For most folks, FREE is a word that they makes their ears perk up.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a FREE anti-virus and anti-spyware offering from Microsoft. They bill it as a light-weight product that has a smaller footprint than commercial products. It is intended for the home user. It can be found at www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
Obviously, it runs on the Windows platform. You’ve no doubt noticed the Mac bias from other posts. My interest comes from supporting the XP Pro notebook my wife uses and the Vista Home Premium notebook that one of my son’s uses. Other extended family members also use Windows.
The installation was amazingly simple. But, before the install, you should uninstall any other AV products you may be running. Go to the Security Essentials site and download the installer. Double-click on the downloaded installer program and follow the prompts. When the install is done, Security Essentials does an update of the signatures, and then you are encouraged to do a complete system scan. That takes a while.
The scan produces a report of any threats that are detected on your computer.
The Security Essentials console is arranged in a reasonable fashion. There is the Home tab which gives a quick overview of the state of AV protection on your computer. The Update tab allows you to force an update of signatures. The History tab let you see what threats have been found and the action that was taken. Finally, the Settings tab allows for modification of behavior of Security Essentials. The defaults are reasonable.
Following installation, I noticed that there are two new processes using memory. On my test XP Pro test machine, msseces.exe uses 11,820K and MsMpEng.exe uses 70,052K.
Very few CPU cycles are used when doing real-time protection. But, you will notice a performance impact when a full scan is running. This is similar to what you would experience with other products.
In summary, Microsoft Security Essentials was very easy to download and install. I found it simpler to use than competing free products like AVG Free. Several independent labs tested the efficacy of the product during the beta period. They all report sufficient detection and remediation of threats.
So, if you have a Windows XP, Vista or 7 computer at home and don’t want to spring for a commercial product, it looks like Microsoft Security Essentials is a winner!
- Dan
