Microsoft Security Essentials is a new software from Microsoft to guard against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software and for providing real-time protection for your computer from these threats. This software is absolutely free and the users of a genuine copy of the Windows are eligible to download and install its free copy. There are many anti-virus and anti-spyware software available these days for protecting your computer from these threats. Some of these are free software such as AVG, Comodo, Avast! Home, etc. On the other hand, there are many others, such as McAfee VirusScan, PC Tools AntiVirus, Symantec Norton AntiVirus / Norton 360, ZoneAlarm Antivirus, etc., that require to be licensed not only initially but also require regular incurring charges in view of the fact that viruses and spyware pose continued threats and such new threats keep coming up from time to time. Of course, some of these commercial software also have free editions with limited features, but they are basically promotional in nature and prepare you for purchasing their full commercial versions. So, protecting your computers from viruses and spyware can be quite expensive. Microsoft has now come out with this free regular software in this highly-competitive field which is likely to help the users without any charges. It appears that Microsoft is serious about this security threat and wants to keep the software updated with new definitions of viruses etc. that keep surfacing from time to time. This free software has the capacity to affect the fortunes of the lucrative about $ 15 billion security software market.
Supported Windows versions:
It will work on the following versions of Windows:
Download:
You can download Microsoft Security Essentials freely from official Microsoft site.
Installing Microsoft Security Essentials:
During installation, it will check whether you have a genuine copy of Windows and will validate your Windows product. During installation, it will also caution you that if you have other anti-virus or anti-spyware software installed on your computer, they may conflict with Microsoft Security Essentials and may cause severe performance issues on your computer; and it even advises you to uninstall other anti-virus and anti-spyware software (see the following image):
While the above warning states the correct facts, I feel that you need not uninstall your other similar software at this early stage when we are yet to see the full performance of this Microsoft software though my initial response is that it appears to be quite good in its performance. What I suggest is that you may continue to have your existing anti-virus and anti-spyware software, however, for real-time protection you should select only one software to run, i.e., either Microsoft Security Essentials or your existing anti-virus software. Having two software running simultaneously for real-time protection from viruses and spyware can definitely lead to slowing down of your computer and may also to conflicts. So, it is advisable that you continue having two or more anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed on your computer (in fact, it is desirable too) and run them at least once a week to scan your computer; but you should run only one such software for real-time protection.
Updating virus and spyware definitions:
After installing Microsoft Security Essentials, you should also update the virus and spyware definitions to protect against the latest threats. And, of course, it goes without saying that subsequently this updation should be regularly done on periodical basis and also when there are news reports of a new serious virus threat.
Seetings:
You can also change the settings after installation, as per your needs, by clicking the Settings tab (see, the following screen):
One of the settings relate to becoming an automatic Basic Member (free) of the Microsoft SpyNet, the online community, to stop the spread of new malicious software infections. This means that as and when a new security threat is detected on your computer by Microsoft Security Essentials, information will be automatically sent to Microsoft about such security threats. This is meant for creating better definitions for the new threat as also its cure. You cannot change this option, but if you want you can upgrade to Advanced (free) membership of SpyNet to allow more information being provided about any security threat detected on your computer. Let me point out here that Microsoft promises to protect your privacy in this regard. See, image below:
Scan your computer for security threats and removing those threats:
It provides you three options for scanning your computer for viruses, spyware and malicious software: Quick, Full and Custom. You can select the scan option as per your choice and requirements; after selecting the scan option click Scan now button to start scanning (see below):
Have a look at the following image which shows the Quick scan option in action on my computer, which Microsoft Security Essentials took approximately 7 minutes’ time to complete:
I was pleasantly surprised to find that this software was able to detect one potential threat on my computer (TrojanDropper:Win32/Mariofev.F) which it termed as a “Severe” threat. Let me point out that this threat had not been detected by other security software already installed on my computer. I have used the expression “pleasantly surprised” since it is very rare that my computer gets infected with some virus, etc., due to the precautions I take and the responsible browsing behavior, though let me admit it frankly that I don’t generally use the real-time protection except on some occasions as it slows down the computer; but a cautious and responsible browsing behavior has always helped me. However, let me caution you that what is good for me may not necessarily be good for others. Sometimes, experience gives us the confidence. So, I’ll still recommend that you should use real-time protection unless you are fully sure that you don’t need it. Anyway, see, the image below for the security threat detected on my computer:
After I clicked the Clean computer button, it took a few seconds for Microsoft Security Essentials to remove this security threat (in fact, I could even take a screenshot during this period, see below):
After successful removal of the said security threat, the following success message was displayed:
I have described the above details with relevant images taken during the scan process so as to help you understand the basic procedure to detect and remove security threats on your computer using Microsoft Security Essentials. Overall, I found the operations to be quite simple to follow and instructive.
Real-time protection:
As I mentioned earlier, this software can also help you in getting real-time protection against various security threats. With this feature, Microsoft Security Essentials can continuously monitor your computer all the time and alert you as and when potential security threats, such as viruses and spyware, try to install themselves or run on your computer. In view of the importance of this feature to help protect your computer, Microsoft recommends that you should make sure that real-time protection is always turned on with this software.
Whenever real-time protection of Microsoft Security Essentials detects a threat or potential threat, it displays a notification to you and allows you to select the following options:
Conclusion:
My recommendation is that you should try this latest security software from Microsoft and as I mentioned earlier, it is absolutely free. It appears to be good in performance and lightweight on resources.
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