Microsoft Updates Windows Defender to Remove Lenovo's Superfish Adware

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Windows users who are still relying on the built-in antivirus protection provided by Windows Defender are now completely secure against Lenovo's Superfish adware that was said to be installed on a number of computers manufactured by the Chinese company.

It's been a really tough week for Lenovo as security researchers discovered that a number of devices built by the China-based manufacturer shipped with pre-installed adware that intercepted encrypted traffic to display ads.

The so-called Superfish adware could infect any Windows computer, no matter the browser being used by the customer, to intercept encrypted traffic between the client PC and the server and thus display ads by placing its own security certificate on the target device.

Since the adware existed on a large number of computers that were sold in the past months, the fastest way to clean the infection was for either Lenovo or Microsoft to step in and deliver a tool that could deal with it.

And yes, because Superfish is specifically aimed at Windows users, the Redmond-based tech giant was the one that moved faster, so today an update for Windows Defender that can remove the adware is available via the built-in updating system.
How to get it
The anti-Superfish protection is delivered just like any other virus definition update for Windows Defender via Windows Update, so the only thing that you need to do is check for new updates and install them all.

Once the update comes to an end, you're strongly recommended to scan your entire computer and remove any found infections. A reboot and a second scan could also help, just to make sure that your computer is entirely clean.

Most third-party antivirus solutions have also been updated to clean Superfish, so in case you don't trust Windows Defender, there are plenty of other security tools out there that could lend you a hand.

Security researchers suggest that those who are still afraid that Superfish could get past antivirus protection have a second option as well, as a clean install of Windows would remove any traces of the adware.

Obviously, this process takes more time and requires additional knowledge, so updating Windows Defender and scanning the system should be the preffered choice for most people.

Windows Defender is installed by default as an antispyware solution for Windows Vista and 7, and as an antivirus solution for Windows 8.1. Windows XP users can download Windows Defender manually to be protected against malware
 
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