Antivirus Software Microsoft Security Essentials Tested

Martin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:00:10 +0000

Microsoft has released a public beta of their new antivirus software Security Essentials a few days ago. The beta was limited to 75000 participants; A number that was reached rather quickly. Security Essentials are at the moment not available on the Microsoft website anymore but it is expected that the final version of the antivirus software will make its debut before the release of Microsoft’s next operating system Windows 7.

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.

Tags: antivirus, antivirus software, microsoft security essentials, morro, security essentials, windows antivirus, windows software

Microsoft Security Essentials Leaks

Martin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:12:23 +0000

Microsoft’s own product testing guidelines seem at the same time the major problem why so many Microsoft products leak to the Internet. We have seen numerous Windows 7 builds hit the web only days after they have been build by Microsoft. The latest product to leak was codenamed Morro and renamed Microsoft Security Essentials in the last days. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free antivirus program and not a security suite. Microsoft is offering other products like the Windows Firewall, Windows Defender or Windows backup for that.

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.

Tags: antivirus, microsoft security essentials, morro, windows antivirus, windows security, windows software

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