Microsoft Security Essentials Gaining More Users

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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Microsoft Security Essentials is now the most popular security software program in North America. The free program has been growing in popularity since its release in 2009 and has moved into the 4th position worldwide.

The report shows that the free Microsoft Security Essentials program, first launched in September 2009, is now the most popular in North America with 14.58 percent of the market share for such software.
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Surprised its only been 2 years.....felt longer. Good stuff. On all our computers at the house (6) and I don't even think about it.
 
What a shocker! /sarcasm It's got a great detection rate, is non-intrusive, free, and easy enough for normal users to install without fearing they're going to "break the computer". Thumbs up!

In before "OMG, anti-trust case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" fools :(.
 
GoldenTiger said:
What a shocker! /sarcasm It's got a great detection rate, is non-intrusive, free, and easy enough for normal users to install without fearing they're going to "break the computer". Thumbs up!

In before "OMG, anti-trust case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" fools :(.
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Just to clarify, the /sarcasm was for "What a shocker!", not the following sentence.
 
I use this with spybot search and destroy. Neither of them really interfere with anything I do so I'm happy. Although the full scans take ages for security essentials since I have around 500gb worth of files spread out on different drives.(doesn't help that most of it is on a dying drive that is extremely slow)
 
I've got it on all of my home computers and I love it. Pretty much agree with everything GoldenTiger said about it, and that's a big part of why we install that as the antivirus we leave on computers at my work after completing a PC cleanup.
 
I recomend Microsoft Security Essentials to everyone that asks me about anti-virus software.
 
for those that aren't aware, the more users it gets, the less effective it becomes. When someone is writing a crypter, they focus on bypassing the most popular AVs first which is why anything free in generally shit for 0-day stuff
 
Ryan711 said:
for those that aren't aware, the more users it gets, the less effective it becomes. When someone is writing a crypter, they focus on bypassing the most popular AVs first which is why anything free in generally shit for 0-day stuff
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Meh. Antivirus software primarily exists to clean up after you click on something you shouldn't have....and unless you get served a malicious ad by an adserver on a website, you should never need the software in day-to-day.

The first step most really evil bugs take is crippling all AV exes to start with.
 
I have used MSE for over a year now. I may be mistaken as times may have changed, but I don't rely on AV software to clean up my PC after something gets through, I just re-format and start over. I like having a program, even if it really is a relatively false sense of security, that pops up when I view a page that is doing something it shouldn't or when I download something that turns out to be bad.

Besides, with a USB 3.0 flash drive I can have Windows 7 re-installed with all my programs that I use in 25 minutes or so...
 
I've been using this program for years as well and really like it. I have never had a problem and it has caught several Trojans and other crap over this time. Always quarantines and wipes out with ease, and that's with three teenagers using four PC's!

My System Specifications:
Motherboard) - Asus P8P67 Deluxe (Rev 3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 Chipset
CPU) - Intel i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4 OC to 4.4
CPU Cooler) - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus – “Heatpipe Direct Contact”
Video Card) - 1x Asus HD7970-DC2T-3GD5 - Radeon 7970 3GB GDDR5
System Memory) - G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 SDRAM (PC3 12800)
System Drive) - 1x OCZ Vertex 3 SSD - 120GB SATA III
Primary Storage) - 2x WD VelociRaptor 10,000RPM 300GB in Raid “0”
Secondary Storage) - 1x WD Raptor 10,000RPM 150
External Storage) - 1x WD Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0
Monitor) - 1x Dell "Ultra Sharp" 2405FPW 24" LCD
Power) - Kingwin Lazer LZ-1000 (1000 Watt - Modular PSU)
Case) - Thermaltake Mozart TL (Entertainment Center)
 
Skripka said:
Meh. Antivirus software primarily exists to clean up after you click on something you shouldn't have....and unless you get served a malicious ad by an adserver on a website, you should never need the software in day-to-day.

The first step most really evil bugs take is crippling all AV exes to start with.
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What I'm saying is that if the AV doesn't detect it, you won't know you have it so how can you know to clean it up? Remember when this forum was hacked and there was a java drive-by installed on it (I think that's what it was, can't remember). Well, if that guy hadn't been so incompetent, he could have avoided the dialog box pop up asking you to run and just run without your permission and you would have never known anything was out of the ordinary. One visit to you bank's website or buying something online and you could be in for a headache.
 
Skripka said:
Meh. Antivirus software primarily exists to clean up after you click on something you shouldn't have....and unless you get served a malicious ad by an adserver on a website, you should never need the software in day-to-day.

The first step most really evil bugs take is crippling all AV exes to start with.
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This is not true at all.... Av software will prevent you from ever opening that malicious software to begin with 99% of the time. Considering these days there's literally 0 impact on system resources there's absolutely no reason NOT to run it day to day.
 
