 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "MSAV" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
.png) Microsoft Anti-Virus | |
| Developer(s) | Central Point Software |
|---|---|
| Initial release | March 30, 1993; 31 years ago (1993-03-30) |
| Operating system | DOS,Windows 3.1x |
| Platform | IA-32 |
| Size | MSAV.EXE:236 KB VSAFE.COM:62 KB Virus Definitions:60 KB |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Antivirus software |
| License | Proprietary |
Microsoft Anti-Virus (MSAV) is anantivirus program introduced byMicrosoft for itsMS-DOSoperating system.[1] The program first appeared in MS-DOS version 6.0 (1993[2])and last appeared in MS-DOS 6.22. The first version of the antivirus program was basic, had no inbuilt update facility (updates had to be obtained from a BBS and manually installed by the user) and could scan for 1,234 different viruses.[3]Microsoft Anti-Virus for Windows (MWAV), included as part of the package, was a front end that allowed MSAV to run properly onWindows 3.1x.
In 2009, Microsoft launched an in-house antivirus solution namedMicrosoft Security Essentials, which later was phased out in favor ofMicrosoft Defender.
Microsoft Anti-Virus was supplied byCentral Point Software Inc. (later acquired bySymantec in 1994 and integrated into Symantec'sNorton AntiVirus product) and was a stripped-down version of the Central Point Anti-Virus (CPAV) product which Central Point Software Inc., had licensed fromCarmel Software Engineering in Haifa, Israel. Carmel Software sold the product asTurbo Anti-Virus both domestically and abroad.
Microsoft Anti-Virus for Windows was also provided by Central Point Software.[4]
MSAV featured the "Detect and Clean" strategy and the detection ofboot sector andTrojan horse-type viruses (which were typical virus problems at that time).
The program also had an anti-stealth andcheck sum feature that could be used to detect any changes in normal files. This technology was intended to make up for the unavailability of regular update packages. The final update of MSAV was released in June 1996 by Symantec.[5] The update added the ability to detect polymorphic viruses and the virus definitions were updated to scan for a total of 2,371 viruses.
VSafe is aterminate and stay resident component of MSAV that provided real-time virus protection.
By default, VSafe does the following:
There are more features that can be enabled, VSafe can:
VSafe had a number of virus definitions embedded within its executable and was capable of loading additional signatures (updates) from an external definition file.