Microsoft Security Essentials Review (With Screenshots)

By Nakodari on Jun 17 2009 158 Comments

Microsoft Security Essentials is the name of Microsoft’s latest Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware software for Windows operating system. It is already being tested internally at Microsoft and is rumored to launch in September of this year. We were lucky to gets hands on the pre-beta build version of Security Essentials. I tested it on Windows Vista and was quite impressed with it. Below is the complete review along with some interesting findings.

Update: Microsoft Security Essentials has finally been released to the public, check it out here.

Note: Click the images below to enlarge.

Installation

Installation was a breeze, here are the step-by-step procedure for installation. When you run the installer for the first time, you are shown the welcome screen, click Next.

microsoft security essentials - installation Read the License Agreement and click I accept.

microsoft security essentials - installation 2 Here is the real bummer for those who are using non-genuine versions of Windows. This step will validate whether your Windows is genuine or not. Click Validate to check, if your Windows is validated you will be moved to next step, otherwise installation will fail.

microsoft security essentials - installation validate Now once your Windows has been validated, Security Essentials will now get ready to be installed. Click Install to begin installation.

microsoft security essentials - installation ready Installing…

microsoft security essentials - installing Once installation is complete, check the Scan My Computer checkbox and click Finish.

microsoft security essentials - installation complete

Using Security Essentials

Once installation is complete, you will be redirected to automatic virus & spyware definition updates.

microsoft security essentials - updates Now go to Home tab where you will be notified that everything is running smoothly.

microsoft security essentials - home To perform a System Scan, you can select from any one of the three options, Quick, Full, or Custom. First, I performed a quick scan to see how well it goes. The Quick scan was not so quick as the name suggests, it took several minutes(10 minutes to be exact on my system) to complete.

microsoft security essentials - quick scan I did not perform a Full Scan since it would have taken more than 20 minutes 2-3 hours easily. So I went straight ahead with Custom Scan. You have to choose the exact drive or destination that you would like to scan and click OK.

Update: For those thinking why I did not perform a full scan, the problem was not about time(although I did perform it later). There was no need to review the Full Scan option, because it is just similar to Quick Scan but instead scanned all locations of hard disk.

microsoft security essentials - custom scan

This is how the Home window looks like when a threat is detected.

microsoft security essentials - threat detectedTo remove this threat, click Clean Computer button. It seems like a Trojan was sitting on my computer which NOD32 failed to detect.

microsoft security essentials - remove trojan

I have to commend Security Essentials for finding and removing this stupid Trojan.

microsoft security essentials - clean trojan

To schedule a scan you can either click Change My Scan Schedule link on the Home window or go straight to Settings.

microsoft security essentials - schedule scan Below are some additional screenshots of Default action, Real-time protection, and Advanced settings.

microsoft security essentials - default action microsoft security essentials - real time protection microsoft security essentials - advanced settingsIn History tab you can see all Detected Items, Quarantined Items, and Allowed Items. To remove all history, click Delete History button.

microsoft security essentials - history

Conclusion

Since I tested the pre-beta build, it is quite difficult to draw the final verdict. But one thing that held out is it’s ease-of-use and small memory footprint. The overall size of the software installer is only 4.8MB and takes around 6.6MB + 36MB(runs two different processes) when running on my system. Which is quite impressive if you look at the fact that it detected and removed a Trojan downloader that NOD32 even failed to detect in the first place. Just for the sake of comparison ESET NOD32 takes 35MB of system memory, which means approx 28.4MB more than Security Essentials. ;) Enjoy!

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  • terrywitt

    Seems to me the biggest problem is that does not appear to check email for viruses.

    • JB

      I agree. I don't see where it checks email either. Have you found any other info on that issue?

      • http://twitter.com/ltGuillaume Willem Nuijen

        Err, who needs that? As soon as you try to run anything from a mail, it'll catch it anyway. Email scanners are highly overrated: an on-access scanner should be in between the mail and running it anyway.

  • Paul Moth

    Of course like some of Microsoft’s previous botched attempts to enter the antivirus business, this program no doubt is not removable , violating Microsoft’s own programming rules.
    I will not install it until I hear from someone who has successfully removed it!

    • http://www.addicitivetips.com Nakodari

      Who says it it not removable? You can find it listed under “Uninstall or Change a Program” feature in Windows.

  • Greg

    Anyone know if I can install this on a computer connected to a domain?

    Thanks!

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  • Bob Ewell

    Just go to http://www.virusbtn.com and create a free account and you can see every single antivirus on the market tested ever single month. NOD32 has not failed a test in 7 years back when it had first come out. Even Norton (terrible terrible software regardless of its detection rates) had not failed since 1999 failed last month’s testing for wildlist virii. There’s a 99.999999999% chance that you deleted a clean file. You should really adjust your article to reflect the fact that you have absolutely no idea if it was a virus/trojan.

