Microsoft Security Essentials

[rktpro]

My friend got a new lappy and he installed MSSE in his system. Another friend of mine told me that MSSE is not too good for our new computers.

Ideas?

[StringJunky]

MSE is as good as any other AV on on the whole. All AV's have their particular strengths and weaknesses. It's best used in combo with other antimalware but not another AV which can cause conflicts. A good setup that I use (all free) is MSE, Spywareblaster (passive and sets killbits), Trusteer Rapport (anti-keylogger,anti-screenlogger...major UK banks use it), Superantispyware (on-demand scanner), Malwarebytes (on-demand scanner), Windows 7 Firewall (Default). Last and very important if this all goes awry including catastrophic software failure is Macrium Reflect Free, or the like, which is for imaging system copies to another partition or external hard drive...recovery only takes me 20 minutes using this and saves me wasting time trying to fix things. If a system gets infected it will never really be the same again so a reinstall or, much preferably time-wise, complete image restores are the only really good options,

 

McCafe SiteAdvisor or WOT website checkers are also good browser addons to have to help warn you against clicking on dodgy links in the first place.

Edited May 30, 2011 by StringJunky

[rktpro]

@StringJunky

Doesn't it slow down your computer ?

[StringJunky]

@StringJunky

Doesn't it slow down your computer ?

 

MSE uses about 37MB in the background and you can set how much % of CPU it takes up for scanning. As long as a W7 or Vista machine has 2GB minimum RAM it should run fine. AVG is a notably heavy user of resources and can cause quite a few problems apart from not being as good as it was compared to others. In the free ones I would try Avast, Avira and MSE to see which suits best.

 

I think MSE is the best thing MS ever made...it's small, fast, gets the job done and doesn't annoy with ads or unecessary notifications.

 

N.B. You can check resource use yourself if you install it by right-clicking on the Task Bar > Start Task Manager > Processes > Look for 'MsMpEng.exe'.

Edited May 31, 2011 by StringJunky

[rktpro]

I agree. Avast is a mess. It slows down the PC a lot.

[StringJunky]

I agree. Avast is a mess. It slows down the PC a lot.

 

And it has a very annoying voice notification after it has updated. I haven't tried Avira yet so can't comment.

[TonyMcC]

My ISP (TalkTalk) has recently introduced computer protection called Homesafe. It attempts to block viruses before they get to your computer. They still advise you run your own AV as well. Because the software is not held on your computer there cannot be a conflict problem. I have often wondered why ISPs didn't provide something like this because if perfected we would not need AV programs.

 

Edit-

[StringJunky]

My ISP (TalkTalk) has recently introduced computer protection called Homesafe. It attempts to block viruses before they get to your computer. They still advise you run your own AV as well. Because the software is not held on your computer there cannot be a conflict problem. I have often wondered why ISPs didn't provide something like this because if perfected we would not need AV programs.

 

Edit-

 

That's a good idea but it also means they are directly scanning all your data transfers which might possibly slow things down your end when lines are being heavily used...it probably wasn't feasible before due to the maximum bandwidth limits available previously.

 

MS has just brought out an offline malware scanner that can be booted from a usb stick or cd when your PC is locked out or too messed up to use by malware...it's in beta so it might have a few glitches at the moment.

 

http://connect.microsoft.com/systemsweeper

 

For those that don't know, an offline scanner is it's own mini operating system/antimalware on a disk or stick that does its work on an inactive operating system so malware can't stop its operation.

Edited June 1, 2011 by StringJunky

[rktpro]

And it has a very annoying voice notification after it has updated. I haven't tried Avira yet so can't comment.

 

I used it for a month. It was nice as compared to AVG. It made the PC slow a little bit.

[khaled]

Speaking about AVs, I use Avira Home Edition

[aazaya]

In a sense, it's not an all-in-one solution like the others. True, it has anti-virus and anti-spyware but where it differs is that it's not trying to shovel in all sorts of other features that a) you don't need and b) often only serve to destabilize your computer. Microsoft Security Essentials isn't trying to compete against other products long feature list - and as a result it wins.

It is the world 2nd popular antivirus program and its free.we don't even need the update it, it updates when windows update so turn on Windows Automatic Update and turn on the Windows Firewall when you travel.I have been using it and it hasn't caused any problem in my computer like other antivirus program has done.I have 512 MB ram it hasn't cause any problem in my system and i don't think it slows down computer It haven't slowed down mine.I have used many other antivirus programs like Avira ,AVG ,Kaspersky etc. Microsoft security essential is best for my system. I recommended it to you you should try it. Besides Microsoft Security Essentials might not be the right solution for everyone.No single product is. Hope this helps

Edited March 2, 2012 by aazaya

[Arun Nayak]

 

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home or small business PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.it works as a good antiviruse..but u have to install in the windows genuine version..

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend got a new lappy and he installed MSSE in his system. Another friend of mine told me that MSSE is not too good for our new computers.

Ideas?

[PaulS1950]

It works fine on my 64 bit win7 system.

 

Paul

[Juliana Pasteur]

I haven't been disappointed by Microsoft's Security Essentials software; it is a solid product that is compatible, reliable and easy to install and use. I do suggest it to anyone that has purchased Windows and seeks for a "free" anti-virus.

[ralfy]

You can check results of tests by visiting sites like AV-Comparatives.