Microsoft Security Essentials: You Can't Go Wrong

Microsoft Security Essentials

There is no freer, better, more lightweight, more compatible, more effective or more easy to use antivirus software out there. Sure, it may not have the advanced feature set of pay for antivirus, but the protection it provides is more than adequate for home users.

It's the only antivirus I dare to use and the only one I dare to recommend to people on a daily basis. People are surprised when I tell them the best antivirus software is free and from Microsoft. Some people think they have to pay in order to get the most effective protection and that is simply not true!

 

Besides the CPU throttle bug that they still haven't fixed, it's pretty darn good. I find Avast very small with resources, great virus detection, and easy to use as well.

 

Some cons of MSE:

Compressed file (Zip) real time scanning is slow, so extraction of zip files slow down.

MSE creates a restore point every time it updates it's antimalware definitions, there is no option to turn it OFF. This amounts to considerable CPU/ HDD usage.

There are no right click shorcut options from the taskbar icon.

Apart from these cons, MSE is a very good free antivirus software.

 

Essentials is Definitely a great product. Its free meaning no one is going to try to "hack" into free software making it in some areas more secure.

 

I definitely second this thread. Been using MSE for quite some time now and I don't think I'd use anything else at this point.

 

will not the Virus/malware writers be working hard to get around MSE`s protection, that`s why i prefer a less popular anti-virus.

 

Something that a lot of people have said and hence been recommending MSE as a good choice for an anti virus program.

To be honest though, I wonder what you want to tell us in this post - great, you use MSE - so do many others. I don't think you are viewed as a guru (like Steve Jobs) whom a group will immediately follow - your post is as significant as anybody else's post on here...

So sorry, but I do not see the point of it - especially considering you aren't supporting your choice by informative links - e.g. av-comparatives.org
(and even for just casual chit-chat a la off topic but on Security it doesn't work as to me it looks like a "matter of fact" statement and that's it)

 

Have a cia 1999 Toshiba Portege with 333Mhz processor and only 192MB RAM running WinXP Pro and another running WinXP Home.

Of the free virus checkers, it can only run Avast due to memory constrains.

MSE still has a bigger memory foot print than my wee poppies can handle.

With Windows XP and Avast loaded, memory used is around 100MB.

Just something to consider when you're at the extreme end of the Bell curve on memory constrains.

 

Any time MS "gives something away" in their OS or even for free it seems there's some sort of lawsuit, people crying foul that its a monopoly. Whatever.

 

That is why they bundled MSE separately.

 

MSE is okay. Avira free is nice.

 

Yes you can go wrong... MSE does nothing for browser attacks.

I visited my mom for Thanksgiving and despite running the latest MSE, she still got one of those Virus Scanner viruses that took the task manager, messing with the reg, and Avast to clean up.

I am done with MSE.

 

It doesn't matter what AV you run, you are still going to get infected eventually. Been working in virus removal for a really large university for a couple years now, and I've had to explain to hundreds (maybe thousands, at this point) of customers why *INSERT AV SOFTWARE NAME HERE* didn't protect them from getting infected.

There is absolutely no AV solution that is foolproof. I've seen systems come in with up to date McAfee, Norton, MSE, Avira, Avast, AVG, ESET (pirated, usually), Norman, Kapersky, Malwarebytes, PCTools, the list goes on and on.

And if all you did was run Avast, deleted some registry keys, and kill some processes in task manager, I'd give you a 50% chance that the system is still actively infected. There is a reason BestBuy's Geeksquad runs 5+ virus scans on a system submitted for malware removal.

 

I agree 100%. Ever since I installed it, it's been great. You know it's awesome when I completely even forget it's there. That's a good sign. No annoying popups, it updates quietly in the background and does it's job.

 

why is bulgarian the default language?

 

I would not say it is the best, I would have to do a lot of studying of other options before saying that. I will say it is more than adaquate. It works well with the OS and so far I've no issue with it.

My daughter with avast got one of those virus scanner bugs but any AV will eventually get defeated if the user is not smart about it. that is life with a PC and job protection for quite a few techies.

Most casual users rarely ever touch a zip file so compression performance for me is not a reason to defer most from MSE. What I like anout it primarily for most casual users is no re-registration. Yes there are users out there that even when free will not register.............

 

It's just the language the browser puts it at.
Sometimes, it puts it on English by default (varies).
Just change to English and download.

 

MSE is great because it integrates well with Windows.

It keeps freezing up my netbook everytime it tries to update though. It can be very annoying.

 

Netbooks aren't really suitable for cpu intensive programs.
MSE IS light on resources by default, however it WILL bog down less capable cpu's (which is likely the main cause of your freeze)

It's strange that MS didn't take the time to look into this.
The 2.0 version might actually address this problem, or at the very least reduce it somewhat.

Avast isn't really better because every time you download something it can bog down the cpu.


Each AV has it's own sets of flaws to be honest. If it's not one thing, it's something else.

