Microsoft Security Essentials proves its worth quickly

Microsoft Security Essentials may not be as extensive or powerful as the paid alternatives, as the vendors of those suites were quick to point out, but it’s a good first-line defense against a range of malware. Microsoft has now released preliminary figures showing its usage and it seems to show a successful launch which quickly proved the time and effort in developing the MSE software.

The Windows operating system has always been notoriously linked to security loopholes, although much of that is purely down to the fact that it is the most popular OS by far. However, until fairly recently, Microsoft left the job of protecting Windows-based PCs to others. Whether free or paid-for firewalls, security suites, and spyware detection apps, it was a third party that was responsible for keeping your computer safe.

But Windows has come with its own firewall, the first line of defense when venturing on to the Web, for a while now. And last month saw the release of Security Essentials, a free and easy-to-use security package offered directly by Microsoft. Designed as a replacement for Windows Live OneCare, it launched on Sept. 29 and has already proved its worth.

In a recent blog post, Joe Faulhaber, from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, revealed that MSE had been downloaded 1.5 million times in the first week, and in excess of 2.6 by the end of the second. Interestingly, of those machines running MSE in the first week, 44 percent had Windows 7 as the operating system, 33 percent had XP, and only 23 percent had Vista.

Security Essentials made almost four million detections on 535,752 machines in that first week. But of that total, and despite the OS ratio, 52 percent of detections were on XP machines, 32 percent were on Vista machines, and only 16 percent were on Windows 7 machines. For Microsoft this proves the more secure nature of the new OS, with Faulhaber crowing:

The Windows 7 numbers are spectacular for an operating system that hasn’t yet released for global availability. Even better, about a third of Windows 7 Microsoft Security Essentials machines are 64-bit, which is even more resistant to malware than 32-bit due to PatchGuard. By looking at detections divided by active Microsoft Security Essentials machines over the whole population, we see far more detections per XP machine, with the fewest from Win7. This follows our usual observed trend of seeing less malware on newer OSes and service packs.

Whether you believe the hype or not, the figures do seem to suggest a couple of things. Firstly, that Security Essentials is working, providing a good level of malware detection for people who may not previously have had any security software installed on their machines. And secondly, that Windows 7 is, at this moment, the most secure Windows operating system. Both of which are victories for Microsoft.

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