Microsoft Security Essentials Poll

This poll is for MSE users and former MSE users:
Have you ever had an infection while using MSE?
If yes, how many and over what period of time?

 

it's one of the first thing i disable when i install Windows!

 

I haven't, but I have seen many others (friends) using MSE that got infected, and MSE was unable to clean up the mess either...

 

I got infected on my laptop and my small sister's laptop with MSe installed and fully updated. Piece of crap

 

Not me personally but others that I know that run it. I thought it was decent awhile back but not so much now. There are other products I would rather run.

 

I've been running MSE for well over two years & on three computers. I've never been infected while I have been running it. The only people I know personally that have been infected running MSE have also been infected running Avast! & Norton. A bad workman blames his tools.

 

Never infected - though I've only used MSE intermittently.

 

I tested it on two slow machines running XP. I couldn't say anything about its detection capabilities, but as unbelievable as it can sound it wouldn't allow Windows XP to update, one of the machines would even hang and had to be rebooted.

 

When I used it I got not infected.
But then again I'm always behind Sandboxie, which makes things different.

Let's put it this way: Avast alerts me once in a while about a bad url/site.
I don't care because SBIE is there for it.
MSE won't alert me because it has no web shield: I don't care because SBIE is there for it.

Conclusion: when I used MSE I have no idea if I get infected or not.

 

Nope, not once did I get hit with anything when I used it. That doesn't make MSE bad or good though, that was just how the dice got rolled.

 

No issues when I used it.

 

Nope.

 

MSE not only allowed an infection on a work PC but the malware successfully disabled MSE and had it uninstalled.

 

I wonder if it plays well with BD free.
It might not have to be either/or, but an addition to complement it.
Yes this is definetly OT.

 

Still have not tried it. My bro used to have it on his laptop but he was a smart user (Lots of common sense) and he never got infected. I don't think it was thanks to MSE, he was a geeky person like me so . . .

 

I never get infected, because this is just a backup to common sense 2.0.

 

No Infection, but I use it in combination with MBAM Pro and HitmanPro

 

Security must be layered defense and antivirus software (any antivirus software) must be one of the last defenses. The sooner people realize this - the more protected they will be.

Simply leaving an antivirus software doing all the protection for one system is the worse idea possible.
If any kind of attack or malware has bypassed the previous defenses, one should reconsider their security strategy.

Having said this, the questions of the poll is far from serious question.

 

Nope.

 

Yeah, a long time ago. It caught the infection but I didn't trust it so I allowed it through.

 

So far, out of 30 MSE users, only 5 have been infected. I wonder how these odds are reflected in the real world. They don't seem too bad to me.

 

When I install an antivirus for somebody, I tell them that antivirus program is not 100% protection guarantee. However, they use the best protection and will have the best possible protection. Antivirus software is just a tool - a single tool that will help them with specific things it was made for. Additionally, they should treat the antivirus as an insurance. They may never need to use it, but should it happen, they'd better have it, it will pay off - for sure.

During my life I have done business and very seriously worked with different security vendors - Symantec, ESET, Microsoft, AVIRA, Panda (and I still do with some of them, I do IT services for living).

Microsoft (No.1) and Norton (No.2) (as stand alone products) have had the best cleaning abilities - I mean when installed on already visibly and heavily infected computer.

Panda (1), ESET (2) , Norton (3) and AVIRA (4) have had very good protection rates - protecting clean machine.

However, AVIRA, Norton and Panda have at the end caused extremely serious problems for business and home users and they must have been replaced. AVIRA and Norton have had very many false positives many times on various clean local files (false positive is very serous issue when it happens on network or when the end user is not experienced). Panda and AVIRA as company attitude very bad people not respecting others, and their products always had some technical issue.

I have had least problems and I am most comfortable with Microsoft (No.1) and ESET (No.2) - serous companies that can be trusted, small/fast and light products that do protect and clients have always been happy with these products.

Anyway - the point of writing this is that I have tested different products and I have experience with some major vendors and I know from real world what I tell. No matter the antivirus, I have seen infected computer no matter the antivirus name. And I have some clients I know from very long time and they always get infected despite my advice, despite the AV name (they have used Panda, AVIRA, ESET, Norton and they finally are infected). But the reason they get infected is always one - they don't follow basic security guidelines : they always have something out of date, they install tons of software and junkies, they get things from torrent trackers, some of them use cracked/pirated software.

I sometimes ask some of them to try to explain to me how I never get infected but they always manage to? How my original software never causes problems but their pirated or clogged with junk OS is not working. And they can't answer my question and just smile quietly.
As I have posted (and every real pro will tell you that - however real pros rarely visit forums and never get into such topics because they respect themselves) , security comes from layered defense measures - the OS itself, perimeter protection such as firewall, IPS, up to date OS, up to date software, sandboxed browser, good browser, autorun protection, physical protection and many other things (depending on the IT environment, IT needs and IT users)...

So, from my experience, I can trust what does the job for me and for my clients - Microsoft and ESET (and MBAM) no matter what results they get in the biased tests, because I see the in real world. But that can change - nobody gives assurance.

Security is layered approach and whether you will get infected when using AV x is not because of AV x, but because of the user of the machine. Shame if some people in a security forum don't know it.

I am not a big company, I don't have business interest, I am not engaged with any company or product and that is why I look at the situations independently.

 

ot posts removed.

 

I have to agree with er34.

I'm not in IT, but over 15 years I've used both paid and free AVs from McAfee, Norton, AVG, avast!, Avira, Sunbelt, ESET, Microsoft. Not one of them ever allowed malware on any of my PCs. (I can't even remember when any of them detected true malware). I do not attribute this to the AV protection, but to layered security and safe surfing.

What did distinguish these AVs in my experience was not their protection but the "grief" factors:
- False positives
- Incompatabilities with other security programs
- Heavy footprints
- Annoying splash screens and pop-ups
- Complexity of configuration
- Annual costs

MSE has none of these faults. And despite tests that show it might have lower detection rates, it has not failed me since it was first released, on 4 PCs.

 

i recommend AVs to people i know but in large part the security fall on the user:

* be careful about emails
* mind where you surf
* watch out for potentially unsafe browser addons/plugins
* scan potentially unsafe downloads with AVs

the user is always the weakest link.