Nakodari over at Addictive Tips has created a small software program called MSE Update Utility which can be used to update Microsoft Security Essentials even if Windows Update is disabled.

The update intervals of the software can be selected in the main interface after startup. The choices are daily, weekly, monthly or on startup with the additional option to add the program to Windows startup. The program could be an interesting option for users who cannot use Windows Update to update Microsoft Security Essentials. It seems though that the update tool needs to be running in the background to update the virus definitions. A better solution would be to either run and quit after updating the definition files or use the Windows Task Scheduler to schedule the updates.

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The latest test by independent security researchers AV-Comparatives is another confirmation that Microsoft has developed a solid security software for the Windows operating system. The latest test concentrated on virus and malware removal capabilities of selected free and commercial antivirus products.

The test itself pitted sixteen different security products against ten malware samples. Six of the sixteen security software programs received an advanced plus rating. Among them Microsoft’s Security Essential product which was also the only free product to score the highest rating and one of three that scored a good rating in the two tested fields removal of malware and removal of leftovers.

While the test certainly does not make Microsoft Security Essentials the best free antivirus software that is currently available as Lee described it over at the Download Squad it certainly can be seen as an indicator that Microsoft has delivered a quality software program for the Windows operating system.

The test results are available in a pdf report on the AV Comparatives website.

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Some users have reported Microsoft Security Essentials crashes and other errors that prevent the tool from protecting the computer system. The Fix MSE Utility has been designed for those users. It can repair a Microsoft Security Essentials installation by resetting all Registry and other settings to their default values. The same could be achieved by uninstalling and installing the software program but the benefit of using the Fix MSE Utility is speed.

The portable software program is compatible with the same operating systems that Microsoft Security Essentials is compatible with. It will display a small program window upon startup that looks like the following:

The window contains a small description of the program’s functionality as well as a Fix MSE button which will start the repair of the Microsoft Security Essentials installation. The Microsoft Security Essentials program itself has to be closed during that process to avoid further complications.

The Fix MSE Utility is available at the Windows Club forum.

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The best way to download Microsoft Security Essentials is therefor directly from Microsoft. You can point your web browser directly to the Security Essentials website which is hosted at Microsoft.com.

The only valid alternatives are trusted download portals like Softpedia or Betanews but definitely not third party websites that are offering the download. Most experienced users might not have a problem distinguishing legit and rogue websites but many Internet users seem to have them.

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Microsoft Security Essentials will check if the operating system is genuine before proceeding with the actual installation of the program. The system requirements lists other requirements like a version of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, 140 Megabytes of free hard drive space or a computer system with at least one Gigabyte of computer memory.

The program will update the virus and spyware definitions on the first startup and perform a system scan afterwards. The quick scan (that’s what it is called) can actually take some time to complete depending on the files and processes of the operating system. Users who have been using the beta of Microsoft Security Essentials liked the low resource usage of the program. It’s been using roughly 46 Megabytes of computer memory which is more than acceptable. CPU is on the other hand used quite a bit during scans. The computer memory usage will not change at all while the cpu usage drops to zero during times of no active scans.

Interested users can download the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials from the official Microsoft website.

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Several updates of Microsoft Security Essentials were released since then and it was rumored that Microsoft aimed for a October 22 release to give Windows 7 users a chance to use the final version of the software program.

The announcement that Microsoft Security Essentials would be released in the coming weeks was spread to all beta participants who received an email that informed them of an upgrade and the projected release in the coming weeks.

The final version of Microsoft Security Essentials will be released to the public in the coming weeks. If you are running the older version of the beta (1.0.1407.0), we encourage you to upgrade to a newer version of the beta (1.0.1500.0).

The announcement does not explicitly mention the Windows 7 release date but it seems pretty obvious that Microsoft Security Essentials final will be released around the time of the Windows 7 release. Users who want to test Microsoft Security Essentials right now can do so by following the links posted above. The final version will be published at Microsoft’s Security Essentials website.

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This does not mean however that there is no way of downloading Microsoft’s antivirus software. You just have to look elsewhere for the download. The software is available on various P2P networks which is however probably not the safest way to download the Security Essentials. A better option is to look at the various download portals who check and verify all downloads that they offer which makes the process more secure.

Microsoft Security Essentials can be downloaded from Softpedia for example. The version of the software that can be downloaded is the exact same version that was available for download at the Microsoft Security Essentials website. It is basically the beta client of the software that was available for download. Users even save some time and hassle as they do not have to log in with their Windows Live account to download the Security Essentials software.

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A question that lingered in the minds of many security conscious users was how Security Essentials would compare to other respected antivirus software programs such as Kaspersky antivirus, Norton antivirus or the free AVG or Avira Anti-Vir. First tests are in courtesy of the German AV-Test GMBH company.

Computerworld spoke with the company’s manager Andreas Marx who mentioned that they ran preliminary tests with a set of nearly 3,200 common viruses, bot Trojans and worms on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Results were impressive as Security Essentials was able to detect all malicious software in the tests and managed to avoid false positive reports as well. Tests with a larger set of viruses, trojans and worms have been scheduled which is why the current results should not be considered final.

Security Essentials did well in this first test though as it was able to detect all the malicious software (which included rootkits as well). This stands in contrast to comments made by other antivirus companies that were trying to be suggestive that Security Essentials was an inferior product.

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It was formerly speculated that the beta would be limited to users from the United States, Israel, China and Brasil. This is apparently not so as it was possible to download the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta from Europe. Having said that it is clear that there is no IP check at this point in time. A Windows Live account is required to initiate the beta download of the antivirus software and it could be that there are checks in the background that check the system language or country of the Windows Live account.

The start page contains a quick survey that has to be completed before the download options become available after logging in. You can read a first review in the Microsoft Security Essentials leaks article here at Ghacks.

It would be interesting if users from other countries (that Microsoft excluded from the beta) can also download the Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus software. The Security Essentials website contains information about the product and the link to Microsoft Connect from where the security program can be downloaded.

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The security software requires a genuine Windows operating system which is checked during installation. The leak is available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and can be downloaded from various P2P networks already.

Microsoft Security Essentials comes with a basic interface that can be used to scan the computer system for malicious software. Options are available to run a scheduled scan and exclude files, filetypes and processes from the scan. It is yet unclear as to how effective the security software is. It will probably take some time until the first comparisons are published.

Microsoft Security Essentials is loading two processes into computer memory after execution. The first is called msseces.exe and uses roughly 8 Megabytes of computer memory, the second on the other hand – called MsMpEng.exe – uses 40 Megabytes by default which can rise to 60 when it becomes active.

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