Anti-Virus Imploration

I beseech all envy... actually all PC users that are using any form of anti-virus application to disregard them, and use that is all holy the Microsoft Security Essential Anti-virus Application instead.

Security Essentials

Not only it is highly regarded as the best anti-virus application by many hit tech sites. lifehacker.com actually posted in five different instances how much they love it! (however ill list 3)

Instance 1, Instance 2, Instance 3

and it's still their favorite!

So its Free, Efficient, and just plain works. Whats stopping you?

P.S- I guess the only snag is you need genuine windows. but seriously who doesn't these days, and if you don't i cant imagine you don't know how to make it genuine *wink*

 

I agree that MSE is probably the best experience I've had with an antivirus program, but doesn't this belong in the Security and Anti-Virus Software forum really?

 

Been using it since day one and have never had any complaints. Always recommend it over all the paid ones.

 

I used plenty of different AV software over the years and none of them are perfect. I've had viri/malware slip through all of them. So MSE is as good as any IMO (and yes, I'm also using it).

 

I think MSE is a great free AV suite that performs the bare minimum protection on most windows installations. However, it's VERY minimal. Most of the other paid for AV suites provide advanced protections that go simply beyond scanning memory and files for viruses and malware.

There is still great value in purchasing AV software *as a consumer* if you are worried about two things:
1. You frequently use your PC on open networks (@starbucks, @airport, etc).
2. You frequently use your PC among multiple users

I personally use Kaspersky on my laptops/desktop, but I install MSE anywhere else where I need a free AV package (such as in VM's).

 

I tend to agree. The weakness, as I see it, is that it has no heuristics; it only searches for specific, known signatures versus tracking behaviors. If you happen to be the first person exposed in the first few hours of an "outbreak" then you'd be SOL with MSE.

Granted, it is these very heuristics/behavior tracking abilities that can make paid protection a bit slower than the simple MSE. However, on an i5 or i7 processor (either generation), you'll only notice that difference with McAfee which is as slow as MSE is fast.

For myself, I go with Norton's Internet Security. I like how it integrates with IE and pre-marks search results as OK (and can even limit the results to OK sites pre-emptively if desired - a changeable setting).

 

I've used both Norton and McAfee in the past.. as well as PCcillan/Trend-Micro. I found Norton to be the heaviest to use on resources followed closely by McAfee (these two seem to swap spots every few years though). I used TrendMicro for awhile and liked it, but customer service couldn't help me renew my subscription at a discount so I switched to Kaspersky and haven't looked back. I get 3 years of protection (ie. av-sig updates) for up to 5 pc's at a cost of $300. Kaspersky has a low memory and cpu footprint, though not as low as MSE; but you get more protection.

 

I had a virus invasion once and MSE was DELETED BY THE VIRUS. Any attempts to reinstall was futile. I resorted to downloading Avast!, and never looked back since.

 

I have like Kaspersky for a couple years now and the new 2012 has a really cool feature:

If someone somewhere in the world is the first to get a new virus/worm/etc and they have Kaspersky, when it detects it, Kaspersky sends the data to the lab who then sends out the new signature immediately across the globe. You don't have to wait for the next database update. Genius.

 

MSE does this as well, albeit slightly different. they call it Dynamic signature service. Protection needs to be up-to-date to be effective. so to get around this, Microsoft Security Essentials pretends to run the malignant app to determine what it’s going to do. This gives programs special signatures that are checked against Microsoft's database of good and bad programs. (Which are updated real time from people who have spynet memberships explained below). And even then Programs are watched even after they are approved to make sure they don’t do anything potentially harmful like make unexpected network connections, modify core parts of the operating system, or download malicious content.

MSE does this as well, its called Microsoft SpyNet. you have 3 tiered memberships.

1st tier is not having a membership, 2nd basic membership, and 3rd advanced. All of which are free and optional.

 

Norton used to slow down the system and have a larger memory footprint than it has in the last 2 major revisions (when I have been using it). McAfee on the other hand remains a resource hog (to my knowledge - last checked last year). In all honesty, I never really even know that Norton is running, except occasionally when it's running one of it's idle time scans (when I first start using the computer and it switches from "Idle" to "In Use."

Norton provides protection for 3 computers in its standard pricing, but I can't remember what that cost is...I think it's $40 or $50 per year.