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Microsoft recently
released it's Security Essentials product providing free virus and spyware scanning
with removal.
Security Essentials has come out of beta and been released by Microsoft.
The product features malware protection for a vast
array of viruses and spyware, including rootkits.
It operates both in real-time and provides malware scan capabilities.
The scan can be run on-demand and can also be scheduled to be run at regular
intervals. The on-demand scan also features a custom scan.
Microsoft Security Essentials loads on startup and has a system tray icon
advising of current status. The product can be updated manually and
automatically.
Security Essentials uses an online community to help with malware
prevention automatically from it's users.
The user interface is basic, easy to use and navigate, even for the novice
user. Many of the settings have easy default values.
The malware alerts can be set manually or Security Essentials can perform it's
own recommended actions.
A firewall is not included with Security Essentials, however you may elect
to use the firewall included with the operating system. These are
generally basic to use as far as firewalls go.
Some of the advanced security features such as anti-phishing, 'bad site' protection and SPAM are also not directly included in the Security Essentials
product.
Since the product is produced by Microsoft, we would expect the amount of 'false
positives' from operating system and other Microsoft product files to be quite
low.
All in all we believe this product adds value to help combat malware, especially
for those systems that don't have any similar protection yet.
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