Microsoft Security Essentials
Security Essentials, Microsoft’s free antivirus software, is getting out of the beta stage and will be released to the public in a few weeks. This is according to an email sent by Microsoft to the participants in the beta testing that started in June.
Microsoft Security Essentials is meant to offer users of licensed copies of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 basic protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojans. It will not have the encryption capabilities, password storage, firewall protection, parental controls, and backup services that can be found in most expensive security software, but its basic features seem to be good enough for most computer users.
How good will Security Essentials be? The first thing that most of those who have participated in the beta testing have noticed is that Security Essentials is not a memory hog. Unlike most expensive and robust security software, this one is very light and you forget that it is even running. It uses just around 4MB of system memory even during scans. As to protection against malware and viruses, Security Essentials has the ability to scan archives like Zip and Rar files and just like most paid antivirus programs it can create a system restore point before deleting infected files. It scans all your drives including the removable ones on demand. It also offers real-time protection and alerts the user when a virus or malware is detected. It also automatically scans the files that you download and monitors file and program activity in your system. If a suspicious file is detected by the real-time protection, it will be reported to the user with suggestions on what to do with it. If the user takes no action Security Essentials will decide for itself what to do with the file in question after 10 minutes of detecting it.
The features that are mentioned above are good enough basic protection for the average computer user. Some people believe that if Microsoft Security Essentials delivers what it promises when it is finally released to the public, it may hurt big security software companies. But we cannot tell because security threats are becoming more and more sophisticated these days and people may feel that real protection can only come from security software giants.
