Microsoft Security Essentials: EPIC FAIL - Comments Page 3

The false sense of security with any "free" version of Anti Virus protection is scary. People typically think using one security suite will protect them and its very miss guided in assuming one suite will be 100% effective. Microsoft has over stated MSE effectiveness for so long, they finally realized that users were being infected because they thought MSE was a total solution. I cannot tell you how many times I have found Trojans and other malware that slipped by MSE with another security scan suite. The ideal of MSE or for that matter Defender on Windows 8 is a total solution and effective is not doing justice to the end user. Microsoft should either stop providing anything or improve its security applications. I read that when XP support stops so will updates for MSE on XP. This is just another example of bad security management by Microsoft. What would be the problem providing malware definitions to MSE on XP? My advise to anyone, is stop using MSE or Defender and find a more effective solution then the barely getting by solution from Microsoft.

First of all, this article should have a date on it. There is so much information on the Web that it is important to know what is current and what is not. Anyone who checks anti-virus reviews knows that the ratings change every year.

I check the ratings every year, and McAfee is always at the bottom of the list. Norton was always at the bottom too except for 2013. Just because it is a recognized brand does not mean that it is good.

I used AVG for years until they started "breaking" it by releasing updates that would slow it down considerably. The next update would fix that, only to be "broken" again in the next update. I finally gave up on it. I have been using Avast! for several years now. I turn on the "gaming mode" to avoid the constant pop-ups, which is my only complaint.

Check for reviews on the free anti-virus programs each year to see who is still on top.

I forgot to mention that I use Avast! with MalwareBytes Pro. After my wife got "nailed" with malware while using Facebook and it took me 4 hours to fix it (and I do this for a living!), then she got nailed again the very next day, I got the Pro (real-time) version. I have never seen any anti-virus program handle malware. They are two different problems.

I suggest installing MalwareBytes, then make sure it is using the latest definitions, and run a full scan. If you find a lot of infections, you may want to buy the Pro version (for a one-time $24.95 fee), especially if you use social media a lot. I had a customer buy a new computer for a Winery tasting room and he got over 100 files infected in 3 days before we got MalwareBytes installed.

Been using MSE for 2 years now on my home computer. Being an older machine, it's nice to have an AV program running that does not bring it to it's knees, which with other AV programs seems to happen right when you need to use the computer (very aggravating). I had Avast, and for a while it was a great program, but then the annoying advertising pop-ups starting appearing more and more frequently. That's when I went with MSE and it's been great ever since. I run ccleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware regularly, haven't had any problems (yet). I backup all my valuable data anyway, just in case the worst happens. If it were a "mission critical" computer, I would probably go with a highly-rated paid AV program, and cross my fingers.

I use MSE with Emsisoft anti-malware Pro and run it real-time (paid version). They work together with NO slowing down and both catch all the bad things. When running additional malware security use 'Exceptions' in MSE and Ems AntiMare so both won't scan each other or notice each other. The Windows 7 firewall beat out Comodo's firewall and other popular firewalls in different test and MSE has several layers of protection, SmartScreen, User Account Control, Webpage filtering..etc. Been doing this for years, you will be safe.

When you talk about MSE, what about Windows Defender(It is the same), I have had very little trouble in the last year. I am on Windows 8.1