Microsoft Security Essentials®

Microsoft Security Essentials Overview

Unlike some antivirus software, MSE is an unobtrusive security program that runs quietly in the background while using few system resources. It's effective at preventing most threats and updates automatically, making it ideal for beginning and casual users. However, this tool is not particularly effective at cleaning up computers that are already infected with malware or viruses.

Pros

• Completely free (including definition updates)
• Reasonably effective at protecting "clean" systems
• Uses only a small amount of system resources (CPU, RAM)

Cons

• Slow scanning times
• Mediocre detection and cleanup of infected systems

Microsoft Security Essentials Screenshots

Microsoft Security Essentials Review

Quietly Reliable Threat Prevention

Microsoft Security Essentials functions best as a real-time virus and malware protection agent that runs unobtrusively in the background. Its icon sits quietly in the Windows system tray and requires almost no user attention (unless it detects a threat, of course). Virus definition updates happen frequently and automatically, which ensures users receive the most up-to-date protection.
The real-time protection feature automatically scans websites, emails, downloaded files, and external drives (like USB sticks) before letting anything "into" the user's PC. Like all security software, MSE isn't perfect, but it definitely does well. During testing, visits to several known malicious websites left the computers unscathed.

Performance and System Resource Usage

One of MSE's most important attributes is its efficiency. Users of previous generations of antivirus software, such as Norton 360 and McAfee Total Security, may remember the rather significant performance bite they took out of all but the most powerful PCs. But with MSE, the days of trading performance for security are gone. Even on a five-year-old Windows Vista computer with only 2 GB of RAM, MSE had a negligible performance impact
MSE's active scanner is slightly more intensive than its real-time protection feature, but virus scans typically run only once or twice a week. The built-in scan scheduler allows users to configure scans to run at convenient times, and it also includes a CPU throttle, which allows the users to set the maximum amount of processing power MSE can use.

Virus/Malware Detection and Cleanup

While MSE's real-time protection shines, the product's virus scanning and removal features pass as fairly unremarkable. When MSE is installed on a computer that has already been infected, it tends to not function correctly. Even if it does detect the infection (which it doesn't always do) it often can't completely remove it. But to be fair, Microsoft does not market the product as a virus cleanup tool, and most security companies' antivirus products suffer from similar lackluster results when attempting to remove established infections.
The built-in virus scanner does have a few features worth commenting on, though. It can dip into several layers of compressed file archives (e.g. ZIP and RAR files) and can be set to skip over user-defined files, folders, or even entire drives. Left to its own devices, MSE's system scan is thorough (if somewhat slow). One of the scanner's nicest features is the option to create a System Restore point before deleting any files. While that feature may seem unremarkable, it's important because some viruses hijack critical system files, and deleting them can completely crash the system.

Summary:

For a free, 9 MB download, Microsoft Security Essentials does what it purports to. It provides up-to-date real-time protection that's effective but not resource intensive. In fact, it's easy to forget that MSE is even running. On the virus and malware removal front, it is not especially effective, but several free tools specifically made for threat removal already exist to complement MSE.

Download here:- Microsoft Security Essentials