Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus software is now live and free
By Donald Melanson 
posted Sep 29th 2009 1:27PM
posted Sep 29th 2009 1:27PM
In a move that's sure to please a few million Windows users and break the hearts of a handful of anti-virus companies, Microsoft has now finally made the non-beta version of its Security Essentials software available to the general public, and it's not even asking that you throw a launch party to get it for free. For those not in on the beta or following Microsoft's exciting forays into freeware, the software promises to cover all the security basics and fend off viruses, spyware and other malicious software, and Microsoft even assures us that it'll "run quietly in the background" and only intrude on your life when an action is required. You'll also, of course, get free updates on a regular basis, and it'll work just fine whether you use Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 -- hit up the link below to grab a copy.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
that is awesome!! MS is really taking step forward to virus-free windows :)
well I already purchased my 1 year renewal from kaspersky so i think ill play the old wait and see game to see how it plays out before I dive in.
got 3 users Kaspersky for $25 CAD...
Sad that microsoft has to release AV for windoes, Apple is gonna be all over this...
i'll totally install it if it's better than the avira antivir
Question is, is it free for commercial use?
Astroturfers out in force today.
Yes, it's free for commercial use.
Er, that is, if home business is what you meant by commercial. The product is licensed for home and "home-based small business" use only.
I've been using AVG since I installed W7 RC. Would this be a good replacement?
Well now if the firewall they have is any good I will get rid of McAfee, a total resource hog
LONG OVERDUE. This really should have been an OS feature to begin with. Patching holes and providing security closer to *nix based systems to make the system operate is a definite plus (hence the word OPERATING system).
Now for those of us who shelled out extra for Microsoft OneCare, which is now discontinued, ... wtf?
All I want is a secure OS, spell checker, and a dvd codec without having to pay through the nose for Operating $ystem + Third party Virus Protection + Third party codecs + MS Office, etc. etc. These extras add up and its no wonder why Microsoft has slipped in the last decade.
WUT NOW APPLE??
you're precious "PCs have viruses" argument gets more inane by the day!
in yo face, apple! IN *pelvic thrust* YO *pelvic thrust* FACE!! *pelvic thrust*
There are legitimate complaints about this. The argument against it would be that it will drive AV companies out of business, and then MS might subsequently fail to keep their AV software up-to-date, leaving everyone worse off (well, okay, consumers $50 richer but perhaps more poorly protected).
I'm not saying MS shouldn't offer free AV, just saying there is an argument that it might be a bad thing.
@Sentax
As long as your OS is geniune, but management features are only available to ForeFront users, those users also get 24/7 responses from Microsoft if they suffer from a virus attack.
But basically, it works for home users and great!
As long as MS doesn't attempt to bundle MSSE with OS sales, they shouldn't encounter any issues with trade laws.
stupid question, so whats windows defender been doing?
@OneLove
It removes spyware, I think you do realise if they bundle an antivirus product.... EU will treat them as a ATM again.
@UnixSystemsEngineer
It's a valid argument, certainly, that Microsoft needs to do at least as good a job as the anti-virus companies in order for this to work. However, I am of the opinion that the platform should be secure by default and that you should not need 3rd party software to achieve this. Given this I am fully supporting Microsoft on this but do feel that this is something that should have been done many years ago.
virus protection,from MICROSOFT............anyone else see the irony of that,i'll pass
Lolwat?
No, I don't see the irony in that. Considering they already have one care out for a few years now. I think one care is exceptionally good. And i hope this one is even better.
In what way do you think is this ironic? It might be ironic if Microsoft was a *producer* of viruses, but I don't see how it's ironic for a company to issue virus protection software for an operating system that suffers from the viruses of others.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Malware protection in Snow Leoaprd? Anyone else see the irony in that?
This is the best move Microsoft has made in years. They can no longer try and ignore virus problems in Windows, but they can provide a good, free way for users to protect themselves and in turn improve their image.
Sorry the Windoze fans had to down vote you because you made fun of their God. I agree, Microsoft releasing anti-virus?! Not only will it cause crashes, it will probably cause more open holes and hog up all of your resources...I will pass indeed.