Skripka said:
What the what? 87.3% of statistics are entirely made up.
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And 5% of people are not going to be convinced to do otherwise :p

Just lay off, folks, if someone doesn't want to use and AV, let them deal with it (unless if they are part of a botnet, then kill them).
 
I've been using Avast free for some time now without issues, although I have been installing MSE on other's computers. I like the sandbox feature, but will agree MSE is nice for set-it and forget-it.
 
Skripka said:
Antivirus software primarily exists to clean up after you click on something you shouldn't have....and unless you get served a malicious ad by an adserver on a website, you should never need the software in day-to-day
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If you say so. Didn't you read the previous [H] article about more than half Internet "users" being bots? There are people out there constantly scanning every IP address and every port sequentially for exploits. I doubt they need you to visit a web site in order to infect you with a rootkit without your knowledge. And these nasty buggers are tricky to remove. Some will block certain A/V web sites so you can't find a fix, or will block running certain A/V programs unless you rename them from mbam.exe, evil stuff.

I am currently with Bitdefender and thought I'd switch to the free MSE after my license expires, but it seems to have the worst detection rate. I saw a similar negative comparison a few weeks ago, and even the certification logos displayed on the MSE web site for a yearly fee look suspicious. One is granted to all products tested by the certification company (the logo for the products that actually pass the test is different), another has a MSE history of 5 test runs published, with 7 test runs not published for no known reason.
Out of the 3 logos, only the ICSA Labs certification seems worthy and almost independent.
 
Chimel said:
If you say so. Didn't you read the previous [H] article about more than half Internet "users" being bots? There are people out there constantly scanning every IP address and every port sequentially for exploits. I doubt they need you to visit a web site in order to infect you with a rootkit without your knowledge. And these nasty buggers are tricky to remove. Some will block certain A/V web sites so you can't find a fix, or will block running certain A/V programs unless you rename them from mbam.exe, evil stuff.

I am currently with Bitdefender and thought I'd switch to the free MSE after my license expires, but it seems to have the worst detection rate. I saw a similar negative comparison a few weeks ago, and even the certification logos displayed on the MSE web site for a yearly fee look suspicious. One is granted to all products tested by the certification company (the logo for the products that actually pass the test is different), another has a MSE history of 5 test runs published, with 7 test runs not published for no known reason.
Out of the 3 logos, only the ICSA Labs certification seems worthy and almost independent.
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My point is that substituting AV for good judgement is going to get you infected no matter what fancy software you pay too much money for. I know lots of people who run AV and get infected because they cannot resist clicking on every damn button the is on their screen. It ain't hard to run AV free and as admin and not get infected if you're careful. I ran XP like that for a few years and didn't catch a bug. When Win7 came out MBam had their Pro version for sale so I grabbed it and MSE just for giggles.
 
I never used to run AV software at all because it was a pain in the ass to maintain subscriptions while they tried to upsell you and it always sapped performance from my machine. I was also never infected, but then I am not an idiot. I started using MSE at work on some low rent machines and was surprised that they didn't take an immediate nose dive in performance. Been using it at home ever since. It's one of the few products I can honestly give Microsoft total kudos for.
 
Skripka said:
substituting AV for good judgement
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Well nowadays that works if the only software you ever use is Paint and Notepad. One of the best feature of the Internet is the availability of hundreds of tools, utilities or even full apps, since most of them don't come in on-the-shelf boxes anymore. I download them from trustable sites, but even those get infected from time to time. The whole point of security is not to leave a single potential point of exploitation uncovered. Even if you trust a site, you need to scan that app you downloaded. If you authorize scripting, which is the default in every browser, you need to scan that web page you're viewing. Even if you don't click on any link on it, it might contain malicious scripting. These pages are not all blocked by Google, and the malware can reside not within the page, but in external code displayed on the page, for instance ads.

That still does not cover the incoming attacks that happen without your knowledge as soon as your computer is connected to the Internet. Firewalls help, but they have exploits too, especially if they're in routers that are still running with the default factory password.

And that's just for individuals. For a company or a web site, A/V protection is a must, as damages can be extremely costly.

Having the latest updates or the latest OS with the latest updates help, but it's only because most of us are not worthy of hackers sacrificing a costly one-day exploit for our data and money that we can live unharmed just by observing safe behaviors. In reality, we are pretty much exposed to hacking if we don't take active steps against it.

Besides, these constant requests for Flash and Acrobat Reader updates can't be all genuine, can they? ^-^
 
MSE is probably the least intrusive/resource intensive AV that I've used and it seems to work just fine. Highly recommend it.
 
I have to say that in the time it takes to take an infected HDD out of a laptop or PC, scan it with three products to make sure you may as well rebuild or put a clone build back on. But to be honest if a legit site has been hijacked and the AV catches it then that's time saved for minimal effort really.

