Microsoft Security Essentials-What sets it apart?

I have always found 3GUSER to be open and fair about any software. I have often asked for his advice and he didnt try to sway me one way or another. So Steve, chomp-chomp.

 

Light based on what? Your "feel". And btw, I wasn't only talking about ram use. Notice the "in all facets" in my post.

 

I had the same problem Security Essentials 1.0.1963 non beta as well. The icon would start up red and stay that way, that Windows Security would popup a window warning me that I have no anti virus installed. Then eventually the icon turns green. This happens in beta and non beta.

 

light to me is equated in speed and responsivness, not weight.

 

I got rid of the issue after tuning my startup items and putting a login password for Windows in place. BTW, which OS are you experiencing this on, coz on XP you simply cannot make that thing go away.

 

Why would that come as a surprise? One look at the 'What's your security setup these days' thread and you will realise that most of the wilders guys supposedly spend more time with apps than their partners.

 

You want to make it 'feel' lighter - 1. In the stable version, add explorer.exe and dwm.exe to the list of excluded processes. 2. In the beta version, change real-time protection to 'scan incoming files only'.

 

does MSE also scan for rootkits?

and this web/mail security.. isnt it pretty unneeded anyway? if i open a mail with thunderbird, where an infected file is in, as soon as i execute it MSE would dedect it anyway? And web security.. not sure what exactly that is

When u say the ebat relies more on the windows firewall , would that mean i could get in trouble with OA free firewall?

thanks

 

yes mse is strong against rootkits also scanning any file you try to execute
in your pc also from mail
most complete protection available for free is comodo internet security

 

I am using Vista home premium 32 bit.I am going to change real-time protection to 'scan incoming files only' and see how that goes. I hope it does not compromise my security.

 

Thanks. Is scanning outgoing files just for email and uploading?

 

In addition to that, outgoing also means the files already existing on your hard disk. So when explorer is rendering them, MSE will not scan them repeatedly(whenever you open a folder, open the start menu, open Add-Remove programs etc.) if you have 'scan incoming files only' enabled.

 

Ah, very nice. That should help a lot.

 

If you have feedback on MSE, especially in the beta version, be sure to provide it to Microsoft. Even if your feedback is that it seems "heavy", it may be a correctable problem in some cases.

Personally, I wouldn't exclude explorer.exe, but that's my personal opinion, not official advice.

 

I have tried MSE v1 a few times and I just tried the newest BETA . The BETA seems much better than the previous version . Very good and may be the best freeware antivirus program among all other free.

I just don't like two things :
- Wish it didn't install Microsoft update . Working with Windows Update is sufficent for the security things (and turning it to auto-on).
- In my own test , it missed a lot of malware. Of course I relied only on it , IE9 notified me of potential problem with the samples I used (not digitally signed) but it it was a simple warning of potential problem not exact verdict and was by IE . What if I was using another browser ?

Anyway , for a free application - I give it 9/10 - but for a free . I wouldn't rely only on it just I like rely on another paid antivirus products

 

It is free for small business in October. That sets it apart....

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/Features/2010/sep10/09-22SecurityEssentials.mspx

 

Free Web, Email, Phone and Malware Cleanup support for a free product sets it apart too.

 

Anybody here tried their MSE Support (malware clean-up or other malware related support) ?

 

I haven't tried their malware support but I did contact them for an install issue. After a couple of back and forth emails didn't solve my problem a support tech called me, connected to my PC, and spent about 45 minutes until he was able to install MSE. Pretty good support for a free product.

 

I have never tried their malware support , too . However their other support is great . I am just curious . Can you explan what did the the tech do to your Windows , what was the problem actually that prevented you from installing MSE ? How did he/she connected to the machine - Remote Assistance or ?

 

I think that the problem ended up being caused from a previous install of MSE. A registry issue. The tech actually called me at home at a time that I chose. He remotely connected to my PC and spent about 45 minutes with me. Pretty great support.

 

that's pretty cool--for nearly every other MS product, that's the sort of support you have to pay for. good on 'em.

 

This is kind of a presumptuous question to be asking. It assumes that MSE is better than all the other paid products and you want to list the reasons as to why.

Well clearly all tests show that there are many paid products better than MSE, so I'm not quite sure how to answer this question.

I can tell you a few things I do know

1. MSE has excellent dynamic unpacking support. They have developed some techniques that dont require them to write an unpacker for each packer/encrypter/obfuscator out there. This I think is a huge win.
2. Being Microsoft, they see new malware faster than anybody else because EVERY Windows PC in the world is sending information to their backend, whether it be Dr. Watson logs some of which contain actually memory dumps of the malware, or just information from the millions of installations of OneCare, Defender and all the other incarnations of their failed security products.

So their turnaround time on signature-based detection is very quick. That said, paid products have developer alternative techniques like behavioral detection using SONAR, or HIPS in Kaspersky, reputation with Norton Insight etc.

 

Yes , MS support is great but have you actually though about this from another angle ? You paid for the OS and it actually has problems - being security related or other . So to fix these problems , Microsoft releases patches every month or more often - for FREE. Microsoft included Windows Defender and they still support it - for FREE . Microsoft release antivirus program (MSE) - for FREE and still provided support but just like it is part of the OS - because MSE can be part of the OS , it is made to be part of the OS. So the products you get with Windows and the services , too - they are kind of pre-paid . Of course you pay less but we all (most) paid for Windows - that is a lot of $ . You may see it as free but Microsoft just want to back-up their OS and remove the claim it is bad OS because of security issues.

 

well, the thing is though that they're not supporting it like it's part of the os. if they were, you'd be paying to call them for help with it. that's why it's nice that they're offering remote management/repair service for free to users of MSE. i know what you're getting at though, and i agree, microsoft does go out of their way to support their software via patches/fixes, etc.