The more irony thing is get a mac ads on virus are useless now.
The same fruit company even put a dodgy antimalware which is so behind, that I actually find Windows Defender is much useful.
I'm sorry I need to feed the troll...
@Jon
"Not only will it cause crashes, it will probably cause more open holes and hog up all of your resources"
You have no facts or basis to back up this statement in any form or means at all. This is just pure crap being spewed over the precious Earth from your mouth. If you had been using the beta of this software, you would indeed know first hand that none of what you are saying is even remotely true, and the world would have yet one less person spewing their crap all over on subjects they know nothing about.
Awesome!!
If updates are on an as-needed basis as opposed to "weekly" or "monthly", that I'd be willing to consider ditching my mish-mosh of security programs. My only concern is that this is putting all of our eggs in one, fragile basket.
@NHAnimator
There are 3 updates daily, generally speaking you can expect Windows Update to install it automantically as soon as they out.
I personally don't use anti-virus software, but I can appreciate this from Microsoft
2nd. I haven't run any antivirus or antispyware on my XP system in years. Many years.
That said, I may download/install this just to try it out and see what it'll do. It would be nice to be able to recommend something to people ask and actually know something about it.
U realize that if you get virus, your computer can become zombie and spread it to the rest of us or participate in DoS attack. This is not just about you being cool and not use any AV protection.
Well it's actually about me not being a complete moron when it comes to opening email attachments and surfing porn/viruses all day.
Trust me, my machine is clean.
not to start arguing about details, but .... hackers try to break into legit web sites these days and push viruses (and other stuff) to your PC through your web browser. It does not have to be port site.
this is a bit older sample
http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2008/03/13/follow-up-to-yesterdays-mass-hack-attack/
@ack154 I hope you are less naive than you sound.
@ack154
I never trust anyone that says "trust me"
Do all of us a favor and stop being so cocky and naive. At least admit you're using some kind of malware/spyware removal software like SpyBot or Malware Bytes.
I haven't been running any AV software on Win7 since the beta, but I grabbed this from MS to see how it works out.
"At least admit you're using some kind of malware/spyware removal software like SpyBot or Malware Bytes."
You know, I have installed Malware Bytes before for fun... doesn't find anything. So why have it? Same with antivirus. I have corporate copies of Symantec if I want them... but considering there are no viruses on my system, why install them? They just take up resources. So no, I can't admit that I'm using either of those. Malwarebytes is by far the BEST (at the moment) for removing spyware. I use it every day at work cleaning up people's computers who DO have antivirus, firewalls, etc but STILL manage to get ungodly amounts of spyware/viruses on their systems (I still can't figure that out).
I don't think a month goes by at work when we don't get some sort of "alert" sent around to not open some random email about a "ups shipment" or other crap immediately followed by a flood of cases to our queue from people who have opened it. Even after being told time and time again to NOT open shady attachments.
You guys are taking this the wrong way though. I'm not trying to be cocky about it. I'm just trying to say that it is easily possible to not run any of that crap and have a totally clean system. You have to use some common sense, avoid internet explorer, and not be an idiot about email. Don't get me wrong, if I end up with some sort of virus, there's no one to blame but myself - but I'll worry about that if it ever happens.
Not taking any sides here, but I don't use anti-virus either. I feel confident enough in my browsing experience to know not to click on anything that will destroy my computer.
But when something wigs out, I format this sucker before you can say trojan. With everything on externals and with Windows 7 taking 20 minutes to format/install, it barely takes any effort. Using this method, I've formatted once every few months (with or w/o a virus), and I'm one happy camper.
Back in the days of dial-up Internet, I used to think that way (didn't need a firewall or anti-virus.) My thinking was that I could never get hit with something because hackers were going after corporations with broadband not small fry like me with dial-up. Also, I kept my computers up to date with security patches and was very careful about my web browsing. I lasted many years in that state until one fateful day, I got hit. I had basically signed onto my ISP and walked away for a few minutes to take care of something. When I got back to the computer, I found that it was trashed.