  • michael

    Yesterday I installed MSE on 2 of my pc’s
    On one pc I’m using NOD32 / MSE found a trojan , which was not detctet by NOD32
    On the other pc I’m using Trend Micro / here MSE found 2 trojan’s

    I’m just wondering what is bad here ?
    Microsoft gives there users an oportunity to have a additonal tool that detects things others do not .
    I’m not an employee of Microsoft neither a share holder .
    But my pc’s are cleaner now thank you Microsoft !!!!!!

  • Elvis

    More simpler? Go back to grammar school.

    • asdf

      Go back to troll school.

  • Phil

    if you want to test your boxes with various antivirus then run different systems virtually with various antivirus solutions. Then place known viruses on the systems to see how the antivirus products act.

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  • Daniel Elmes

    It found three trojans on my machine and none of the other virus checkers I have used have
    picked them up so I’m happy……. Microsoft still sucks but I’m happy…

  • Yo

    What’s the difference between “Clean computer” and “Apply actions” buttons on the virus screen? Don’t they do the same thing…?

  • uno

    Many people forget that Defender is not just an anti-malware: it has other interesting features you can explore in the Tools options…
    For example can monitor what programs are currently only, at what port thery are connected etc.; can disable/enable AutoRun applications etc.

    I’m afraid these useful options will disappear if they’ll merge everything in MSE.

  • david8000

    If one wants to install Microsoft Security Essentials, when does one uninstall windows one care.

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  • http://www.shvoong.com/writers/arashi Arashi

    Nice to know Ms comes out with something useful and free… But, Please don’t be so dependent to it… NO anti-virus can fully protect your computer 100%. I’ve been executing so many viruses on my computer the only thing I can say is NO ANTI-VIRUS CAN detect everything. Especially the 3rd generation virus which is no longer in .exe or .com or .ini or any other format

  • delightfullytwisted

    where i have not tested the mse as of yet, i must say this thread is quite nice aside from the obvious few posts of little “taste” lets say. i have to say that it is not a false positive. AVG, spybot, and adaware to name a few pick it up as well and it is a well documented bug if you care to do a quick google on it. nod32 missed it because of how it scans and how the virus it self is brought in to the system. this review has prompted me to give mse the benefit of the doubt and even a trial. there is a lot of good information here for, dare i say the less informed, to follow some key points being: no single program will catch everything, there is a huge difference between spyware/virus/and general malware, a good combination of streamlined and trustworthy programs, such as avg-spybot-ccleaner, and smart browsing practices are your best line of defense. at any rate getting a little rambled here so i close in saying thanks for the review and comments, and i am now leaving zone alarm security to test mse

  • delightfullytwisted

    and the verdict is in… unfortunately upon install i ran into the catch, if you look in settings under the heading spynet, you will find that microsoft has graciously included their spynet community for free. by installing mse you effectively agree to all terms and conditions of the base program as well as spynet (which you can not opt out of). upon reading what spynet is you are informed that it collects data automatically and with out request (both personal and technical) and reports it to microsoft. again YOU CAN NOT OPT OUT OF THIS AND IT DOES NOT ASK PERMISSION. how can this be you ask, simple you agree to the terms when you install mse. if you read the agreement for spy net which is not included in the install (who reads that stuff anyway), you have to actually browse to the mse site to find it, microsoft basically absolves themselves of any wrongdoing and words the agreement in such a way that they can essentially do whatever they chose with the automatically collected data ( personal and otherwise) a good program it may be, i will never know as i am opposed to shuch information gathering tactics that give the user no choice. it’s your information, you should always have a choice in where it goes and when.

    • http://www.asymmetrics.nl/ Guillaume

      Don't be such a paranoid, it's not sending any personal data. In fact, in order to get you some better protection it's damn important that the data like file location, size, maybe hash or whatever is sent to an antivirus software company. I don't have any problems with this, and frankly neither should you. If you're paranoid, stay off of Facebook, Twitter, don't use a webmail service to archive your personal messages, but don't shout out loud that it's preposterous that a company tries to increase its service towards you by harvesting some harmless information.

      Have a look at my review, some more text, instead of mere screenshot-mania: http://www.asymmetrics.nl/?q=node/33

  • Name

    Holy crap! Remind me never to post anything positive about a Microsoft product. The writer of the article simply made some observations about the software based on what he had available. I didn't read any parts where he claimed it was perfect or that it was somehow better than everything else. Simply that it was easy to install, easy to understand and for something free it detected a trojan that something you pay for didn't. Its quite possible that NOD has a list of things it can detect that MSE can't. Atleast he took the time to try to tell people about it. If you guys have such a rager to bash the review(er) then download it yourselves and come to your own conclusions. At under 5 mb it would probably be quicker than spending the time writting nasty post. Reminds me of a bunch of quippy old women who's bus to the bingo game is running late.

