Microsoft Admits That Security Essentials Is Just a Basic Anti-Virus Product

Read more: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micr...-Just-a-Basic-Anti-Virus-Product-386213.shtml

 

Microsoft could never make an AV that will score high on test results. Why? Because third party AV vendors will nag about it and propose the antitrust lawsuit.

It's still a decent AV though. I paired MSE with Sandboxie in the past, browsed through the so-called dangerous sites, installed this and that, and fooling around many times. The result: no infection for the whole year. At least MBAM and HMP said nothing suspicious was running here.

 

Who wants to write a small recap of the PDF? Lazy to read.
Gotta study for a test tomorrow.

 

I was never of the impression that is was supposed to be anything other than a basic better than nothing product. For that it is fine. I had no expectations that is is meant to compete with the big names.

 

By the time MS thinks something is "essential", it's time to move on to better technology.

 

@xxJackxx
Just couldn't agree more.

 

MSE serves a purpose - for those users who are not computer literate and don't feel the need to be - like my wife. At least it catches some of the bad stuff without the user being confused by decisions. I am glad it is available, it's saved my pc several times over the years. As you say, it is only "essential" for some.

 

OK,
that explains why a fresh windows-installation boots the user into the admin-account !
If I had a dime for every time I've heard people say :
OF COURSE I use the admin-account, it's MY COMPUTER !

 

to be fair, it's also one of the lightest and most hassle-free AV products out there. and it's free.

 

Yes, the absence of self-protection alone is an indication of this, but for some reason many people have needed to believe that MSE is a top tier security product. It really is better than nothing though - it has occasionally been able to detect and remove serious threats on some of my customers' computers so I must grudgingly give some "props"

 

To be equally fair it doesn't update and scan consistently without user intervention and has no self-protection, plus there are other free products that do.

 

I have it installed and it updates consistently and scans based on the schedule I have set.....that's not a fair statement at all! There is no user intervention because my wife barely knows what the icon looks like. I guess it's all a matter of the current state of one's pc and maybe what other apps are installed. Different people maintain pc's differently. I do agree with the title of this thread - it is just a BASIC Anti-Virus Product.

 

Actually, not really. I heard MSE properly makes use of DEP and ASLR. Some third party AV software don't even fully implement ASLR. Add it with UAC set to the max, and you basically get a self protection feature for MSE.

 

Lol, what Microsoft is saying is, even though we can build a OS that is 100 percent malware secure, we don't. And just because we could built a AV that could detect 100 percent of malware, we don't.

So please, keep buying other vendor products, that will accomplish this for us, as in the end, we need them, as much as they, need us.

Otherwise surfing the net would be as boring as watching tv.

 

Hassle free maybe, but I'm not sure about it being light. I disabled Windows Defender (which is MSE in Windows in Windows 8 because it was slowing my computer down.

Also I always disable Windows Defender on all my Windows 7 laptops because it sometimes causes slowdowns.

 

And you are very smart.

If the AV doesn't do it automatically, then go in through control paner and services and disable it manually.

You would be surprised how much of a memory and operation difference it can make.

 

I don't understand - Defender in Windows 7? What are we discussing here - MSE or Windows Defender? I know Defender is in Windows 8, but I thought MSE was in Windows 7? Are you talking about using both MSE and Defender in Windows 7? I never used both in Windows 7?

 

Windows Defender is Windows 7 built-in anti-spyware. When installing MSE in Windows 7, Windows Defender is automatically disabled.

Windows Defender in Windows 8 is basically MSE, afaik.

 

Because there is an antispyware only tool built into Windows 7 named Windows Defender. Then Microsoft released MSE which provides antivirus and antispyware protection, which made Windows 7 Defender becomes obsolete. When Windows 8 was out it has a built-in antivirus which is basically MSE, but they renamed it again as Windows Defender. So Windows 7 Defender =/= Windows 8 Defender.

Blame Microsoft for keep changing their product names and confusing people. Happened the same with Movie Maker --> Live Movie Maker --> Movie Maker 2012.

 

I'm reporting what I've observed on the computers of customers who were running MSE at the time. I didn't say it never works. I said it doesn't appear to work consistently. I've seen it report that it hasn't updated or that a scan is required. These operations should happen without user intervention. I don't know what you mean by "it's all a matter of the current state of one's pc". The PCs I worked on were not infected. Nothing was interfering with MSE. It simply wasn't taking care of basic business.

 

If you can link to more information about this I'd appreciate it.

 

I only have two.

hxxp://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=278677
hxxp://www.insanitybit.com/tag/aslr/

Some info might be not relevant anymore now. I can't determine which processes are critical enough to be protected, but there are some processes of certain security products which are shown to not having ASLR status in Process Explorer.

 

Well they were continually embarassed for years at how Many PC's got infected, due to bugs & vulns etc, so they had to do something. Hence the early incarnations of MSE, & later versions which have followed.

But @ least they were/are free, & better than nothing.

Anyway it sounds as if they are saying you can run more than one AV etc with theirs, without conflicts ?