Microsoft Security Essentials Review

Recently, Microsoft released Security Essentials their free antivirus and antimalware software. It’s a simplistic program that will compete with the free offerings from AVG, Antivir and Avast.

For those on a tight budget or those who run unprotected systems, this successor to Microsoft Live One Care  is as an obvious consideration for antivirus and antispyware. But does it actually work?

So far, the answer is yes.

The system requirements are pretty easy to meet. You need to be running Windows XP 32-bit, Vista or Windows 7 and you need 1GB of RAM. So, if your PC is from the last five years, Security Essentials is likely to run. Obviously, you’ll need to check your system first.

First, some great news. The download was ridiculously fast, the installation procedure was extremely simple and the definitions updated more quickly than Antivir. The interface is sparse, which threw me for a loop. You don’t normally see this kind of “stripped-down” software in the security world, where bloated code and feature touting reign.

One install caveat: you need to submit to Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage validation during the install. Not a serious concern for most, but still a bit “Big Brothery” for our tastes.

Memory usage fluctuated, but averaged around 65MB. The initial scan barely affected system performance; I let it run while I continued working on other tasks.  The time to complete the scan was very good too (about 2/3 of the time of the other major freeware AV vendors). Realtime protection caused minimal delays and were quite livable. We wish that Microsoft would offer an option on the system tray icon to temporarily disable it, but it can be done from within the program settings.

My big question? Is this software actually doing anything to protect my system? It’s way too early to expect accurate results from our real-world usage, but AV-Comparatives recently rated it as one of the best for protection and a low number of false positives. Of the five infected systems we’ve thrown it on, all have cleaned up nicely.

Conclusion: I’ve run without antivirus software for years and I just may keep this one. It’s that seamless.