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Microsoft free antivirus program any good?

HiFiCanada

HiFiCanada

Caregiver
:scratch2:My McAfee anti virus program needs to be renewed soon, I was looking at the Microsoft website and I see that they have a free anti virus program that I can download.
I am not sure how good the Microsoft anti virus program is? Any advise would be appreciated.
 
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I use it on a couple machines. It seems to work OK... Still leary of it though... kinda feels like handing C. Sheen the keys to the chicken ranch..
 
I use it on a couple of laptops here. Seems ok. Not very fancy which is a plus I think.

I have also used the free and paid versions of AVG.
 
Using MSE 1.95 version on my Dell 4500 without any problems so far. Also, I have WinPatrol & SUPERAntiSpyware to compliment it.

Additional tools to check for bugs & such on my computer:
CWShredder
Glary Utilities PRO
HijackThis

Rome
 
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I use MSSE exclusively on my computers. No one program blocks everything but this one seems to be as effective as anything that I have tried. I am an IT guy and I have tried them all. The bad guys are always ahead of the good guys and it's pretty rare that you get infected with out-of-date malware.

The Internet is polluted these days which means that it's not a matter of "if" you're going to get infected, it's "when". In my experience the best form of protection is to have a good set of backups to rebuild from. My choice is Acronis True Image Home edition. I can restore my system in minutes using the program. I take regular snapshots of my system a couple of times per month so that I have something recent to fall back on if something bad happens to my computer.
 
I use AVG free edition and Adaware Free edition , Without any problems ever ! What one don't find , the other will !
 
I've been wondering about something...does everyone here have an anti-virus program running at all times? I decided long ago that it's not worth the demands on my computer power. Like it is said above, the bad guys are one step ahead of the good guys, anyway. If I run into something that causes serious harm I'll just break out my Windows install disc and start over.
 
Bob_in_OKC said:
I've been wondering about something...does everyone here have an anti-virus program running at all times? I decided long ago that it's not worth the demands on my computer power. Like it is said above, the bad guys are one step ahead of the good guys, anyway. If I run into something that causes serious harm I'll just break out my Windows install disc and start over.
Click to expand...

If running an AV program is slowing down your PC you may start thinking about upgrading. With multiple core CPUs and off-the-shelf desktops coming with 4gigs of RAM there shouldn't be any issues that aren't user based or due to slow hardware.
 
rushfan said:
I...In my experience the best form of protection is to have a good set of backups to rebuild from. My choice is Acronis True Image Home edition...
Click to expand...
Yep Acronis saved me over a year ago. I got invaded, had AVG (paid version) and Comodo firewall running and all updated at the time, it blew right through them. All I did to set it off was click on a link to an "imageshack" picture in an email, and all hell broke loose. After a lot of back-and-forth with AVG tech support via email, AVG techs logged in and looked over my computer, told me I had picked up a new virus they had no record of at the time. Final attempt left me with a HD that would not boot. Acronis restored everything like it was, to a new hard drive. I do a full partition image weekly now.
 
LCDeuce said:
If running an AV program is slowing down your PC you may start thinking about upgrading. With multiple core CPUs and off-the-shelf desktops coming with 4gigs of RAM there shouldn't be any issues that aren't user based or due to slow hardware.
Click to expand...

It's true. Computers five years old and newer have power to spare. The latest generation of AV software seems to have little or no impact on system performance anyway.

Just for the heck of it, download a free copy of "malwarebytes" and scan your computer. If you have been running unprotected for more than a month, I guarantee that your system is infected. Let us know what you find.
 
LCDeuce said:
If running an AV program is slowing down your PC you may start thinking about upgrading. With multiple core CPUs and off-the-shelf desktops coming with 4gigs of RAM there shouldn't be any issues that aren't user based or due to slow hardware.
Click to expand...

I'll admit it's true...I could use an upgrade. I still use a home-built PC that I first assembled in around 2002. I upgrade components of it from time to time, but I'm still on the old technology. Running XP, though, it's a speed demon.

rushfan said:
It's true. Computers five years old and newer have power to spare. The latest generation of AV software seems to have little or no impact on system performance anyway.

Just for the heck of it, download a free copy of "malwarebytes" and scan your computer. If you have been running unprotected for more than a month, I guarantee that your system is infected. Let us know what you find.
Click to expand...


I'll do that and report back. But I do have Ad-Aware...just not an anti-virus.
 
Just put Microsoft Security Essentials on a couple of boxes. Seems ok to me and it seems generally well-regarded, but is one of those things that may not be obvious for a while.
 
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rushfan said:
That's not so bad then. Viruses are rarely a problem any more - it's the malware that's killing us.
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Malwarebytes gave me a clean bill of health. It sounds like from those in this thread that these anti-virus applications mentioned are not power hogs. I'm going to try some of them out.
 

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Bob_in_OKC said:
It sounds like from those in this thread that these anti-virus applications mentioned are not power hogs. I'm going to try some of them out.
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IMHO, most all of these are resource hogs, but they are a necessary evil.

I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials with good results on a few machines now... at this point I would probably recommend it over any of the other free alternatives in most situations.
 
Excellent

rushfan said:
I use MSSE exclusively on my computers. No one program blocks everything but this one seems to be as effective as anything that I have tried. I am an IT guy and I have tried them all. The bad guys are always ahead of the good guys and it's pretty rare that you get infected with out-of-date malware.

The Internet is polluted these days which means that it's not a matter of "if" you're going to get infected, it's "when". In my experience the best form of protection is to have a good set of backups to rebuild from. My choice is Acronis True Image Home edition. I can restore my system in minutes using the program. I take regular snapshots of my system a couple of times per month so that I have something recent to fall back on if something bad happens to my computer.
Click to expand...

That's what I use, and it's saved my butt a three times last year, I have a drive cloned when my Vista copy was failrly fresh,and put that in and then clone the infected one back the same as the first fresh copy.
McAfee wants $75.00 for the renewal , now nearing the end of my subscription, it's down to $50.00, not bad I guess, but what gets me is that I bought the same in Walmart for $32.00 a year ago, but they don't sell it on disk anymore.
I think that if I wait until the last day, it may come down in price some more.

Microsoft may be worth a shot.
 
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