After many years of dealing with viruses, spyware and ‘malware’, Microsoft has finally released “Microsoft Security Essentials” (MSE), a FREE antivirus/antispyware/antimalware software!
I ran the beta since the first day it was release on XP, Vista and Windows 7 machines, and it’s done a superb job. It even caught random trojan horse spyware on websites and files downloaded from the web.
I’ve pushed NOD32 for several years because I liked how thin/simple the software was when installed. Like MSE, NOD32 focused on JUST doing it’s job of watching for viruses and spyware. I became increasingly frustrated and bothered by Norton/Symantec antivirus software because they would force other “features” on you that just slowed down the machine and didn’t seem to give much more help. They effectively took over the system and caused far too many pop-ups and warnings, and hogged way too much memory and system resources. Thankfully, MSE seems to be perfect.
If you know me and trust me, do this:
- UNINSTALL your other antivirus software from the “Control Panel –> Add/Remove Programs” menu.
- Reboot your computer.
- Download and run Microsoft Security Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/Security_essentials/)
- Reboot your computer.
- Run a FULL scan just before you head to bed so it can run all night.