Microsoft Security Essentials

Description

Standalone antivirus product Microsoft Security Essentials has caused a stir, as might be expected when the words "Microsoft" and "free" are involved. It aims to cover the basic security needs of home users, and its easy-to-use interface appears to be taking the right approach to the task.

It's easy to get started with Microsoft Security Essentials. When you launch it for the first time, the program will download and install Microsoft's most up-to-date virus definitions and then scan your system. Once installed, the software keeps current by automatically downloading new virus definitions daily via Windows Update. The Microsoft Security Essentials interface is clear-cut and cleanly designed. At the top of the window, you'll see your computer's protection status--protected, partially protected, or unprotected. Everything else appears in four tabs: Home (which shows you an overview of your settings, and has a Scan Now button), Update (where you can manually update your virus-definition files), History (which logs all of the malware cleaned from your system) and Settings (self-explanatory).

In AV-Test performance results, MSE detected 98.44 percent of AV-Tests's collected zoo of 545,034 viruses, worms, backdoors, bots and Trojans, an entirely respectable showing. However, it didn't do nearly as well when it came to detecting adware and spyware, such as bank info stealers, and detected only 90.95 percent of the 14,222 samples. MSE was able to clean up all of the active components from 25 different test infections, meaning the malware was effectively neutered. It identified and removed all 25 rootkits (stealth technology used to hide other malware) used in the tests.

Overall, these results show that Security Essentials holds its own as a free standalone antivirus app. As with most other options in that category, it doesn't provide a firewall, behavioral detection, or other security extras. But since Vista and Windows 7 already include a two-way firewall, and you can add top-notch behavioral protection with another free app like Threatfire, MSE looks like a good budget choice for baseline antivirus protection.