    -Nakodari, thank you for the insight. I've downloaded it on a fresh system. It was simple as described. Now we'll see if it does the job. If it doesn't, then well it was free what's to complain about?

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  • idriskarim

    just being a polite guest here, but are you guys getting paid to argue about which is better ?
    if so can i join…… any ways i recently jumped of the pirated software ship and thougth i'd go windows vista ,before that i was using a copy of windows xp running AVG 8.5 (crack) it failed to detect a trojan win32.alureon.wk! which, A squared from emsisoft detected but couldnt remove , when i installed mse on first deep scan it detected not 1 but 2 trojans and some hidden drivers, point is all a/v are good but if you have a “free” or “cracked version you probably arent 100% protected

  • http://www.facebook.com/robert.damian.mauro Robert Damian Mauro

    Where's the review portion? This is an installation and usage guide!

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  • Jo

    Worked great… I had a laptop I was about to throw out it was so slow. Norton didn't do anything for it. I ran Essentials (long time – over 2 hours), but after it was done cleaning up multiple infections the laptop was running like new. Pretty good product, esp for free, if you ask me.

    • http://twitter.com/ltGuillaume Willem Nuijen

      I'd say Norton could've been part of the problem :P What version was that? The 2003-2007(8?) versions slowed down most computers to a degree that made it impossible to work on them.

  • Bert

    Had to reinstall my XP. Lost Security Essential. I cannot reinstall. Getting as far as the forth sceen, – Install-then as soon as it starts to “Install” a error messege comes up, sorry , restart your computer and try again. Originally I have unistalled it. Any suggestion ?.
    Thank you, Bert

    • http://twitter.com/ltGuillaume Willem Nuijen

      Did you wipe your drive before reinstalling or did you install it right over the old installation?

      • Nakodari

        Obviously he would have done the latter(i.e, did not wipe out the drive). The only way to fix it would be to search for Security Essentials in Registry and remove the related keys.

        • Bert

          Thanks, I am dennied to remove Security Essentials from the Registry.

      • Bert

        Thanks, but cannot remove the old version from program files, Add-Remove. Cannot remove from registry.
        I am stuck. Looks like have to live without it.
        Bert

        • Bert

          Correction, I could remove it from Add-Remove Programs. Just about thats all.
          Everything else is denied.
          Bert

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  • stuartbell

    I re-installed XP after a series of virus damages.

    After the install, I also installed AVG.

    Then I installed Microsoft Security Essentials.

    It consumes about 50% of the CPU cycles for about 1 hour after startup. consumes about 100 Meg of paging during this period. The result is it is nearly impossible to do anything for the first hour of the day.

    What should I do?

    Should I remove AVG? Are the two compting? (no signs that I can see).

    Should I remove Microsoft Security Essentials? How.

    Thank you.

    • http://twitter.com/ltGuillaume Willem Nuijen

      You should really really never install two virusscanners at once while using the on-access components of both simultaneously. Never! Apart from that it will slow your computer down to the extent of not being able to work with it anymore, there are most certainly conflicts turning up on a regular basis.

      • stuartbell

        Microsoft Security Essentials seems to have no e/mail
        scanner. Should I uninstall AVG and skip e/mail scanning?
        Seems not. So, I can tell AVG not to do a full scan and use
        it for e/mail only, or I can disable Microsoft Security
        Essentials.

        Not sure how to disable MSE, but when I disable full
        scanning on AVG, the startup problem still occurs.

        Microsoft Security Essentials is worse than the virus I'm
        trying to prevent. It screws up my machine every time, not
        just occasionally. How do I uninstall MSE? At least until
        Microsoft fixes it.

        Thank you. /Stu

        Stuart Bell
        Cell (561)352-1796 Voice/Fax:(561)355-8227
        stu@shearwater-sailing.com
        1993 Gemini 3400 #379: Shearwater

        • http://twitter.com/ltGuillaume Willem Nuijen

          Evidently it's not the full scan that's giving you problems, but the ON-ACCESS scanning components trying to do the same thing simultaneously whenever you open/copy a file: scan it before you use it. A full scan is just a run through all your files at once, a procedure that shouldn't be necessary after the first time as long as the on-access scanner is constantly active.

          An email scanning component is overrated: it might even get you into significant trouble with messages having big attachments as the virusscanner downloads the message and the email client thinks it's suffering from a connection timeout. Most on-access scanners are sufficiently equipped to catch any email viruses before becoming active, so you can do pretty well without an email scanner.

          Evidently, your problem still occurs because you didn't disable the on-access scanning component. The only one screwing up your PC is you for installing two antivirus products at once. There is nothing to fix, other than you needing to make a choice: it's either AVG or MSE. But as I said, both products CAN work next to each other, as long as you disable any resident scanners (on-access) from either of the two products.