 

Same applies to MSE 2.0 beta

Michael

 

As mentioned earlier, MSE creates a restore point everytime it updates and you cannot disable it. That us probably the cause of the freezing on slow cpu's and netbooks

 

You can go wrong.
I've used this on both PC's which both got same virus. It's a virus that comes from a website that poses as a fake anti virus, however this virus actually is able to bypass and integrate itself into MSE

 

No offense, but if someone is stupid enough to click on a blinking popup advertising a "free av scan" or "you are infected" or whatever nonsense, and then manually bypass/ignore all the security warnings built into browsers and your OS when you open the exe/script/activex, then there is no AV solution that will stop all the potential damage.

Op is right, you can't go wrong with MSE - it is a lightweight, free, officially supported and oft-updated AV solution. At best, it stops infection entirely; at worst, it is a piece of software that failed to do its' job, but cost you nothing.

 

We use Forefront, the enterprise version of this, at my work, and while a few XP machines have been infected (almost always users with admin privileges), overall it has been much better than Symantec at catching fake AVs and other "hijack" types of malware. Symantec wouldn't even detect anything wrong much of the time. Ugh.

MSE does have an issue with not always picking up the infection until some damage has been done, and then it cleans it. Had some users bring me machines that were infected, but MSE had fixed it before I got my hands on it. Not sure if more "professional" AVs do this better...Symantec sure didn't.

 

Massive FACEPALM.
You might need a cyber nanny when you get on the web.

 

Yes you can by switching off restore point

BUT:
In this case you should either have a "plan B" a la Home Server or alternatively be ready to reinstall the OS if something goes awry.

(On that note though - System Restore has never fixed anything for me - if anything, in my experience it broke even more)

 

Anyone run into this where MSE request for an upgrade? I click on upgrade and it says I have the latest version.

It happens when I bring my T60 laptop out of sleep mode.

 

Sorry, no.
Sleep/Standy is fine for me.

 

I'm a bit worried because MSE failed to be qualified in 3rd quarter 2010 at av-test.org: AV-Test.org Tests of Anti-Virus- and Security-Software

The conclusion of PCWorld is also not good:
Pros
Good user interface
Cons
Mediocre malware detection
Slow scan speeds
Bottom Line
Microsoft Security Essentials is easy to use, but it lags behind newer products at detecting malware.
Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 Review - PCWorld

Free vs. Fee: Free and Paid Antivirus Programs Compared - PCWorld
The conclusion is that Avast is the best allrounder and Avira gives the best protection.
Now using Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.3, but they tested only version 1.0

 

May be I'm missing something here: Avast is the top free AV according to PC World but it has only a 2.5 rating for protection from AV-test.org?? Which is true???

I see, Avast in particular, performed pretty badly towards late august / september - is my understanding right?

 

That's exactly the problem.
You don't know what test you can trust...
The main testing organisations test mostly the paid security suites.
AV-test.org and AV-Comparatives.org test sometimes Avast Free in other tests Avast Internet Security. They all test MSE, but none tested Panda Cloud Free.
It is almost impossible to know what is the best free antivirus

 

Well, all said and done, from what I know out of my own experience with MSE and from what I read / see / experience around me and in the web, I think MSE is doing a pretty great job in general, among the top AV suites... (I don't know about these test' though!!!)

 

I mean, I and everyone I've recommended MSE to are satisfied thus far.

 

I agree.
I think the best policy though, is to use safe browsing and computing habits, with a proper browser that automatically blocks things for you until you manually allow them.

At that point, an antivirus is just a backup for a lapse in judgement.

Worst case scenario, reformating from a backed up external is typically a pretty easy thing to do these days, and is oft worth it's weight in the time it takes in relation to future security.

 

AV comparatives can indeed provide relatively good results and they do test Free solutions relatively frequently.

That said, Take that website as a general guideline.
Make sure your resident/active AV is light on resources and has a high detection rate.
The best top 3 free programs would be: Avira, Avast and MSE (going with either won't really make you regret it).

 

A little oftopic...
What do you think of Panda Cloud AV?
Should that one be also in the list with Avira, Avast and MSE?

 

Hello all. First post here. I just received the Fujistu PH520 netbook (for the wife) few days ago, and installed MSE. Uninstalled the Norton trial; no other extra software aside from the what it came with. No mods. I have tried running full scan of the MSE twice and it takes a very long time (over 7 hours and not yet even finished). I use Avast on my other computers with no issues whatsoever. Thanks for the inputs.

 

I have no personal experience with Panda on my own computers, however, I've seen older versions of it slow computers overall responsiveness down.

The newer versions are supposedly better (far lighter on resources) and has a high detection rate.

 

Thanks for your response.
I will keep Panda Cloud AV on my laptop for now.
At this moment it seems light on resources:
2 running processes with the help of The Tech Herald:
Panda releases version 1.3 of Cloud Antivirus - Security
PSUNMain.exe *32 (Panda Cloud Antivirus) using 860 K.
panda2_0dn.exe *32 (Panda Security URL Filtering) using 4640 K.
Time to desktop according to BootRacer 50 seconds.
And after a defrag with Puran and a couple of reboots (Momentus XT) 28 seconds.