Free Microsoft Security Essentials available for download
Microsoft has good reason to ensure Windows PCs are secure and malware-free. Because if they aren’t, it reflects badly on the company that many blame for the problem in the first place. So it is today releasing its new, free Microsoft Security Essentials software, an antivirus and antimalware product offering protection from viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojans.
Microsoft has dabbled with security software over the past few years. There is the Windows Firewall and Windows Defender, and for a long time there has been Windows Live OneCare. But the subscription-based OneCare is no more, and in its place is a free alternative that was first mooted last year under the codename Morro.
After months of speculation, Microsoft finally unveiled Security Essentials in June and offered a beta version to those keen enough to do a little testing of the product. Now that all the bugs have hopefully been ironed out and performance has been upped, the final version of the software is ready to make an appearance.
Yesterday saw the company a little shy about announcing widespread availability of the product, but it finally announced the beta was coming to an end. Microsoft Security Essentials will now be available for all to download from this morning, although the company wouldn’t be more specific as to when. The chances are it will be there by the time you read this article.
So what do you get for your, well, lack of money? The beta version of Security Essentials has received very favorable reviews, something which Microsoft seems to be making a habit of these days (I’m thinking Windows 7). MSE has been given the thumbs-up thanks to good detection rates, few false positives, a thorough scanning performance, and by not taking up valuable resources.
It should be noted that MSE is not intended as a rival to paid-for security suites but is instead an alternative to other free offerings such as MalwareBytes’ Anti-Malware, Avira Antivir, AVG Anti-Virus, Avast, and Ad-Aware. And as it’s also free it’s got to be worth a try, surely.
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