Microsoft Security Essentials ?

[Twinkle]

Microsoft Security Essentials ? Does anyone use it? If so; Is it as good as any other Antivirus & spyware?

TIA

[Memfis]

It's so new that I hadn't heard of it.
It's just come out of an extremely short (for microsoft) beta period, and has only been available for a short while.
The reviews I've read seam to give it a thumbs up.
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...mpresses.ars/2
Think I'll give it a try - I have a 1 year subscrition with norton, but it takes up too much ram and cpu on my low powered laptop.
Problem is - If I don't like Microsoft security essentials I have no way to get back to norton.....
grrrr oh what to do.
Have you tried it yet? Any comments?

[Austin_KW]

I had a problem with firefox. When downloading in firefox (and scaning the download) firefox stops responding.
Went back to avast free. but it did seem very light on resources and has got good reviews.

[Twinkle]

I have Avast free, which freezes comp on update! Just need to know if it is as good as revues. Need more from people whom actually use it. Thanks for replies.

[Austin_KW]

I have Avast free, which freezes comp on update! Just need to know if it is as good as revues. Need more from people whom actually use it. Thanks for replies.

Originally Posted by Twinkle

Yes, Avast can freeze the computer on startup while it downloads and installs the update.
I change the avast settings/update(basic) to "Ask when update is available"
Makes it much more usable.

[Twinkle]

Thanks for that Austin I will change settings. Still would like info from users of MS not than I'm a fan off there's, but people pay lots off monies for anti-virus and maybe its good.

[bouncingjohn]

Memfis: can you not just disable, rather than uninstall, Norton while you're trying out MSE?
Then, if you don't like it; remove MSE and re-enable Norton.

NB: I don't use either of them so I may not know what I'm talking about.

[Memfis]

Memfis: can you not just disable, rather than uninstall, Norton while you're trying out MSE?
Then, if you don't like it; remove MSE and re-enable Norton.

NB: I don't use either of them so I may not know what I'm talking about.

Originally Posted by bouncingjohn

Good point - kinda obvious really.
/me kicks himself.

I can disable the differnt parts of norton but the main software would still load, it would just sit there and do nothing but eat ram.

Think I'll uninstall avg on the other half's laptop and try it on there - see if she notices

[JohnnyReb51]

Avast! 5 is out now, if anyone is interested. I think v4.8 will be phased out soon.

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/lp-upgrade-4-5

Click on the first button on that page for Avast Home Edition 4.8. Which should be the version you have if updated regularly.

Next page, click on the No thanks, download new Free Antivirus button at the bottom of the page. Unless of course you paid for the Pro version etc.

I just ran the installer about 3 - 4 weeks ago, expecting an over install, but it uninstalled the old version first and used the original Registration number, from what I can tell.

On another PC with a fresh install of Windows, it self registered online with some user input, via the program, so it looks like there will be no need for registering online to recieve the code, like the old version.

The Avast! systray icon is now Red and Yellow, instead of Blue.

I must say, it caught my first ever Trojan installation attempt from a website I was viewing and the site was legitimate.

As for the MSE fing , I will stick with what I have now, Avast!, Outpost firewall, Malwarebytes and Firefox, with some anti-script/advert addons, all free of course

[centaur]

Can't comment on the M$ security essentials yet, but I currently use Avast, and am just updating it to V5....Thanks JR !

Used to use AVG free and was happy with it until the update downloads became very 'flaky' and were just an irritation with the failure messages. Switched to Avast and was even happier, no update probs, light resource usage and effective.

Had Norton from 2001 to 2003 until I knew better ! It's still a resource hog and I wouldn't have it as a gift now.

[bouncingjohn]

I can disable the differnt parts of norton but the main software would still load, it would just sit there and do nothing but eat ram.

Originally Posted by Memfis

Alternatively: download Autoruns and untick the box(es?) next to Norton to stop it loading at all. You can probably do the same in msconfig, but I prefer Autoruns.

[Twinkle]

Thanks for the advice on update JR, I will stick with it until more is know about MSE

[Behemoth]

I'm running MSE, it does seem quite light weight but it's very fussy about what websites it lets you view. Some of the tech related websites I use it won't let me goto.

May have to put my kaspersky back on.

[Twinkle]

Thats not good Behemoth, a thumbs down for MSE