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Microsoft Security Essentials, free Antivirus

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Old 06-23-2009, 01:52 PM
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Microsoft Security Essentials, free Antivirus

MS just released the beta to their new free AV and I got it running right now. They have retired the Live One Care brand and will now be going the free route. The free version is based off of their Forefront/Live One Care which got the highest "Advanced+" rating in the latest AV-Comparatives test. The program is very lightweight and it installed on my PC in less than 5 secs which is very impressive.

I just did a quick scan and it took 7 minutes (didn't find anything) and while scanning it was using less than 5mb of RAM the whole time!!!! It also runs as a low priority process, is throttled to only use 50% CPU power at the most and only runs when the PC is idle.



When you install it it replaces Windows Defender and it gets its updates via Microsoft Update so there's no extra update program to run. Also this program is free and there is no pay option available or license required, no renewal, etc. You just install it like any other program and forget about it.

Currently it's in beta phase and the beta is limited to 75,000 downloads so if you want in your better jump on it now cause this should fill up in the next day or two.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

so far I'm liking and it and will be switching cause it's very lightweight much less than AVG and avast! and there's no nagging to upgrade to the pay version or renewing of a license every year.

For even more info
http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/mse_beta.asp

AV-comparatives May 2009 (PDF)
http://av-comparatives.org/images/st...c_report22.pdf

Last edited by #1 STUNNA; 06-23-2009 at 01:56 PM.
Old 06-23-2009, 02:09 PM
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I'm going to be interested to see how much of an issue it is to remove. Hopefully just as easy as your installation experience.

My concern is that I have a couple of hundred new off-the-shelf retail laptops enter my work network every year for which I need to apply our corporate AV. I can easily see the OEMs installing this MS product (when it's officially released) on a good majority of their machine builds so that means a lot of computers I'm going to have to remove it from. Who know though, maybe I'll want to leave it. I would assume Microsoft will build centralized management, reporting, and updating into this.
Old 06-23-2009, 02:14 PM
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Oh hell no! This thing will never be installed by OEMs, this is free AV. OEMs get paid by Symantec and McAfee to put their AVs on the OEMs PCs. OEMs aren't going to lose money and put this on there and MS isn't going to pay OEMs to install their free AV either.
Old 06-23-2009, 02:18 PM
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It's free now in the beta phase, but has Microsoft publicly committed to it remaining free once it's an officially released product?
Old 06-23-2009, 02:25 PM
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Isn't this the anti virus company that MS bought like four or five yrs ago?
Old 06-23-2009, 02:29 PM
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Originally Posted by #1 Stunna

ituneshelper.exe
Old 06-23-2009, 02:32 PM
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Yes this will remain free. they have no intention of charging for this. This isn't the new version of One Care it's replacing it with a free version.

It maybe based off of some of the stuff that they acquired from whatever company that was but MS has had an AV product for a few years One Care for consumers and Forefront for enterprise. It's based off of the these technologies. FYI forefront isn't free.
Old 06-23-2009, 02:34 PM
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yeah, I know :embarassed: as soon as I saw it I got rid of it and the jusched.exe. I was gonna take a new pic cause I knew someone was gonna call me out on it but I forgot. I wish you didn't have to re-disable it after every itunes update.
Old 06-23-2009, 03:43 PM
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^^ yeah, had to give you a hard time, all in good fun
Old 06-23-2009, 04:53 PM
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Downloaded!
Old 06-23-2009, 04:57 PM
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Suite.
Old 06-24-2009, 01:04 AM
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Originally Posted by rza49311
^^ yeah, had to give you a hard time, all in good fun
It's ok, I would've done the samething iTuneshelper and qttask FTL
Old 06-24-2009, 12:29 PM
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It's gone
Old 06-24-2009, 01:46 PM
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How Microsoft had the nerve to place their company name alongside the word "security" is beyond me, given the endless security patches for their OS's and Internet Explorer and the fact that their Microsoft Defender antispyware product is about as useful as boobs on a bull.
Old 06-24-2009, 01:54 PM
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anyone got a mirror of the file somewhere? Microsoft pulled the installer.
Old 06-24-2009, 02:00 PM
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yup it's gone. I'm sure the release candidate will be a broader release. This was only released in 3 regions, US, Brazil and Israel. Brazil cause a lot of people with PCs there don't use AV and Israel cause that's where the team working on this product is located.
Old 06-24-2009, 02:00 PM
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I downloaded the 64 bit version, IDk what everyone else downloaded.
Old 06-24-2009, 02:11 PM
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Originally Posted by #1 Stunna
yup it's gone. I'm sure the release candidate will be a broader release. This was only released in 3 regions, US, Brazil and Israel. Brazil cause a lot of people with PCs there don't use AV and Israel cause that's where the team working on this product is located.
Did you keep the installer? You could share it.
Old 06-24-2009, 02:11 PM
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Originally Posted by SidS1045
How Microsoft had the nerve to place their company name alongside the word "security" is beyond me, given the endless security patches for their OS's and Internet Explorer and the fact that their Microsoft Defender antispyware product is about as useful as boobs on a bull.