I have now totally abandoned Malwarebytes. Just doesn't detect anything now. Whilst MSE etc. will root stuff out MB just doesn't see it.
 
[F8];1038504039 said:
I've been using Avast free for some time now without issues, although I have been installing MSE on other's computers. I like the sandbox feature, but will agree MSE is nice for set-it and forget-it.
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That's what I do. I use Avast on my own systems because the Netshield and Webshield are superior to MSE, but I do put MSE on all computers I work on because it's very easy to use and does provide pretty good protection.

I did not know Avast was #1 in the world, though after seeing what it's capable of blocking, I understand it's position.
 
It's also fun to compare professional AV reviews to real world usage. Even though Symantec and MSE are not at the top of reviews, their popularity is towards the top.
 
free is good ja.:D

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I never thought MSE would have gotten this far. No doubt being free, having excellent detection rate, and using very little resources has made MSE stood out. I still remember the reaction and expectation when it was released.
 
To those who talk about MSSE being no good against zero day exploits - what is good?

We will inevitably have those in this thread advocating "smart browsing" or "browsing only trusted sites". To them I say, what are you doing here? This site has been hacked several times. All sites are vulnerable to malicious hacking, and the most trusted sites are the most desirable to the hackers.

I compare AV software to wearing a bullet-proof vest. A bullet-proof vest isn't going to give you even close to 100% protection in a gunfight. You'd be crazy to rely solely on the vest to protect you; you need to employ other layers of protection and tactics to avoid having bullets come your way in the first place. But you'd also be crazy to not use the vest at all and rely entirely on those other things.
 
evilsofa said:
To those who talk about MSSE being no good against zero day exploits - what is good?

We will inevitably have those in this thread advocating "smart browsing" or "browsing only trusted sites". To them I say, what are you doing here? This site has been hacked several times. All sites are vulnerable to malicious hacking, and the most trusted sites are the most desirable to the hackers.

I compare AV software to wearing a bullet-proof vest. A bullet-proof vest isn't going to give you even close to 100% protection in a gunfight. You'd be crazy to rely solely on the vest to protect you; you need to employ other layers of protection and tactics to avoid having bullets come your way in the first place. But you'd also be crazy to not use the vest at all and rely entirely on those other things.
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Did you even watch the video I posted? No, you did not.

Where did I say I don't use a layered approach? I'm saying there are better free alternatives to MSSE, like Avast.
 
Ryan711 said:
What I'm saying is that if the AV doesn't detect it, you won't know you have it so how can you know to clean it up? Remember when this forum was hacked and there was a java drive-by installed on it (I think that's what it was, can't remember). Well, if that guy hadn't been so incompetent, he could have avoided the dialog box pop up asking you to run and just run without your permission and you would have never known anything was out of the ordinary. One visit to you bank's website or buying something online and you could be in for a headache.
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This, and it's not uncommon. Even "good" sites can get hacked or infected, as well as automated bots scanning for openings constantly regardless on unprotected machines. It's not a matter of being "skilled" or not, it's a matter of basic protections + common sense of web browsing habits = best chances of clean computer. If you eschew the basic protections you're done for in advance.
 
kontact said:
Did you even watch the video I posted? No, you did not.

Where did I say I don't use a layered approach? I'm saying there are better free alternatives to MSSE, like Avast.
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I don't care what some random youtube guy claims when I have seen in-depth testing done and know the actuality...
 
Ryan711 said:
for those that aren't aware, the more users it gets, the less effective it becomes. When someone is writing a crypter, they focus on bypassing the most popular AVs first which is why anything free in generally shit for 0-day stuff
Click to expand...

In that case, MSE sucks. You people need to get off it. Find some other AV. Maybe McAffee. Spread the wealth. :p
 
Well, it only proves when it comes to software free is good especially if it's a full version like MS Essentials!
 
Do not depend on one free AV for everything. I had some nasty website mess up my computer with a Java applet that killed MSE and installed itself. No Java allowed here anymore either. Shouldn't be possible... I used to like NOD32, but the move to 64bit didn't go smoothly and I got tired of paying for it over and over. It also let a virus through undetected.

It's hard to believe people still write viruses. Do they tell their friends and families how to avoid getting infected? <rhetorical>
 
Skripka said:
Meh. Antivirus software primarily exists to clean up after you click on something you shouldn't have....and unless you get served a malicious ad by an adserver on a website, you should never need the software in day-to-day.

The first step most really evil bugs take is crippling all AV exes to start with.
Click to expand...

No not really. In fact AV software has trouble with that, unless you get something that runs off a boot disk. The reason is the issue of primacy. If the virus is on the system first it can interfere with the AV software starting.

The primary reason AV software exists is to stop infections from getting on the computer in the first place. It is kinda like a bouncer and has a list of things not allowed. So long as something is on the list, the realtime AV scanner can render it harmless because it can stop it before it ever has a chance to run.
 
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