That one incident, and having to spend a whole weekend rebuilding a system, caused me to never again run without a firewall and anti-virus protection.
"hackers try to break into legit web sites these days and push viruses (and other stuff) to your PC through your web browser."
No... really? Get right out of town!
Considering your link is so old AND using IE, I'm not really taking it incredibly seriously. Not to mention the guy in the video clicked Open on the shady "codec" download. If you are honestly still falling for that, you NEED this software from MS and anything I say isn't going to help you.
@ack154: Dumb question, if you don't run a virus program/scanner it seems that you can't say with authority that your system is clean, even if you are. If you run a scan to prove it, then you *are* using anti-virus software, IMHO, although only in the non-resident sense. Is that what you're doing?
I used to run this way for many years. I have considered turning off my resident AV stuff, too, because it has pretty much NEVER caught anything.
@Elric
It's a fair question... and a logical one. But I can say with my own authority that it is clean. I'm confident enough in my knowledge of Windows, running processes, spyware/virus, computer forensics, rootkits and everything else about my own computer to know what it is and is not doing.
Add to that the fact that on a daily... eh, weekly basis I see more systems at work that VERY OBVIOUSLY have viruses and spyware on them that many common antivirus/spyware apps do not detect (Symantec Corporate, SEP, Trendmicro's Housecall online, Spybot, Adaware, Malwarebytes, etc). I'm not incredibly sold on the reliability of some of those applications when it comes to telling me if a threat is present or not.
ack154 is 100% in the right here.
Should people in general stop using virus protection software? No, no one is saying that. But there are definitely those of us who do not need virus protection software because we know how virus infection occurs and therefore know how to avoid it entirely. Quit flaunting your ignorance by criticizing someone who understands his/her Windows system at a level far above yourselves.
I actually never used a serious anti virus after my ESET finished either, but now im going to download this just in case. i trust my own Internet habits, but since i take my laptop to school everyday and have 5 different usb drives from peers getting plugged in and all that kinda stuff, better be safe than sorry.
plus, since im running windows 7 and it doesn't really hog resources, thats not really a complain of mine. my system still idles at 3-4 percent cpu usage while the software is running, higher while scanning.
@ack154:
to think that you are immune to viruses because you're too smart to go to the wrong websites is naive.
every browser has vulnerabilities, every website is prone to 0-day attacks, and no AV product has 100% detection rates.
if your computer is connected to the internet and you're browsing the web, there is a possibility of getting infected.
I'm usually a Linux and Mac user so I really notice when virus scans slow down computers.
I ran virus scans on my Windows machines for years... I NEVER had it find even ONE virus (Gave me crap about having Cain and Able on my machine).
Most of the time I leave it disabled because I'm annoyed by how much it slows down my computer (it's only a AMD64 3500+).
I realize that being careful doesn't make me impermeable to viruses... but I've done just fine avoiding them. I even run the scan from time to time to make sure I'm clean. Still good. No reason to bother running it all the time.
Windows is only so vulnerable to viruses because there are so many more (supid) users. So keep running your virus scans and keeping us safe! :P
Even if your habits are generally safe, it may not take much to contract a virus. For example, if you lend a flash drive to a friend, it may pick up a virus and pass it on, from simple insertion into your computer. Sometimes virus installers can be disguised as dialog boxes or otherwise and can be difficult to recognize.
This is going to be interesting... I wonder how it'll stack up to its competitors, today and in the future.
amen - my biggest question is what will the impact on system resources (compared to an AVG) be?
@Paul
AVG isn't really considered all that good anymore. It's already more bloated than it used to be and the detection rates have declined.
totally agree, AVG was great 6 years ago. I started using AVAST last year and it works pretty dam good even with 512MB ram
Yep, Avast! or Avira for me.
If at all.
thanks guys - this is great info
i have noticed in the past year or two that it seems to be bloated compared to the old days.
@Paul
Just look at the installation file size...