Originally Posted by AZuser
anyone got a mirror of the file somewhere? Microsoft pulled the installer.
I have the 3 files. PM me if you want.
Old 06-24-2009, 02:18 PM
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Try this:

http://cid-49c4ad4f6a1d9149.skydrive...tMTeyyjEbFc%24
Old 06-24-2009, 02:24 PM
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Whiskers with the Sky Drive! technically it is a violation of the terms of use, but whatev!

and yeah I'm not even going to respond to that troll comment above.
Old 06-24-2009, 02:32 PM
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Originally Posted by #1 Stunna
Whiskers with the Sky Drive! technically it is a violation of the terms of use, but whatev!

and yeah I'm not even going to respond to that troll comment above.
I thought the same about the violation, but whatever. I can take down if needed.
Old 06-24-2009, 02:33 PM
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I don't care, I ain't sayin shit! And I'm sure they don't really care either. All it does is give them better and more diverse data to analyze.

So what do you think of it so far?
Old 06-24-2009, 02:53 PM
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Originally Posted by #1 Stunna
I don't care, I ain't sayin shit! And I'm sure they don't really care either. All it does is give them better and more diverse data to analyze.

So what do you think of it so far?
Not too bad, didn't catch anything, but I had Symantec on it before....Doing a full scan now.
Old 06-24-2009, 03:14 PM
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I recently caved and purchased adaware and so far it's been worth the $.
Old 06-24-2009, 03:25 PM
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Thanks Whiskers
Old 06-24-2009, 03:36 PM
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http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivir...sentials.shtml

they got'em all too.
Old 06-24-2009, 03:43 PM
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The last time I paid for any malware protection was when I didn't know any better. I think it was norton something or other in 2001, I also bought the black ice firewall but that wasn't compatible with xp sp2
Old 06-24-2009, 04:35 PM
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I don't know which version Whisker's is offering, but I have the Vista 32-bit install on my computer. Let me know if you want it.
Old 06-24-2009, 06:06 PM
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Originally Posted by wackjum
I don't know which version Whisker's is offering, but I have the Vista 32-bit install on my computer. Let me know if you want it.
One for XP, One for Vista (32) and the other for Vista (64)
Old 06-24-2009, 06:10 PM
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Originally Posted by Whiskers
Thanks, I needed an XP version. The Vista version seems to be working well.
Old 06-24-2009, 06:30 PM
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:thief: Thanks!!!
Old 06-24-2009, 06:34 PM
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Originally Posted by rza49311
Pulled mine off so not to get arrested.
Old 06-30-2009, 12:28 AM
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Well I guess it works I was just chillin not doing anything shady and I got a pop up in the lower right corner say it has found a potential threat. I'm not sure if it was doing a system scan or not. but this is what happened.




I'm not sure if this was a false positive or what but since this program supposedly has the least amount of false positives compared to other AVs I'll assume this was legit.
Old 06-30-2009, 06:13 AM
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Putting on my 7 install now...
Old 06-30-2009, 10:20 AM
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is this better than avg? that's what i have at home right now.
Old 06-30-2009, 10:22 AM
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<--- been running it....it seems pretty cool...hasn't found anything yet.
Old 06-30-2009, 11:12 AM
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Originally Posted by JediMindTricks
is this better than avg? that's what i have at home right now.
It's built off of the same AV engine as Live One Care and Forefront and they've been ranking pretty good on the AV comparatives test. Also it's much less of a resource hog compared to AVG and you don't have to deal with being harassed to upgrade to the pay version since there is no pay version and you don't have to get a license key and renew it every year.
Old 06-30-2009, 11:22 AM
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Anyone know if there is a "scan history"?

...as in dates of last scans...and the results?
Old 06-30-2009, 11:29 AM
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I don't like the fact it only scans your network activity. It won't scan USB drives. I'll still be using Avast.


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