Microsoft Security Essential - FREE Antivirus software

This is what got me all excited and started on this free software search, thanks to Microsoft. As I mentioned on my previous post, I needed an anti-virus program and commom one I know of are Norton and McAfee, which cost money to buy that is paid on a yearly basis subscription. Paying $20 a year is very cheap but if you can get it for free, why not and use the money for something else. Anyway, as I was searching for a product I came accross an article about Microsoft providing free anti-virus service called "Security Essential" so I did some research and this is what I found out:


Excerp from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353699,00.asp:

Security Essentials successfully detected all of AV-Test's current wildlist samples, nearly 4,000 of them. In a test using over 500,000 samples of viruses, worms, Trojans, and other high-risk malware, the product detected 98.44 percent. It wasn't quite as effective in a separate test using about 14,000 adware and spyware samples, but it still detected 90.95 percent of them.

Excerp from http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/290838/review/security_essentials_beta.html:

The app's ability to detect and block malware was neither especially good nor particularly bad. Its 97.8 percent overall detection rate put it in fourth; but it did well in proactive tests, which use two- and four-week-old signature databases to simulate how well a program detects new, unknown malware. Its results of 52 percent and 43.8 percent, respectively, were second only to those of the top-ranked Avira AntiVir Personal, our overall winner.

I have downloaded and installed it on my system. It is pretty simple to install and setup. Scan does takes long but if you schedule it when you are not using the computer than it should not bother you. Also, it does provide real time protection and update defintion automatically.

Finally, if you are not sure of using a free anti-virus read this article titled "Can You Trust Free Antivirus Software?" at http://www.pcworld.com/article/170587-2/can_you_trust_free_antivirus_software.html

I hoped I saved you some money on protecting your computer from virus.