Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 hits the streets in time for Christmas 2010

Tony Austin
Thursday, 23 December 2010 16:04

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) version 2.0 was released without fanfare on 16 December, making an already very well-regarded security suite into quite a formidable opponent for the other free security suites and especially for the paid ones.

MSE 2.0 is free (but available only to 'genuine Windows' users), and is available in 32-bit or 64-bit flavors  either directly from the Microsoft Download Center or via the MSE home page.

I've used many of the main vendor's' security products over the years, more recently trying AVG and Avast! suites, both retail and free versions, some with more stability/upgrade troubles than others.

After carefully following comparative tests and reviews by people I respect (such as this and the Wikipedia entry) I decided several months ago to give MSE a try, and haven't looked back since.

I found the previous MSE version to be simple to install, and painless to keep up to date due to its tight integration with the built-in Windows Update procedures (with daily or on-demand updates). It interacts seamlessly with the Windows Firewall and other Windows components.

It raised a warning every month or two that was easy to understand and respond to. I think several of the warnings were false positives (I've got heaps of developer tools on my machine, and it's no wonder that the odd executable or two in that lot would appear to MSE to be highly suspect).

There were also one or two warnings that proved to ne real malware - no matter how careful you are, sooner or later some nastie or other is bound to make its way to your system - which MSE appropriately quarantined and subsequently deleted.

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