MSE: Microsoft Security Essentials – 1 Week in…..
Issues with Microsoft Security Essentials:
Here are mine so far:
1) Upon Install on two of my XP machines – Both used to have MacAfee Security Suite (Fully Removed) and BLINK from Eeye (Fully Removed) Both Machines will display the XP Windows Firewall Warning Box on startup intermittently. This is the box saying you have no firewall operational. This is only on boot and only till the boot sequence catches up and then the dialog is gone and the Firewall shows good to go. I have submitted a support ticket. The Result of which is two suggestions: Add MSE to firewall exceptions (Which I had to do manually because it did not seem to add itself) and also run MS Install Cleanup Utility (which I did to look for previous security related installs and none were found) – Firewall Dialog still in intermittent.
2) Related to Scanning – Quick Scan is decent as for speed yet all depends on size of drive and number of files – I have approximately 1 million plus files total on my machine and attached storage. Full scan is brutally slow as stated by many so far but I am ok with that especially for free and the fact I am not running a full scan very often. On a newer machine – and on both Vista and Win 7 where I am also running it – everything seems faster as far as scanning. Thou both machines are newer and have newer or more RAM.
3) LARGE FIRE TRANSFERS – When transferring large files or piles of files at a time from local to attached drives MSE can slow things down. Its scanning everything as you might imagine and its just the way it goes it seems as I had this same issue with BLINK and MacAfee.
4) Updating – I have not seen the update issues others have seen here. My copies are updating daily. Thou I can say from past experience – updates can be hours off with most software…
Things I would like to see:
Integration with Windows Firewall
Slightly more advanced firewall operations (as we know there are none in MSE other than what is offered in Win Firewall)
Overall:
Actually I am pretty impressed. Its free, its so far much better than AVG, AVAST, I do not worry as much using it on some of my older machines. Better performance.
I do notice it does really seem to work well on WIN 7 vs. other machines.
Links for MSE Info:
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/support.aspx?mkt=en-us&s=1#mainNav
This covers top questions and support issues
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/default.aspx
Community Forums
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/support.aspx?mkt=en-us&s=3#mainNav
Submit a Support Case.
(I got an answer back in one day and its free software…. so they are even supporting it when we pay nothing. I assume this is money well spent when it builds the backbone of the Enterprise solution they offer – Forefront)
In general this is an incredibly bold and positive move on the part of MS – To establish a baseline for security on all MS based machines is in my opinion something they have had to do for years. With this baseline set – people can opt to add security from other 3rd party companies. Thou I would say if you buy another solution you should run it standalone and not on top of MSE as MSE from what all the support tickets state really rather work alone.
Filed Under: Anti-Virus • Featured • Security Now! • Tech • Virus & Spyware Removal
