Microsoft Anti-Virus

Microsoft Anti-Virus (MSAV) was an antivirus program introduced by Microsoft for its MS-DOS operating system. The program first appeared in MS-DOS version 6.0 and last appeared in version 6.22. The first version of the antivirus program was quite rudimentary, had no update facility (though a single update became available), and could only scan for about 1,000 viruses. Microsoft Anti-Virus for Windows (MWAV), included as part of the package, could be run under Windows 3.x.

Both the MS-DOS and Windows versions of the latest product had common features; the "Detect and Clean" strategy of Microsoft Anti-Virus could scan for and detect 1,234 distinct viruses. Other features included the detection of boot sector and trojan horse-type viruses which was the typical virus problem at the time.

The program also had an anti-stealth and checksum 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. Only one virus update was introduced since the original releases bringing the total protection to 2,371 viruses in 1996.