Microsoft Launches a Free Anti-Virus called "Security Essentials"

[froggyboy604]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wd8konsUPk

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

Available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

successor to Live OneCare

Reviews have generally been very favorable. MSE has been praised for its good detection rates, infrequent false positives, scanning performance, and minimal resource utilization.


Source::Download Squad

I'm not sure I want to try out an Anti-Virus made by MS yet since I did not really like Windows Defender. I guest this will give AVG, Avast, Avira, and other free AV some competition. I been pretty happy with Avast Anti-virus, so I probably would not change unless Windows Security Essentials have better support and detection

 

[Yoshi]

Honestly, and this is coming from a person who uses Linux, Microsoft is not bad. I can't say it's perfect, but no OS is perfect. Yes, Windows Defender suck(s/ed). But they seem to be learning something about what they need to do to keep people interested in Microsoft. They are realizing that people are more tech savvy than people five to ten years ago. That they are not the only firm company for an Operating System. I mean my school runs Linux on some of the computers. So I must say, congratulations Microsoft on finally taking your head out of your ass.

 

[froggyboy604]

I'm using MS "Security Essentails" on my laptop. It works pretty well.

My short review
The installer is only 4.28MB in size for Security Essentials, and installs fast without the need for a PC restart. Updating to the latest virus and spyware definition is quick. I don't like how SE does not scan removable drives by default, but it is easy to setup SE to scan removable drives in advance settings. Quick scan seems pretty quick as well. Full scan took over 2 hours to scan my whole computer. My computer scaqn result is Virus, and spyware free. "Clean"

It does not slow down my laptop much.

 

[Spiritwarrior]

I have Windows OneCare installed on a desktop machine, and since I've renewed its subscription to a free six months period, I won't have to make a changeover to Security Essentials until March 2010.

I have to give enormous credit to Microsoft for making the free antivirus software possible. Sadly Windows Defender on Vista sucked, and didn't detect much of anything. (not the one for XP), so I would recommend this to those who rather save money and download an antivirus software from a company they always rely on.

 

[froggyboy604]

QUOTE (Spiritwarrior @ October 01, 2009 04:38 am) I have Windows OneCare installed on a desktop machine, and since I've renewed its subscription to a free six months period, I won't have to make a changeover to Security Essentials until March 2010.

I have to give enormous credit to Microsoft for making the free antivirus software possible. Sadly Windows Defender on Vista sucked, and didn't detect much of anything. (not the one for XP), so I would recommend this to those who rather save money and download an antivirus software from a company they always rely on.
I agree, This is a good antivirus for people who want a simple to use anti-virus and spyware protection without downloading 2 seperate programs. It does not have as many "bells and whistles" as Avast, Symantec, Kaspersky, nod32 and other anti-virus programs, but should protect a home computer pretty well. It is simple to use and has a lot of customizations for more advance users.

I don't like how the default auto-quick scan is set to sunday at 2 AM since not many people who don't leave their computer on 24/7 will leave it on at 2AM on sunday morning, ut it is easy to change it to a more convenient time, or just disable auto-scans and do scans manually.

I hope they bundle this product with Windows 7 or make it availale via Windows Update.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

so which is better? AVG (I think this is the best free antivirus) or SE?

 

[froggyboy604]

I think Avast is best since I been using it for more then a year and I been virus free now. But, SE is easier to use.