Microsoft Security Essentials Beta Now Live!

Ill give it a shot. I switched to Win 7 RC yesterday and need a antivirus anyway.
 
I've got it installed on my laptop which is running Windows 7 x64 RC 7100.

The MSE User Interface is lightweight and responsive. It's clean and easy to use. Only 3MB and it runs memory resident.

The AntiMalware Service Executable is a service and weighs in at a hefty 53MB. In today's computers with 4+GB of RAM it's not a big deal but compared to Antivir being a whole 11MB is may make some people think twice about installing it.

Hope av-comparatives.org takes a good look at the beta and tells us how well it cleans and scans though. That will be the decider for many.
 
I think the fact that it's an offical Microsoft Antivirus/Antispyware and that it's free is a deal maker for me. But if I notice a decrease in overall performance, even slightly, I'm uninstalling it.
 
It's hard to complain about something free, but i'll give it a shot. :p I'll wait until there's a comparison to other AV/anti-malware packages. No rush since I don't run AV anyways.
 
Seems to be fairly quick. Quick scan took less than 5 minutes on my machine. No noticeable impact on the system either.
 
Vermillion said:
I've got it installed on my laptop which is running Windows 7 x64 RC 7100.

The MSE User Interface is lightweight and responsive. It's clean and easy to use. Only 3MB and it runs memory resident.

The AntiMalware Service Executable is a service and weighs in at a hefty 53MB. In today's computers with 4+GB of RAM it's not a big deal but compared to Antivir being a whole 11MB is may make some people think twice about installing it.

Hope av-comparatives.org takes a good look at the beta and tells us how well it cleans and scans though. That will be the decider for many.
Click to expand...

It uses the same engine and sigs that are in Forefront, which we won Advanced+ for.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
I like it. The exclusion filters are nice and easy to work with. It also doesn't have the kitchen sink approach (Security Essentials, anyone?) or the little annoyances that OneCare did. One thing that I noticed is that Windows Defender is turned off after this is installed. Not a complaint, just observation, so far.

I'm trying a full scan and noticing very, very little CPU usage. edit: looking closer, all of a logical core on an i7. :p
 
Last edited:
Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Alert!

Thank you for your interest in joining the Microsoft® Security Essentials Beta. We are not accepting additional participants at this time. Please check back at later a date for possible additional availability.
Click to expand...

Too slow...
 
pxc said:
It's hard to complain about something free, but i'll give it a shot. :p I'll wait until there's a comparison to other AV/anti-malware packages. No rush since I don't run AV anyways.
Click to expand...

Just had to call a customer just like you...no AV.
He was sending out +100 emails an hour, thought his rig was fine"as he knew what he was doing and didn't click bad links"...he was wrong.

Told him to unplug the PC and before he plugged it in it had better be running AV, because otherwise we would terminate his line due to spam.
 
yeah there is no freaking way i would run any os wthout some sort of 3rd party security software. fine if you use your computer and never connect to the internet otherwise your asking for trouble.
 
/usr/home said:
http://www.pc-tech.ca/files/Microsoft_Security_Essentials/

I took the liberty of torrenting and then uploading them. Feel free to download from there.

(Mods delete this if you have a problem with it...)
Click to expand...

never got a chance to thank you for this... downloaded and installed on 3 PCs i own/maintain, and its done a great job for us so far (even detected some bad files on a computer that has been running for years)

so thanks :)
 
jasondean98 said:
Not available in Austraila! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
Click to expand...

Nor Canada!!!


This beta is available only to customers in the United States, Israel (English only), People's Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only).


WTF?
 
Can you imagine the EU going belligerent if this ever comes packaged with Windows?
 
guppy said:
Nor Canada!!!


This beta is available only to customers in the United States, Israel (English only), People's Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only).


WTF?
Click to expand...

I downloaded it in Canada... no idea what you are talking about....

PS. I downloaded it when it first came available.... and now when I try to re-download, it says I can't.... :confused:
 
the beta isnt available from MS anymore... it went unavailable very shortly after it initially was.... thats why i necro'ed the thread, to thank the dude who posted the files
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
the beta isnt available from MS anymore... it went unavailable very shortly after it initially was.... thats why i necro'ed the thread, to thank the dude who posted the files
Click to expand...
Sure it is. I was able to download it this morning.
 
well goddamn, i looked and looked and couldnt find it....

coulda swore that it *did* go offline for a little while post-release.... i guess its possible that MS put it back up? either way, nice little program
 
brucedeluxe169 said:
well goddamn, i looked and looked and couldnt find it....
Click to expand...
If you click the link, it will tell you to get the download from Connect. Once you login to Connect, you have to Apply, and fill out a basic form. Once you do, you're accepted, and you're given a download link.
 
says beta is closed for me....

I'll give a full refresh a try...
 
still no love. Checked my technet subscription too and no downloads :(
 
DeaconFrost said:
All you had to do was follow the steps I listed...above your three posts!
Click to expand...

