Microsoft Security Essentials
Microsoft has unleashed its new free security suite as of September 29, 2009. Microsoft Security Essentials is the new free product that works on most iterations of Windows and will protect pc’s against virus’, spyware, and malware. MSE, as its commonly known, is available in both 32bit and 64bit versions from the following site: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/. It is available for Windows XP 32bit, Windows Vista/7 32bit, and Windows Vista/7 64bit.
I have been using this product since the beta was made available and testing it against Trend Micro’s enterprise based products. The end result is that MSE is free and takes very little system resources to operate efficiently in the background. Microsoft has released this product as a replacement for its ‘Live One Care’, which was discontinued. It is important to remember that software can only protect you 75-85% of the time, the rest is up to you.
Some quick rules of thumb:
- Run your computer with a limited user account and use an administrator account to install hardware/software and make system changes (Safety and Security on today’s Internet).
- Always insure that your security software is up to date.
- Never click on links that are un-known and or seem too good to be true, they usually are spyware related.
The following screen shots are of the final build of MSE:
