I believe that software designed to keep you safe and protected should be FREE. Now, I fully support those free solutions using ads to cover their costs and even to promote their paid versions. However I have to draw the line when a company resorts to trickery and deception in order to make a buck. It is time to search for another security solution.

That being said, those of you who have already upgraded to AVG Free 2010 by using our instructions have nothing to worry about. We had you disable the PC Analyzer portion and as for the rest of AVG, it remains top notch.

I searched high and low to find the best FREE solution for all of our security needs. There were many contenders, but when it came down to the results Microsoft had the upper hand.

Microsoft has officially released Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), its free, real-time consumer security solution for fighting viruses, spyware, rootkits, and Trojans. MSE is yet another layer of defense Microsoft is offering to help its customers fight the threats that plague Windows PCs.

MSE should not be installed alongside any other security application. It builds upon Windows Defender by offering both real-time protection and on-demand scanning for all types of malware. Although you will not be asked for personal information or to register for anything, you will need to pass the Windows Genuine Advantage validation to install MSE. Now that you have got the necessary background information, let us take a closer at the different features of MSE.

The Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Microsoft Security Essentials GUI uses the “Keep It Simple” methodology and is not something I would call "bloated" or even “intrusive” like so many of the security products currently on the market. It may not be what you would call pretty, but then again pretty and fighting all the nasties out there really do not go together. A good security solution needs to clearly communicate important information when you are using it; and unless it needs interaction from the user, it should make itself scarce.

MSE makes sure that users know that their PC is safe and protected with green highlighting across the program window and a green taskbar icon.

If the user needs to take action, MSE makes sure users know with red highlighting across the program window and a red taskbar icon.

Microsoft Security Essentials updates itself very quietly in the background. In fact, I was never once bothered by its updating system; the only prompts I received were when the application actually needed my attention, like when it detected a threat that needed to be cleaned. Signatures are updated daily through Microsoft Update, with new signatures being published as often as three times a day. The core security engine is scheduled to update itself with new features and bug fixes on a monthly basis.

The History tab is useful for reviewing how well the program is working, and modifying decisions you have already made on previous detections. It gives you a great overview of what the program has found and also gives more information on each potential threat.

Considering the simplicity of the product, MSE has a surprising number of settings to work with. Power users will enjoy having tons of features to tweak, and I think they will be satisfied with the settings that can be changed in MSE.

Detection

MSE is the first Microsoft security product to make use of the company's new Dynamic Signature Service (DSS). When MSE detects that a file is making suspicious actions (such as unexpected network connections, attempting to modify privileged parts of the system, or downloading known malicious content) and it has no virus signature for it, MSE will send a profile of the suspected malware to Microsoft's servers. If there is a new signature for it, one that has yet to be sent out to the MSE client, MSE will be told how to clean the file. In this way, DSS helps ensure users stay protected by the most current virus definitions available without having to wait for the next scheduled download.

The EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File was developed by the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research, to allow people, companies, and programmers to test their antivirus programs without having to use a real computer virus. There is not a single reputable security product in the market that cannot detect the EICAR test file. I used this test file to demonstrate MSE abilities. The top window is the prompt you get when you try to download the file and the second one you get after you hit the "Clean computer" button.

The threat above was detected while I was browsing the Internet. I did not notice anything odd until MSE told me it had found something and needed a single-click to confirm that I wanted it to finish its job. It did, and I continued browsing, virus-free.

As I continued testing MSE, it either caught threats after they were downloaded and executed, or blocked them from getting onto the computer in the first place. It would be impossible for MSE to have a 100 percent detection rate, but when I uninstalled it and scanned my PC with all of our security scanning tools, they all came up with nothing. Based on my findings, MSE was definitely doing its job well.

Performance And Unobtrusiveness

It should be noted that MSE installs very quickly and is very small. The program's folder takes up only about 13MB. MSE sports a single tray icon (hidden by default in Windows 7) that indicates it is running. The software does not add any browser toolbars, desktop gadgets, or additional bloatware during installation. An Internet connection is required for installation and to download the latest virus and spyware definitions.

MSE includes three features to keep it light: CPU throttling (the system will remain responsive to the user's tasks), idle-time scanning (scans and updates using a low-priority thread and only runs when the PC is idle), and smart caching and active memory swapping (virus signatures not in use are not loaded into memory).

Conclusion

Based on what I have seen so far, I have to recommend that everyone currently using free security software should give MSE a shot, and those with paid solutions should think about taking MSE for a spin before renewing subscriptions.

It should be noted that removing or uninstalling security software can be very tricky. These programs tend to leave all sorts of loose ends behind reeking havoc on your system. The techs at Imberi PC are trained in the techniques used to sucessfully uninstall your old security software and install and configure MSE for your PC.