 | By Woody Leonhard Fast, full-featured, and free, Microsoft’s new security suite is drawing accolades from experts and howls of agony from competitors. If you’re tired of your bloated and expensive security suite exhorting/extorting you for more money — and you can’t stomach the way free AV products try to scare you into paying — it’s time to try something new and better from an unexpected source. |
Microsoft’s new security suite in perspective
Last week, the ‘Softies released the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). The initial reports are remarkably upbeat, particularly for a Microsoft product labeled “version 1.0.”
MSE takes over antivirus and antispyware duties while tossing in antirootkit features for good measure. If you have Windows Defender installed — Defender is a separate download for XP but comes with Vista and Windows 7 — MSE zaps it. There’s no need for Defender if MSE is running.
Microsoft provides on its Security Essentials page downloads for 32-bit XP, 32- and 64-bit Vista, and 32- and 64-bit Windows 7. The correct version for your system will be selected automatically. Note, however, that there’s no MSE version for 64-bit XP.
In order to install MSE, your PC has to pass Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage validation hurdle. (You’ve gotta wonder at how many bots out there are running on pirated copies of Win XP, which can’t get MSE and other Microsoft updates.)
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