Microsoft Security Essentials Goes Public, Free Anti-Virus Software For All

[FiXT]

Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Corp.?s new no-cost, core anti-malware service that helps protect consumers against viruses, spyware and other malicious software, will be available Tuesday, Sept. 29. Microsoft Security Essentials, independently certified by West Coast Labs, is backed by the company?s global security response team and is bu... [ Read full article ]

[sswilson]

So, what do we know about this product? Any good?

[bojangles]

Why doesn't Microsoft just patch up all the holes in their OS and executables/.jscripts/etc. and release it as security patches weekly/daily instead of having to run extra software on the side that bogs down resources.

This will not deter me from buying a yearly subscription to NOD32.

[Ritz]

Wayyyyy overdue. But I'm glad they are making this available for free. I'm interested to see how it compares to AVG Free or Avast!...

[sswilson]

One of the benefits I can see for using a microsoft product is that they'd be able to integrate the AV with IE to keep those nasty browser bugs out.

In all honesty, true virus' aren't the most common issue, it's "rogue AV" like Personal Antivirus (Personal Antivirus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) which infect most computers and those have to be blocked at the browser level as they get in by tricking folks into giving them permission to install.

[FiXT]

I'm downloading it right now to test it out. I like free AV but they are ALWAYS bloated.

I use NOD32 on my main pc, but I don't want to be paying for multiple licenses and a lot of friends don't want to have to shell out the money for an AV - thinking that AVG is just fine. I'm sure it is, but I want something that doesn't require more system resources than Crysis <.<

Hopefully this will be a light weight and simple AV that still is able to be effective

[Gav]

Originally Posted by bojangles

Why doesn't Microsoft just patch up all the holes in their OS and executables/.jscripts/etc. and release it as security patches weekly/daily instead of having to run extra software on the side that bogs down resources.

This will not deter me from buying a yearly subscription to NOD32.

Big Nod32 fan as well. I don't mind paying for it as it hasn't failed me yet and doesn't nag me that often.

[Thund3rball]

I was on Kaspersky for a couple years and it worked very well. Now I have actually gone to the dark side and installed Norton Internet Security... reason being that independent reports found it used less resources than Nod, Kaspersky and others... and was just as effective. I think Symantec finally got the hint that there AV software was garbage and they decided to do something about it.

[Perineum]

The new Norton...... likely doesn't even do any AV at all, and has the same effectiveness as the old Norton.... just uses half the cpu time!

[Arinoth]

Originally Posted by Perineum

The new Norton...... likely doesn't even do any AV at all, and has the same effectiveness as the old Norton.... just uses half the cpu time!

Amen to that but when i worked at best buy we still have to tell costumers it smelled like roses