Microsoft Security Essentials Free Released & Why You Should/Shouldn't Download It

I know a lot of websites has covered this, but i just can't help covering it myself, particularly as i am a user who has been running it on my Vista machine for three and a half months. The long-awaited freeware security tool of the year, Microsoft Security Essentials, has just been released for public download yesterday, having been in private beta since 23rd June 2009. Download is made available at its official Security Essentials website and will be available for 32-bit and 64 bit version of Windows XP, Vista and 7.

As a tester myself, i felt that the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials is pretty solid. As a basic antimalware, it is extremely easy to use and configure, is good-looking, very silent in the background that you wouldn't even know it's there, and best of all, it is FREE of charge. Some issues regarding high CPU usage and slow removal process which occurs during the beta testing stage is removed in the final release, making Security Essentials a very complete and reliable security product.

 

Detection-wise, it is pretty strong as well. I pitched Microsoft Security Essentials against Kaspersky and Avast! during my beta-testing stage, and it catches a few things that Avast! and Kaspersky missed. In fact, it is so stable and compatible, you can run Security Essentials with many other antivirus, though it is of course, not recommendable.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a stripped-down version of the now-unsupported Windows Live OneCare; this much is widely known by many computer enthusiasts who follow the IT headlines everyday. I am repeating this fact here because i think it is necessary to tell readers that Security Essentials is only meant for users searching for a basic PC protection. In Security Essentials, you will have the usual antivirus and antispyware module, but bear in mind that it does NOT offer Antispam, Anti-rootkit, behavioral protection or any other more advanced security methods such as cloud detection or sandboxing.

All in all, I would agree most critics that Microsoft Security Essentials as a good antivirus, but i would only recommend it to users who are asking only basic security protection. For complete protection, users will still have to find additional security tools such as a third-party firewall (Comodo, for example) or a behavioral detection tool such as Drive Sentry.

Learn more and download the final release of Microsoft Security Essentials from the Microsoft Security Essentials official website.

For a professional review of the security software, you can read Paul  Thurrott's reviews here.