Microsoft Security Essentials

[clifford_cooley]

Microsoft Security Essentials Home

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Microsoft Security Essentials Home

 

[TrainableMan]

MSE is a decent product but a word of warning, the MSE installer automatically enables "Windows Automatic Updates". So if you are like many of us that do not like them enabled, be sure to turn them back off after you install MSE.

From what I have read, only the installer makes this change, not MSE itself, so once you set them they should stay unless you reinstall MSE.

 

[MJOLNIR]

I found this thread so decided to ask in it instead of making a new one. Is this program (the free version, by the way) sufficient as an AV program? I'm not asking "is it good enough in most cases" because things like AVG free and Avast free would fall into that category (and both have failed me before), so MSE free would have to be better than them if it's going to be sufficient. Does the paid version of MSE provide more protection? Does anyone know any case of someone getting infected while using the free edition of MSE?

Thanks. I prefer not to pay money if MSE is going to provide me with the kind of protection that didn't have anyone complaining about.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Is this program (the free version, by the way) sufficient as an AV program?

Did Microsoft start charging for MSE and I haven't heard anything about it yet?

AVG in my opinion does not play well with Windows 7. I have heard good words for Avast and MSE. I will say MSE is among the top rated of free anti-virus applications.

 

[Nibiru2012]

There are some cases of infections occurring with MSE, so it's not perfect. No AV programs is 100% foolproof.

Avira Free is a good AV program and so is Comodo Internet Security Free. Comodo I know has been used on a two computers I personally know of where the users go to all sorts of websites and no infection has occurred yet. When I say all sorts, I'm talking about really pushing the envelope so far as any and everything.

 

[catilley1092]

MJOLNIR, if no one else speaks up, let me be the first to inform you that the worst infection of my computing life, was under the watch of MSE. MSE didn't help at all. It was very nasty, even running MSE from the partition beside of the infected one didn't help.

This happened some time ago, but it's documented on this forum. At the time it happened, MSE was already popular, and many stood by MSE because it was free. However, it did me no good.

I would highly suggest trying another solution, such as Comodo AV (free). It protects better than all of the other free AV solutions, and you can use it while shopping, banking, emailing, etc.

I've been torched by MSE once, but never again. Never.

Cat

 

[Super Sarge]

I have been running MSE on my main mahine since I started to use W7 RC1 now on W7. I have never been infected. Some have tried when I went to sites that were less than reputable. but with everything I run I was not infected.

PC World had it rated in the top 3 of free AV programs. I also use various other malware and spyware programs Super Anti Spyware, malware Bytes and Spyware Blaster

 

[davehc]

As Super Sarge says!

 

[clifford_cooley]

Didn't Nibs just say that no one AV is 100% perfect? This would mean that they will all let one through eventually.

MSE has stopped several attempts at malware trying to infect my PC. And yes I have had one virus get through MSE's detection. For freeware I am perfectly happy with the detection rate of MSE.

I'm not going to bad mouth an AV application because of one failure when I know they will all eventually fail at some point.

 

[catilley1092]

PC World also had my HP desktop rated as the "best sub $750 PC" on the market, I don't pay much mind to their ratings anymore. Advertising dollars buys positive reviews, in fact, if I were to own a tech mag, I would do the same.

The dollar is the bottom line.

Sometimes PC World does have good articles, but their bias is obvious. Note how much they push Windows gadgets over the others.

Cat

 

[MJOLNIR]

Thanks catilley, for your story. From the posts is seems Condo AV free is my best shot at free AV.

And IMO a site rating anything Microsoft-related as "one of the top" smells like Microsoft bribing businesses, kind of like how IE8 was rated "one of the best internet browsers" and this is also by MS.

No offense to MS since they make the Xbox and I'm a big fan of that, so Condo AV it is.

 

[Super Sarge]

Well like Cooley said no AV catches everything, I use MSE in conjuction with Super-Anti Spyware, malware Bytes, and Spyware Blaster hidden behind a Router.
my Machines since I started using a computer in 1993 have only been attacked no maore than 5 times and never been infected because of the various programs I have either ran in the past or am currently running. In the Early days I was a Norton user. I have also used Kaspersky and am using Avria on the machine I have hooked up to my 42 inch LCD. I have also used ESET Nod 32 in the past, they all performed as advertised. I am totally happy with MSE until or should it let me down until then I will use it and recommend it. Do not hate a product because of the maker base your dislike of the product on its performance.

