Saving your computer from Virus for FREE

j0442058For years, you have relied on ratings of various FREE anti-virus software to choose the one you want for your home PC. the choice has been mostly between AVG or Avira. If you were me, you would believe that one should pay for minimum 2 softwares on your PC:

  1. Your Operating System i.e. Windows
  2. Your Anti-Virus i.e. Norton/ McAfee

Now, Microsoft wants you to keep your computer safe for you. After including a world class firewall since Windows XP, Microsoft has now made available a FREE antivirus for your PC. This antivirus is called Microsoft Security Essentials. The antivirus is available as a FREE download from the link above. It is 4.28 MB of download for Win Vista/ Win 7.

image Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for home PC and counters viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. The software runs in the background and silently monitors the files for all the malware. It schedules scans when the PC is most likely idle and interrupts the user only when there is an action required to keep their PC secure. The software updates itself automatically with the latest definitions without any user intervention. Many of the antivirus behaviours are configurable via the “Settings” tab including scheduled scans, turning real time protections on/ off, excluded file/ file types and many more. MSE is backed up by a series of web services, including telemetry data through the SpyNet service, Microsoft Update, and a separate signature update service.

The antivirus uses the same technology as the Forefront product family (meant for enterprise use). It employs practices like active memory swapping and CPU throttling to limit the impact on your PC performance, even on older or less powerful PCs. On my Windows 7 PC, the process (msseces.exe) takes zero CPU and 1.2 Mb RAM (small, fast and light).

You can install Security Essentials on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 (both x86 and x64 machines). The minimum requirement for the PC though is 1 GB RAM. It does though require a “Genuine” PC check when you install the same. If you have any questions on installation or usage, a support forum is also available to post your queries. In case you discover viruses, spyware, Trojans, worms or other malicious software that were undetected by Microsoft Security Essentials you can send these files to Malware protection Center for analysis.

So take the guesswork out and install the MS Security Essentials TODAY!

P.S.: If you were running a BETA of the product earlier, please make sure that you update the same to the release build. The build no. is (1.0.1611.0) for the released product.

Comments

Blah said…
What's the percentage of false positives with the new public version? I have a 3rd party PDF that has compiled all the available AV vendors software, their detection rates, system overheads, %age of false positives / false negatives, system footprint, number of scan engines and so on.
In all the criteria and the benchmark taken, Microsoft's software stands out as numero uno with a very very low %age of False Positives.
For the second place vie Symantec and Trend while Macafee trails third.
vasudev said…
Tests conducted by AV-Test GmbH on MSE beta earlier-
*It was put up against nearly 3,200 common viruses, bot, Trojans and worms- All files were properly detected and treated.
Several other [antivirus] scanners are still not able to detect and kill all of these critters yet

*AV-Test also measured Security Essentials against a set of in-house false positives to see whether the software mistakenly fingers legitimate files, a nightmare for users, who can be left with a crippled computer, and a disaster to the reputation of a security company.
"None of the clean files were flagged as being malicious.

*AV-Test also examined the program's anti-rootkit skills and its ability to scrub a system of malware it finds with a limited number of samples and "found no reasons to complain,"

Read the full article here: http://bit.ly/ZiVDn
Blah said…
I know that mate. I work on AV software and used to work for Symantec before, hence the reason I'm asking for the %age of False potitives. This info HAS to be publicly available in figures like all other AQV vendors do: Symantec says 12-14% FP/FN, Same for Trend and Macafee, etc.
I'm more interested in the numbers per se.
Harrison said…
If this really works then worth it.However most of the computers have pirated windows on them and that is the biggest hurdle in getting this antivirus program on the forefront.People don't want to pay,not even for the windows platform,this is the trend.
Custom papers said…
I tried using free anti virus.. It's ok at first,but at the later part I'm starting have problems with virus..
Prashant said…
I have avg on my vista powered laptop but and it works fine but i have heard numerous complaits of AVG crashing the system on install on XP and others, is it really that reliable?
We need to have update our systems on monthly basis to avoid such dangerous virus attacks on the systems.
Sweet Antivirus. Friendly for the system. I have ensured Symantec (the yellow bitch) is completely uninstalled in favor of MSE in whichever systems I come across.

My only concern is that Microsoft does not and is not promoting this good product more aggressively.

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