AVG = 30 MB
MSE = 5 MB
@Paul, I was using AVG on a Win Vista and 7 machine. On the Vista machine, it would boot fast but run slowly at desktop for a for a few minutes because of a AVG background process. On the Win 7 machine, it would take a long time to boot (up to 70 secs) but run relatively fast when it got to desktop. I removed AVG from both machines and installed MS Security Essentials -- and the the performance problems disappeared on both machines. For instance, Win 7 boot-up time is now 20 secs. I like AVG, but over the years, it's become a bloated resource hog.
I've been using this since it was on beta, doesn't use up your system resources, runs well on my grandmas 1.8ghz 512ram computer.
Running a scan now - looks pretty clean so far...
according to tests, it ranks high up with the other free antivirus alternatives in terms of detection and removal, however the scan times are quite slow... I believe this was tested in pc world magazine
The full scan time is fairly slow, but it seems about similar to Nod32 for a full scan. I don't mind that so much, the big deal is the performance impact of filesystem monitoring/on-access scanning. I've only been using it for a couple hours, but on my X61s with just a 5400 RPM hard drive on Win7 32bit, it's impressive. I'm talking old Nod32 v3 speeds. That's pretty impressive, but we'll see how it holds up as I pick up on annoyances over time.
This is an excellent product actually.
I know several enterprises are switching to this exclusively because of the cost and low impact it has on performance.
I have been using it at home on my W7 box since beta opened and it has been great. Caught several files of questionable intent and has been completely nag-free.
Give it a try, I doubt you'll be disappointed.
U must be joking, right? This is NOT enterprise level software, never was and never will be. Microsoft Forefront Client Security is business class antivirus tool, it has been out there for a while.
I'm not kidding, no.
I didn't say every enterprise would want to use it, but I know of at least two companies who are using it that are 300+ users each.
It really depends on your needs and network structure.
Well, good luck with that. This is classic example how not to save money. I would never use antivirus without central management console.
in my opinion, company with 300+ PCs should not only use end-client antivirus with central management console, but also email antivirus and internet antivirus gateway as well
You're such a jackass lol
of COURSE in conjunction with network filtering and email filtering on the server side.
This is just a way to avoid paying Symantec $5000-10000 a year just for the benefit of being able to click a button and force a scan immediately...
Not for everyone, like I said.
wow, 300+ users and no central management? That's like an IT's worse nightmare..
hahaha ok
you install it via login script (or included in the image for new deployments) with pre-set values for scanning and updating, and lock it down so users can't mess with the settings.
and you're done, that's it, but obviously this only works in systems where everyone has internet access.
It's not perfect but it's CHEAP, ie FREE.
Ok I'm done with this comment thread lmao
Matt G, please don't call people jackass just because they don't agree with you.
assuming average salary $50k year, 300 users means $15mm in salary a year alone. Spending $5k a year on solid antivirus solution is really a drop in the bucket and money well spend.
btw this software is for home or home-office use only, if you use it in the business you violate software agreement
# INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.
* Use. You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your devices in your household for use by people who reside there or for use in your home-based small business.
@JimboJones
This software was actually built on Forefront. So go away and stop trolling.
What does that have to do with anything? It's still not legal to use it in the office and does not have any central management console.
Leaving your security to an end-user client compared to a central management would be an obvious bad move and as the person above be pointed out 300+ employees including managment would more then enough justify saving a measly 5k. CM can provide more then protection to a network admin like identifying trends, reports, and reliable notification system.
Jimbo is 100% correct. Any company who runs this is breaking the software agreement as this is only for the home user. I would never use this at my company, there is a reason you pay for AV in corporation, CENTRAL MANAGEMENT! Microsoft Forefront is one that you pay for.
Can I get the names of those companies that are deploying this? I would love to send them my business card to help with viruses they will get from users (not saying the program is bad) and help to remove it and install an enterprise product.
@Jebus
WUSU will be able to manage and push those definition updates as they need, really not a huge problem on enterprise network.
Kit, it's not only about pushing dat files, it's about scanning on demand, being notified about virus attacks, easy central cleaning. If new virus hits 30 PCs across 4 locations in your company, you will get crazy with cleaning if you don't use central console (its not impossible, but much harder).
Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus is good free solution and I'm happy its finally out of beta, but it's not product for business. Not only it does not have features business needs, it is also illegal to use it in business other than home office.
Wow... Hopefully it won't use the crazy amount of system resources that Norton/Symantec/everything else uses. I'll give it a try when I get home.
you obviously haven't used NIS 09 or even better Norton 2010... less than 7mb usage when sitting idle.
I shall stick with AVAST for now ...
Yeah the last two releases of Norton have been amazing.
However, I've been using the Beta of Security Essentials for a few months and it's just as good. To the poster sticking with Avast...have fun with that...
@Swizz you must have never looked, because MSE is only using 2mb idle
Yeah because over 7mb would be far too much RAM, especially when machines usually have 2GB+
/sarcasm
ESET Smart Security FTW
i try to love Microsoft but software crash way to much
O_o What are you doing to your computer? I haven't seen a crash since Vista Beta 2.
Haven't had a problem since 2005.
When in doubt, make things up
i have Windows Vista Home Basic, maybe i just have a crappy computer
I haven't had a crash since I switched to OSX. (I know, I know cheesy fanboyism. Let the down ranking commence)
No one's gonna downrank you. You said you've haven't had a problem, not "I switched to OSX, I have no more problems like crappy Windows haahahaa! Steve Jobs is Lord."
In fact. I shall up-rank you.
I'll pile on a bit here as well. I've found both Windows XP (post-SP2) and Mac OS X near-impossible to crash. The only times I can recall truly crashing either OS was when I did something truly impossible to deal with - such as unplug the drive the computer is booted from. Otherwise, they tend to both be rock-solid from that perspective.
It's my subjective opinion that less "cruft" builds up on Mac OS X, but I attribute that mostly to the clean filesystem layout that makes it easier to find - and I also know where to look. Windows has far more nooks and crannies than the Mac.
And back to security, because *someone* is going to bring it up... Windows viruses are still a very real threat, especially to novice computer users (and let's face it - most people are). Network worms more or less died out with XP SP2. It's still far easier to get infected through routine use on Windows than on a Mac. On the Mac, there have been a couple proof-of-concept Trojans, but that's about it - and nothing can protect the system when the user clicks "OK" to all of the security dialogs. This software - if the reviews are true and it is well-supported in the future - could significantly change the security landscape on Windows, and perhaps both Windows and the Mac can be just as secure as they are stable today.
Where is the food chain?. M$ eats all and not sharing. Still I downloaded a copy.
Does this work on SERO?
People still get viruses?
I know that's a little short-sighted, but I haven't got a virus in a long time. Maybe we all stopped screwing around on those websites, or the virus makers are giving us a break...
UAC.
Actually LOTS of people still do. Most everyone lumps spyware into viruses. It's the difference between an experienced web user, and an inexperienced one. We know what to look for and what to avoid. I haven't had a virus program pickup a genuine threat in years. What concerns me is Microsoft who's in bed with so many nefarious orgs, defining what a threat to my computer is. Maybe a program comes out that strips the Zune DRM, Microsoft calls it a virus... Or maybe your favorite bit torrent software.
As someone who does neighborly support for average computer users, you better believe they still get them. And they seem to get nastier and harder to remove every year.
I've been using this since the beta and it's awesome. I read it installed over the beta, but the beta auto updates to the new version. It has caught stuff that other scanners have missed and has a very small foot print. This is product has been the most impressive to me out of all the cool new things that MS has been pumping out (Zune HD, Win7, and MSE).
It's free and totally worth it, so it's absolutely worth a try.
Just look how happy that couple is because they installed Microsoft Security Essentials. She clearly loves him more as a result. I think it's wonderful that Microsoft has undertaken not only to secure my computer, but also to improve my marriage. What a company.
And nothing says "smart choice" better than Asians!
A virus free marriage is a happy marriage.
By the way: that laptop they installed it on -- that's a Macbook with the Apple logo photoshopped out, right?
No that's a VAIO by Sony. Nice try though