 

[TrainableMan]

If you install a lot of things you download from the internet, if you visit questionable sites (porn, warez, etc), if you click on links in suspicious emails, and if you ignore warnings like "this type of file may contain harmful or malicious code ... proceed yes or no", or you don't update your anti-virus regularly (if this is a problem then just set it to automatic)
... well then you are more likely to become infected no matter what AV you run.

Most people who get infected ignored warnings and installed software they shouldn't, so they need to take some responsibility and be a little more proactive. Your AV should be your second line of defense, your head needs to be the first!

 

[davehc]

" Your AV should be your second line of defense, your head needs to be the first!"

That waa certainly well said!. With the constant barrage of newly wrtten viruses, it is yet to invent a 100% anti virus program.

 

[catilley1092]

MSE, like ESET, has their eyes on SIW for some reason. I installed a VM and used MSE 2.0 for it (ESET's EULA doesn't allow 2 of the same key at the same time), I installed SIW on it, MSE flagged it as bad.

OpenCandy, although self-claimed to be safe, is catching the eyes of AV's, MSE included. Unfortunately, SIW has this code in their software, I chose to ignore it at first, but when more than one AV throws the red flag, it's time to pay attention.

As soon as I opened SIW, MSE threw that red flag "potential threat found", then a couple of seconds later, threw another one offering to "Clean Computer", I let it, and it reported to have done so.

Hopefully MSE has improved since I last used it, over 50% of all home users are going the free route over the paid. There could be a couple of different factors behind this, first the economy (the "recession" that never ended), secondly, some users refuses to pay for an AV/IS suite, even if the user could afford it (I used to be in this group).

MSE is the only free security solution that doesn't have a paid counterpart, meaning that there's no reason for MS not to go for eradication, rather than containing the viruses/malware (through quarantine in a folder). All (or most) of the others, has many features "locked", that you can unlock with a paid key. Kind of like many "crapware" apps that's bundled with new computers, you can use a few limited features, but have to pay for the "premium" version of the software.

I do agree with those above, the biggest threat to a computer is the one at the keyboard, there's absolutely no doubt about that. Safe computing should be learned & practiced by all, this alone would greatly reduce the number of infections.

The only 100% way not to get infected, this is free also, is not to press the power button. I know of no other way.

Cat

 

[TrainableMan]

Most of those are false positives. When programs do things that most programs don't but many viruses do then the heuristics protection may flag them as bad even though they are perfectly legitimate applications.

I have no concerns whatsoever with running SIW, it's not a virus (that's not to say that someone can't modify the exe and put a copy on their site but if you get it from a legitimate website then it's fine)

I never heard if Open Candy but my parents warning of "never take candy from strangers" would seem to apply.

As for cleaner apps, yeah I would be suspicious. I use CCleaner and TuneUp Utilities because I know they are safe.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I'm not positive about how Open Candy is related to SIW. I do know I have another application that has a relation to Open Candy. This relationship is only during installation. I read somewhere that the application uses Open Candy to install. Even though my AV was flagging Open Candy as a virus, I discovered later that Open Candy is a form of ad-ware that you may have a choice not to install with the application.

 

[catilley1092]

That's what I read about Open Candy, it's sort of an adware thing. I did read an article about it, it confirmed this.
http://www.opencandy.com/faqs/#false-adware


The times that I saw the red flag, there was a warning about an IP address (or URL) that I was going to. I still use SIW, although it's not perfect either, it reports that I run DirectX 9, when I'm running DirectX 11. This, I verified by typing "dxdiag" into the Start Menu, and viewing the info.

It could be that the AV is interfering with SIW. It also interferes with the installation of Unlocker.

Still, the fact that MSE is intercepting something, is signs that it's doing it's job. Most AV's have a false positive every now & then. MSE has a large following too, this will make for an even more powerful solution as time passes, and more bad code is discovered.

More than likely, if it weren't for that very nasty incident that happened to me, I'd still be running MSE. I still do run part of the app in Windows Defender, it does a quick auto scan nightly.

Cat

 

[altinkumhomes]

I currently use MSE but have tried many free and paid AV's previously. As has been said, none of them can catch everything so for me the important thing
is to have have something else as well. I use malwarebytes and superantispyware and scan all my pc's on a regular basis.