Is Microsoft Security Essentials Any Good?

[H.O.D 0]

I wanted to write this in the free antivirus thread below, but it was closed so I'm starting a new one. Some of my friends have started using Microsoft Security Essentials on their systems recently. They like it because it offers all the features of paid AV software for free. They've told me to use it too, but I'm a little sceptical about the whole thing. My argument is, Microsoft has been unsuccessful in keeping out viruses from Windows all these years; then how can it develop a software which can secure Windows?! Isn't it just another easy way for crackers to get through?Or am I getting all this wrong, and is MS Security Essentials a really good tool? I'm in a state of confusion here so I hope some of you will be able to help me. Thanks.

[Zagubadu? 0]

I did a lot of research to look for the BEST AV ever. You know top 10 AV of 2010, 2009, etc. So I've seen the good ones, and I've never even heard of this. If your unable to pay for AV then go Avira, or AVG. But if you have some extra money handy its not a bad idea to stretch that extra bit. I am currently using Sunbelt's VIPER and its been good to me so far. It runs really low on the processes which is good for someone like me because I need every bit of that for gaming. So if you are able its a lot better to buy compared to free. Because when things go haywire and your systems all screwed up you can blame the "free" AV.

[FouGilang 0]

Microsoft security? The words 'microsoft' make me quite sceptical... Even more when i remember about my friend's experience with the softwares with the word 'microsoft' in it (except microsoft windows, though almost everyone said it was failure too) But well, it's free anyway. I just hope that it doesn't stressed me out like what avg free antivirus did to me. Too bad that i don't have much experience on using this microsoft stuff, i'm not connected to the internet, and my pc is more than secure even without those antivirus which have the possibility to delete my files because of false positive and errors. Maybe you can first try it in your virtual machine?

[iGuest 3]

Microsoft security essentials is losing the malware warIs Microsoft Security Essentials Any Good?

I had the rogue "xp internet security" hijack IE8 while microsoft security essentials was active, up to date, and reassuring me all was good, while I was being totally crippled. Repeated full scans came up clean. 

 I was able to keep the malware under control with "Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware"(free) which found and destroyed enough items(12) to keep me rolling. As it kept resurrecting I tried "SUPER anti-spyware" (also free) which found and destroyed even more items. Eventually it would reassemble. 

Meanwhile microsoft security essentials found nothing over and over and allowed my firewall to be turned off repeatedly. 

I downloaded Stopzilla which (as advertised) immediatley identified the culprit. Of course they wanted money ($10/yr) to kill it. I finally submitted. Hopefully, the added real time protection justified the cost. So far, so good, running beautifully again. Of course, I have cleaned it repeatedly with four malware programs. We'll see.

I was never let down by Live One Care, but this new stripped down version seems oblivious of the new and improved rogue software and has left me wondering where MS priorities really are.

-reply by ed alianiello

[H.O.D 0]

Wow its been quite a while since I looked in here. I've been using security essentials for over a month now and the results are actually good. I disabled autoplay for USB devices but I know that a few viruses are still dangerous. As soon as I pop in an infected pen drive, SE detects any viruses in it. So far I haven't seen any free AV do that. It gives real time protection and that is more important for me because I don't use Windows most of the time anyway; only for file transfers which is a bit slow in linux. So my one-month old review of SE is that it's not that bad. I wish it could scan a bit faster though. It seems to take ages to detect and clean one single virus. MS's condition that the user should be having a genuine copy of Windows installed makes it all the more sensible. It is then guaranteed to work well in my opinion. So far so good. Let's see how long the good run goes on!

[Saint_Michael 3]

The last time I look at this program was when it first came out, I tried it out and enjoy the user interface since it was well design and simple to use. However, I don't think it offered the best protection, thought I read stories now and then that it has been proven reliable but when you hear the words Microsoft, security and software in the same sentence. It is just best to stick with what you know works in giving your computer some sort of protecton.

[kingnokn 0]

Hi,I don't understand What are you really want to say.So please clear with your thoughts.So, We understand you easilyAnd may provide some better help to you. I will gonna happy to help you.Thanks

[VRS 0]

hi people I would like to add my opinionMicrosoft for sure is a big international business company my opinion is (if they wanted to prevent any virus or Malware from entering their systems then, they absolutely can )BUT : Business plays its role here .. they make systems and others make security and that is done by an agreement Business is Business ... we can not ignore that Microsoft is the most popular business name in the whole worldthey have the most talented people then how come they can not secure their systems .... THEY CAN but business above everything and for sure .. that kills me thanks

[aloKNsh 0]

yes, your friends are right. MS Essentials are really great. Initially i also had the same feeling about the MS products but some change with time so did the MS Essentials did. It has got all the features of a paid one and its a paid antivirus. If we see it, legally MS comes more than 100 bucks on an average just an approx. and a good antivirus come for a sum of round 20$ so i think MS gets its revenue every time a user buys an os from ms but he is not paying for an antivirus alone, he is rather buying a whole os which includes the antivirus i hope i am able to get my point. anyways i had used all the antivirus in top 10 reviews and after a month of testing all i came to the conclusion that Bitdefender Total security is the best. after some time a friend of mine bought a new lappi with new win 7 and bought to me for some imp softwares, where i checked the new MS Essentials and i was impressed by the functions and the speed with which it updates its signatures and try to debug the bugs. I would say your friends are really true about the MS essential go for it.

[Quatrux 4]

I am using Microsoft Security Essentials for over a year now and it protected me from quite some problems, for FREE and for home users it's really great, if you don't execute the viruses yourself and know how to protect yourself at least by not opening emails with viruses It's ok, as it detects quite a lot of viruses and etc.For me, it's the best antivirus which is available for free, but at my workplace we used to use ESET NOD32 and ESET Smart Security, but for some time now a lot of whom needs to use Kaspersky, as I know because it's cheaper for our organization, but working people needs to use it and the admins of those computers can control their computers using Kaspersky features, but it's quite not cheap to use NOD32 or Kaspersky, NOD32 is good and light, Kaspersky is quite resource hungry.To conclude, Microsoft Security Essentials is really good for home users and because it's FREE! And it works, even though it's from Microsoft, I think they've understood that security of their OS is a priority thing, due to viruses globally make a lot of problems worldwide, when a lot of computers spreads the viruses.