If you have Microsoft Antispyware loaded on your machine, you’ll notice that a new version got pushed out today, as evidenced by the little box in the bottom-right corner of your screen nagging you to download and upgrade to the latest and greatest. This is another beta release — sorry, not the real thing yet. However, you may be excited to know that Microsoft has extended the Beta period through the end of 2005, which means that you have at least another half year of free spyware protection coming your way, complements of the big guys at Redmond.

There’s not much new to report in the latest version. Spyware is far too complicated for mere mortals, so don’t even try to understand Microsoft’s list of “enahncements.” Just rest assured that it’s pretty much the best spyware protection out there, and leave it at that. So go ahead… download and install. If you don’t get the notice, you can always go to http://download.microsoft.com and grab it from there. At the time of writing this, it’s #2 on the list of popular downloads. I bet it will be #1 by tomorrow!