Microsoft Security Essentials praised by expert
- Tue, 20 Oct 2009
- Comments (15)
A security researcher has said that Microsoft's free anti-malware product is better than many paid-for security programs.
Jerome Segura of of ParetoLogic said that he had tested Microsoft Security Essentials' ability to detect a "pretty common" Trojan that many security products don't pick up.
Security Essentials did detect the Trojan every time he tested it, despite the fact that the Trojan changed its code slightly each time in order to try and evade detection.
"As far as I'm concerned, I find that it beats a lot of the paid AV products," said Segura in his Malware Diaries blog.
Segura also praised the program for its small footprint, only requiring 11MB of hard disk space.
Microsoft Security Essentials was launched in September to a barrage of criticism from other security software vendors.
Con Mallon of Symantec told Web User in a live chat in September: "The MS offering is basic at best. We offer a lot more security functionality and utility and I believe that the majority of people will see that to be the case."
The report will delight Microsoft, which launches Windows 7 today.
If you want to test your knowledge of Microsoft's operating system, take our Windows Quiz, or view our Windows Timeline, which charts the 24-year evolution of the OS.




Comments
Latest comments
October 21 21:42
Syed Muhammad Fahad
I have 2 laptops. I installed it on the one that has VISTA. It runs in paralell with AVG Security Suit. I think MSE is far better than AVG both in terms of RAM usage and quickness of thread detection. However, the full Scan of MSE is a little bit slower than AVG but that's of no importance. If I have to full scan via AVG, it sucks up all my RAM and the laptop looks kinda useless unless the scan completes. This is not the case with MSE. The only reason why AVG is still out there is because of its other security features that MSE lacks. However, I am still serious to remove AVG completely.
ONE COMPLAINT
I have the other laptop with WinServer2003 and since MSE is not available for server versions, I can't use it on that machine. That's the ony complaint I have with Microsoft since I have to use Symantec Corporate AV for my WinServer 2003[Though it also works well]
October 22 04:18
D. Kurtz
MSE is excellent. We use it on all our desktops. It is much better than the paid bloatware crap we uninstalled. N _ _ _ _ _, Mc _ _ _ _ etc. garbage. We are in no way fanboys of microsoft. People say the most rude things when they are jealous or threatened. Get a life.
October 22 19:39
Bob
Another blog posting that makes decision based on VirusTotal logs. Dont these experts ever learn that VT is 10% of the protection story. Most of these products detect a lot more through other technologies than what VT shows
October 23 19:05
John
@Bob
VirusTotal is the #1 online virus checker.
If you can't have your AV properly detect threats through it, then you've got some serious work to do.
I can't afford to install the full version of each AV and do testing, so VirusTotal comes in handy and I trust the results.