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Thread: Microsoft Security Essentials

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    Nothing runs like a Deere cotswoldcs's Avatar
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    Question Microsoft Security Essentials

    A while back Microsoft launched Security Essentials and it actually fared very well in reviews. I like the simplicity and small footprint of the software and am considering installing it in preference to AVG 9.0 Free as a preferred free antivirus package. I'm getting increasingly fed up with the size and speed of AVG.

    Have you used Security Essentials and if so how do you rate it? Do you think it's as good or better than AVG or other free anti virus software?

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    Senior Member mikemikemi's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Same really, it's my preferred free anti virus software.

    Link to comparison:
    http://www.av-comparatives.org/image...ance_dec09.pdf

    Get's a good rating.

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    Get in the van. Fraz's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Yeah, I've been using it for about a month now. Pretty impressed so far. It crashed once and restarted itself, but that might well have been down to the slightly dubious stability of my computer (crappy ASUS mobo and its dislike of working with 4 sticks of RAM...)

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    Senior[ish] Member Singh400's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    I've been using it since the beta, and I love it. Fast, clean UI, lightweight. Does what it says on the tin. This is coming from a nod32 user. MSE is rocking.

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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    thumbs up from me as well . 5 computers at home all using it with no issues at all.

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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Quote Originally Posted by Singh400 View Post
    This is coming from a nod32 user. MSE is rocking.
    I find older versions of NOD32 are still better on low end machines (I took MSE off one I was doing yesterday and installed an old NOD32 I had lying around), and you still get NOD32 updates for the old versions too. Oddly it was CPU cycles MSE was killing rather than the RAM and extra HDD reading/writing that antivirus programs usually seem to suck up on old machines. This was an old (early P4 era) Celeron with 512mb.

    MSE is still way, way better than the other free choices though.

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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Been using it since W7 release, tis okay. The interface is a little simplistic for me.
    "Don't wanna see your face, don't wanna hear your voice . . ."

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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Quote Originally Posted by WhiteGiant View Post
    Been using it since W7 release, tis okay. The interface is a little simplistic for me.
    +1 on this. Yes, it seems to do the job, but you never know how well until you get a virus or trojan. But for me the interface is far too simplistic with virtually no tweaking available, even in the so-called "advanced" settings. At the end of the day, it's AV for the masses, for those who like to set it & forget it.
    [
    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzen
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    Senior Member mikemikemi's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Quote Originally Posted by 0iD View Post
    +1 on this. Yes, it seems to do the job, but you never know how well until you get a virus or trojan. But for me the interface is far too simplistic with virtually no tweaking available, even in the so-called "advanced" settings. At the end of the day, it's AV for the masses, for those who like to set it & forget it.

    Very true, it does work though.

    I had a virus on a machine before MSE was installed, installed it and it detected and removed it without a problem

  10. #10
    Splash
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    I've had no qualms replacing Norton Antivirus with it, especially on machines that came with a 60 day trial of Norton, but the users thought it just kept updating...

    In other news - my Kaspersky AV 3 user license is up in the next fortnight and I'm toying with the idea of just using either this or the new freebie Avast offering. Not a big fan of the new Kaspersky UI, and it seems to be getting worse for false positives as time goes on. (And yes, I'm pretty sure they're false positives - have run the "infected" files through numerous other AV engines. Steam and Ventrilo seem to be flagged particularly regularly)

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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Move from Avast to MSE and tbh couldn't be happier - and yes it's found stuff and yes it does work
    Crosshair VIII Hero (WIFI), 3900x, 32GB DDR4, Many SSDs, EVGA FTW3 3090, Ethoo 719


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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    AVG out MSE in for me - runs well on all of the PC's in my house.
    I was getting tired of integration problems and SLLLOOOWWW scans from AVG free edition.

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    Senior[ish] Member Singh400's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Quote Originally Posted by 0iD View Post
    +1 on this. Yes, it seems to do the job, but you never know how well until you get a virus or trojan. But for me the interface is far too simplistic with virtually no tweaking available, even in the so-called "advanced" settings. At the end of the day, it's AV for the masses, for those who like to set it & forget it.
    Oh it defintely works, I found that out yesterday, no sooner had I clicked on the link and locked it down, cleaned it and told me off

    @this_is_gav: The reason I switched from Nod32, is because the latest version were getting pretty heavy in terms of footprint.

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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    ANother vote for MSE here.

    Pretty much using it exclusively and have most family and friends converted also.
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    ɯʎɔɐɹsɐʌʍ mycarsavw's Avatar
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    Quote Originally Posted by Splash View Post
    In other news - my Kaspersky AV 3 user license is up in the next fortnight and I'm toying with the idea of just using either this or the new freebie Avast offering. Not a big fan of the new Kaspersky UI, and it seems to be getting worse for false positives as time goes on. (And yes, I'm pretty sure they're false positives - have run the "infected" files through numerous other AV engines. Steam and Ventrilo seem to be flagged particularly regularly)
    Same license here although I've still got ~100 days left IIRC.

    Steam, Mumble, BF2 etc are all constantly being marked as keyloggers. It's frustrating when I'm presented with 4,000 warnings of virii and impending doom. Once I climb down off the ceiling and read the reports/warnings I get to see they're all false.

    However, it has caught, cleansed and removed three infections in the 2 years I've had it so I'm torn.
    |Kata: "Read title as 'fisting'. Not sure why I clicked. Relieved, really."|
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    Re: Microsoft Security Essentials

    I've been pretty impressed with MSE, but it's not as perfect as I'd initially thought, the rootkit detection is pretty weak.

    It couldn't detect the Alureon/TDSS rootkit if it's loaded by an infected storage driver (atapi.sys etc)

    but I put the infected drive in another PC running MSE and scanned it "offline" and it detected the infected file no problem.

    Still much better than AVG9 though...

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