Microsoft releases Security Essentials today

Meatball · 29 Sep 2009 at 19:53

No doubt Avast or AVG will file a lawsuit against Microsoft at some point :rolleyes:

Dano · 29 Sep 2009 at 20:06

Elevon said:
Spybot is crap to be honest,you are better off with Malwarebytes 1.41 or SuperAntiSpyware with a free AV.

Better off running all of them occasionally, have seen spybot find stuff both the others have missed several times.

raptormonkey · 29 Sep 2009 at 22:39

Well, download it and run it. First time i have used an AV for years. Guess what it found?

Zilch! No infections

Not bad for using the PC for several years without an AV etc!!

lcg · 29 Sep 2009 at 22:44

I have been using it on my laptop since the Beta was first released. I really like it

Elevon · 29 Sep 2009 at 23:14

raptormonkey said:
Well, download it and run it. First time i have used an AV for years. Guess what it found?

Zilch! No infections

Not bad for using the PC for several years without an AV etc!!

My friend's PC came up clean with a different AV,however Malwarebytes found 11 malware/trojans ,so you can never be too careful.

Faustus · 29 Sep 2009 at 23:16

I think I'll be trying it as I've read glowing reports about this product. It received an A+ from independent security experts.

Rainmaker · 30 Sep 2009 at 00:25

Faustus said:
I think I'll be trying it as I've read glowing reports about this product. It received an A+ from independent security experts.

Have you got any links/sources for that? Genuine question, as Wikipedia (yes, I know) quotes PC Magazine as saying:

Wikipedia said:
During an on-demand scan, MSE found 89 percent of malware samples; but only 30 percent of commercial keyloggers. Those results were average, according to the editor. MSE found 67 percent of rootkits. The suite detected half of the editor's scareware samples. The suite's real-time protection found 83 percent of malware and blocked the majority of them. In this test, 40 percent of the commercial keyloggers were found. MSE found 78 percent of the rootkits.

Now fair enough that was during the beta period, but can detection and cleanup rates really have improved dramatically since? Those are pretty poor figures!

Caseh · 30 Sep 2009 at 00:55

I installed it an hour or so ago, and so far I like it - Well check in a few days if it's let anything skip through though. Atleast it's stopped all the False-positives that Avira was throwing at me for Aion. I was getting about 3 an hour while I was on Aion. Got so damn annoying.

jmc777 · 30 Sep 2009 at 01:36

sirlemonhead said:
Mine only uses 3.5 megs of ram on Windows 7..

That's just the GUI process; how much RAM is MsMpEng.exe using?

Dano · 30 Sep 2009 at 01:51

jmc777 said:
That's just the GUI process; how much RAM is MsMpEng.exe using?

58MB here.

mrk · 30 Sep 2009 at 09:51

People really are up in arms about the mouse sized ram usage? really? come on....

In more actual news it seems other AV vendors are trash talking Security Essentials in a bid to downplay the effectiveness of MS' product, which the core itself has been in business security use for years (Forefront) and been very effective too.

Slashdot has the lowdown and as usual, the bulk of sharp and witty comments:

When Pressed, Symantec admitted they were actually describing their own products, burst into tears, and chugged the rest of the bottle of whiskey.

Knubje · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:14

Ditched Avast last night and have now got MSE running. Nice, simple and effective. I like it.

Reviews and comments seem good too, long live free AV for cheapskates like me

_Jimlad_ · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:21

i think a lot of free ones will fall off the map over the next 12 months

bledd · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:23

die AVG!

The Mad Rapper · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:28

How does it install new definitions?

mrk · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:31

Silently in the background or you can get them via windows update too.

gord · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:39

This is dangerous. The end of third party security apps is nigh! Microsoft Firewall and AV... :eek:

_Jimlad_ · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:45

gord said:
This is dangerous. The end of third party security apps is nigh! Microsoft Firewall and AV...

i see your point, but MS more than most want windows protected, after all its the Mac v PC war "you don't get virus's on apples crap" - MS no that virus's and spyware look bad on them so i think what they are doing is great

mrk · 30 Sep 2009 at 10:49

Well we get a powerful enterprise class Anti-badware product for free so everybody wins, well maybe not other freeware AV makers so much

diverse180 · 30 Sep 2009 at 12:25

Just got rid of Avast and installed this...and I quite like it

Took a while for a full scan, but hey.

(all clear btw

)