Is Windows Malicious Sofware Removal Tool kosher?

It’s running now, but I wonder if it’s as good as a commercial product.

Where did you get it?

If it came from Microsoft as part of a monthly update, or directly from Microsoft it’s legit.

If you got it somewhere else, it may well be bogus. If you get it as part of an update, it generally runs pretty much invisibly and only alerts you to its presence if it finds anything.

If you obtain and run it manually, it will obviously be visible. There’s a recent screen shot of what it looks like at wikipedia.