Microsoft Anti-Virus (MSAV) was a antivirus program introduced by Microsoft into its MS-DOS operating system. The program first appeared in version 6.0 and last appeared in version 6.22, the antivirus program was quite rudimentary and had no update facility and could scan for about 1,000 viruses.

Microsoft later introduced a similar product into its Windows 3.11 range, called Microsoft Anti-Virus for Windows (MWAV). Similar to the MS-DOS version this did not have any update facility. This product became noted as determining that upgrade program of Windows 95 was detected as a computer virus, something which was embarrassing to Microsoft.

Features

The MS-DOS and Windows versions of the antivirus program had some common features, for instance its "Detect and Clean" strategy and could detect 1,234 distinct viruses. Other features included the detection of boot sector and trojan horse type viruses which typified the type of virus problems that occurred at this time. The program also had an anti-stealth and checksum feature that could be used to detect any changes in normal files, this technology was intended to makeup for the unavailablity of regular update packages, only one virus update was introduced since the original releases bringing the total protection to 2,371 viruses in 1996.

Future

The MS-DOS and Windows versions of the anti-virus program were written by Central Point Software Inc., which itself was later acquired by Symantec Corporation in 1994, and were essentially stripped down versions of the Central Point Anti-Virus (CPAV) product which were later integrated into the Symantec Norton AntiVirus product. Later versions of Windows do not have any inbuilt antivirus protection but the arrival of Microsoft AntiSpyware and the acquisition of GeCAD Software , and other specialists in the field by Microsoft, is believed to signal the arrival of a new antivirus product for current or future versions of Microsoft Windows.