There are absolutely no download or links to connect on the link from the original post....

I had to google "microsoft connect" and just thought i'd provide a little more color on the process.:rolleyes:
 
Look on Page 1 for my post, I uploaded them to my server for public download.
 
So far I really like this as a free AV product. The memory usage is a bit high but I can't notice any system performance loss. The only thing I dont' like about it is that when you update an definition and it installs, your PC locks up for about 5 seconds. Also, when it's scanning .cabs, etc., it really bogs the system down even if it's only using 50% or so of the cpu.
 
bigdogchris said:
So far I really like this as a free AV product. The memory usage is a bit high but I can't notice any system performance loss. The only thing I dont' like about it is that when you update an definition and it installs, your PC locks up for about 5 seconds. Also, when it's scanning .cabs, etc., it really bogs the system down even if it's only using 50% or so of the cpu.
Click to expand...

I take it you're doing Full Scans? It does take more I/O when doing an active full scan, due to it having to uncompress the cab to scan it.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
That's my only "gripe" about it so far if I have one: the seemingly excessive CPU usage during a full scan. NOD32 doesn't hit this old Pentium D workstation that hard, nor did/does Avira, or some of the others I've tested.

But during that update, or during a full scan or quick scan of individual files or directories, boy... even when I set the executables to low priority (which I think they should run at by default, but that's just me), it's a big hit on the system and I can't see why.

Aside from that, I've got a few test archives with some buried trojans and I'm happy to report MSE picked 'em all off whereas even NOD32 missed several in recent testing and Avira missed just one. And they're not false positives either, the trojans exist 'cause I put 'em there myself. :)

Overall, it's a great product in my testing, just that issue (for me, and it seems some others) of that way way high CPU use... might be resolved before it's finalized (and I wish they'd just make the executables run at low priority, I really, do but they won't).

It's my AV of choice presently, until it gives me a reason to use something else.
 
bigdogchris said:
So far I really like this as a free AV product. The memory usage is a bit high but I can't notice any system performance loss. The only thing I dont' like about it is that when you update an definition and it installs, your PC locks up for about 5 seconds. Also, when it's scanning .cabs, etc., it really bogs the system down even if it's only using 50% or so of the cpu.
Click to expand...

Joe Average said:
That's my only "gripe" about it so far if I have one: the seemingly excessive CPU usage during a full scan. NOD32 doesn't hit this old Pentium D workstation that hard, nor did/does Avira, or some of the others I've tested.

But during that update, or during a full scan or quick scan of individual files or directories, boy... even when I set the executables to low priority (which I think they should run at by default, but that's just me), it's a big hit on the system and I can't see why.

Aside from that, I've got a few test archives with some buried trojans and I'm happy to report MSE picked 'em all off whereas even NOD32 missed several in recent testing and Avira missed just one. And they're not false positives either, the trojans exist 'cause I put 'em there myself. :)

Overall, it's a great product in my testing, just that issue (for me, and it seems some others) of that way way high CPU use... might be resolved before it's finalized (and I wish they'd just make the executables run at low priority, I really, do but they won't).

It's my AV of choice presently, until it gives me a reason to use something else.
Click to expand...

I hope you two are sending feedback about those issues. ;)

I've been using MSE on two different machines. Will probably move it to a third as well. I like it. Like Joe and bigdogchris said though it definitely eats into the CPU a little bit more then something like Avira does. Hopefully with enough feedback MS can improve on these issues and bring us a nice solid piece of security software.
 
I send so much feedback to Microsoft (and have done so since 1986) that I swear, I'm sure they have a file cabinet with my name on it someplace... ;)
 
Joe Average said:
That's my only "gripe" about it so far if I have one: the seemingly excessive CPU usage during a full scan. NOD32 doesn't hit this old Pentium D workstation that hard, nor did/does Avira, or some of the others I've tested.

But during that update, or during a full scan or quick scan of individual files or directories, boy... even when I set the executables to low priority (which I think they should run at by default, but that's just me), it's a big hit on the system and I can't see why.

Aside from that, I've got a few test archives with some buried trojans and I'm happy to report MSE picked 'em all off whereas even NOD32 missed several in recent testing and Avira missed just one. And they're not false positives either, the trojans exist 'cause I put 'em there myself. :)

Overall, it's a great product in my testing, just that issue (for me, and it seems some others) of that way way high CPU use... might be resolved before it's finalized (and I wish they'd just make the executables run at low priority, I really, do but they won't).

It's my AV of choice presently, until it gives me a reason to use something else.
Click to expand...

I understand that the CPU/I/O load is higher with a full scan, but can I ask is that a real concern? My feelings were users did full scans when they thought they were infected, and quick scans when not, so if full scan took a lot of I/O it was alright? Is this perception of the use case in error?

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
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