Microsoft's December purchase of Giant, a small U.S. publisher of spyware detection software, put Microsoft in a position to offer an antispyware application of its own. Spyware is software that can, among other things, inundate users with unwanted pop-ups and surreptitiously monitor a computer's activity.

The technology enthusiast Web site Neowin.net has just published the first screenshots of the beta version, putting a release date of Thursday on the beta.