disclosed in the tool's EULA, and can be disabled if desired.[4]
History
The software was originally released by Microsoft in January 2005 as a basic virus removal tool.[5] The company claims that the software does not directly compete with established anti-virus programs such as Norton AntiVirus and McAfee Antivirus, but provides basic antivirus security to as many users as possible.
In a June 2006 Microsoft report,[6] the company claimed that the tool had removed 16 million instances of malicious software from 5.7 million of 270 million total unique Windows computers since its release in January 2005. The report also stated that, on average, the tool removes malicious software from 1 in every 311 computers on which it runs. As of May 19, 2009 Microsoft claims that the software has cleaned 859,842 machines from password stealer threats.[7]
Controversy
The main objection heard from security researchers is that this malware should not be allowed on a secure operating system in the first place. And that subsequently the tool only partially cleans a small percentage of the computers the Microsoft operating system let be infected.
References
- ^ Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool download
- ^ Using Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool
- ^ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890830. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
- ^ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891716. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
- ^ John Savill (2005). "Windows IT Pro - "What's the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool?"". http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/45410/45410.html. Retrieved 2006-07-05.
- ^ "The Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool: Progress Made, Trends Observed". Microsoft. 2006. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=67998. Retrieved 2006-07-05.
- ^ "Microsoft cleans password stealer tools from 859,842 PCs". Ars Technica. 2009. http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/05/microsoft-cleans-password-stealer-tools-from-859842-pcs.ars. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
External links
- Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
- Microsoft knowledge base article
- What you don't know about the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
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