Microsoft (in)Security Essentilas

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Originally Posted by d@rk51d3

One thing I have discovered, is that while MSE cleans well, it waits until you have been infected before it does anything.

Currently trying Avsat 8 Internet Security. Seems to be more pro-active.

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I must disagree with that.

I write training material and was trying to deliberately infect a machine last week (virtual machine I could revert to original state when I finished). I had so much trouble with MSE not letting an infected file open I had to completely disable it to let the virus download, let alone install.

Admittly this was a virus, rather than a trojan, but while frustrating it showed MSE was providing security against that particular infection.

It highlights the need for keeping the definition database updated...

Every dog has his day:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...visory/2846338

Anti-malware makers are always in catch-up mode.

After reading the comments here and reviews in the net for the time being I left MSE on but also installed Malwarebytes with continuous protection.
So far the PC is clean thanks to Malwarebytes stopping malware.
MSE did not detected nothing :(

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Originally Posted by Ralph1Malph

I use trend micro, currently titanium version .
Whats the opinion re this suite?
I seem to be happy with it. No infections that I know of and I get regular pop ups telling me it has saved me from gazillions.

Cheers Ralph

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I'm running the same on a new Windows 8 tablet Ralph. Seems to be doing the job OK so far.

Have to agree with comments by others on Norton as well. I have it on my older laptop. It seems to do the job OK - but you really don't want to be doing anything in a hurry on the computer when it's scanning - and that seems to be quite often. As Dave has said - Norton Antivirus on its own is a much better option than Norton 360. My big laptop that I only use occasionally for work has Norton Antivirus only on it, and it doesn't have anywhere near the delays that the little one has.

A plus for MSE is that it integrates more tightly with low level OS features helping it to be far more performant as 'closer to the metal'

MS doesn't grant the same to 3rd parties

With my work I get play with this sort of thing a lot. We have virtual farms that develop and run malware in parallel to assess AV.. this is a similar process to what malware writers do to make sure their code isn't stopped or signatured by the AV companies.

MSE is, IMO, technically one of the best AV products in terms of how it works under the hood.

The problem that is has is that ALL anti-malware is BS - it is reactionary, and always behind.

This is compounded because a malware writer will ALWAYS have to bypass MSE as the % chance that someone is running it is MUCH higher than the % change of say someone running Trend, or Sophos.

So it creates an interesting conundrum where because it is the best and it is free it will always be the first priority to bypass so it wont ever be the best. Did someone say logic bomb?! :angel: