Well, I can't fault them much in this case, and releasing their own tool is a step in the right direction. Anti virus vendors are being very slow at adding spyware features to their products, leaving consumers in the cold.

And even if Microsoft did magicially fix every hole in Windows/Office tomorrow, it still wouldn't remove the spyware. In fact, many holes were closed in Service Pack 2 for XP, but so many people are refusing to upgrade to it. As best I can tell, 90% of the complaints against SP2 come from spyware infested machines, and the SP2 installer blows up when trying to patch holes that were exploited.

While Microsoft isn't my most favorite company in the world, I'm not going to bash them for their attempts at doing things right.