          • stuartbell

            Thank you again for your comments.

            I'm made the choice, I just can't figure out how to remove
            the Microsoft product. I've partially disabled it in
            “services”, but it is still there and still takes up
            resources.

            Is there any way to remove it?

            /Stu

            Stuart Bell
            Cell (561)352-1796 Voice/Fax:(561)355-8227
            stu@shearwater-sailing.com
            1993 Gemini 3400 #379: Shearwater

            • http://twitter.com/ltGuillaume Willem Nuijen

              As with ALL properly installed software, there should be an entry in 'Programs and Features' (just type that in the Start Menu and you'll get there). Just double-click on the entry for MSE. Don't disable the service manually (hence now re-enable and start) before the uninstall procedure, you'll never know whether this might give any exceptions during the removal procedure.

              • stuartbell

                Thank you. I will try again later when Microsoft works the
                kinks out.

                Nice to have my machine back. /Stu

                Stuart Bell
                Cell (561)352-1796 Voice/Fax:(561)355-8227
                stu@shearwater-sailing.com
                1993 Gemini 3400 #379: Shearwater

  • mac = : P

    Microsoft epic pwns mac.

  • bitemyweenie

    If you like using Firefox- DO NOT USE IT! Microsoft DOES NOT play fair with competition, especially if they are better. Firefox would freeze up and not connect with Essentials, Back to McAffe-No problems!

  • bitemyweenie

    If you like using Firefox- DO NOT USE IT! Microsoft DOES NOT play fair with competition, especially if they are better. Firefox would freeze up and not connect with Essentials, Back to McAffe-No problems!

  • Tingman

    I use Firefox 3.56 , and Essentials is playing nice with it in Vista. Love the light load on my system.

  • Ryan

    Can It be Compared With Norton And Bitdefender 2010

  • Ryan

    Can It be Compared With Norton And Bitdefender 2010

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  • E.Z.

    Too much hate and bulgarity, not enough civility and friendliness and love of neighbors.

  • http://ideasdigest.blogspot.com/2010/01/philippine-government-websites-under.html IM

    MSE is very good! It detects a worm that a LICENCED SYMMANTEC Antivirus failed to detect. I like it and I'm satisfied with its performance.

  • Jay

    My opinion? Who would know what shouldn't be doing what on an MS OS better than MS themselves, and moreso, what should belong (hense less false-positives).

    Not an MS fanboy, but had it with Norton slowing machines to a crawl. Used to love it, now, not so much. Perhaps it might detect an extra virus or two over the long haul, but someone like me who knows enough to steer clear of most viruses, I will take the performance over Norton slowing me down. Can't beat the price either.

    I used to have the former MS OneCare which was great and likely what Security Essentials is based off.

    Sorry Norton, I think your antivirus may be trying to do too much these days, at least for an advanced user.

  • Rock

    for me, its working great. affected with w32.silly. symantec failed to remove, MSE worked. I am using both on my pc. Cpu usage 4%. not slwoing down pc.

  • ThosThos

    I like MSE. I haven't used a virus scanner for years because of the overhead. Then I got one of those crappy virus alarms that some companies do to get you to use their rubbish. I confirmed that it was a false alarm with MSE, checked MSE's effect on performance (trivial) and have had it running for a couple of weeks now. I like everything about it, particularly the simplicity of the interface. MS should have done this many years ago. Any of the anti-MS freaks thinking of flaming me are wasting their time. I don't look at any threads regularly, and don't give a toss what anybody says about me anyway. My advice to anybody thinking of AV protection is try MSE. It's free, seems fairly effective, and the risk of virus infection is trivial if you're sensible in the sites you visit. I think I've had about 5 infections in 20 years, 3 from other people's disks and 2 from emails.

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  • rogerSC

    One thing that I've noticed, while Nod32 interacts with Google Chrome browser (somehow, it doesn't affect IE8 or FF3.6), MSE does not. So I'm using MSE for everyday/real time use and am very happy with it. I do a full scan with both Nod32 and MSE once a week, and both seem about equal there.

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  • NieksterNL

    very very VERY bad anti virus progamm
    my other anti spyware progamm already deleted 4 virusses, while microsoft security didnt even find one

    this is by far the suckiest anti virus i had

    • Colin

      I love ignorant posts like this. It means nothing.

  • furqanqureshi

    if you use microsoft windows then only use microsoft security because only microsoft knows there windows better then other heavy antivirus which actually updates viruses to ur computer microsoft is best!

  • azharalibuttar

    people are facing few errors and problems in Microsoft Security Essentials, like updating error; I got the solutions shared at under given URL for Microsoft Security Essentials. I like to share with others, perhaps this can help someone came to this website for Microsoft Security Essentials; PLease allow me to share with others
    http://www.itoperationz.com/2010/03/microsoft-s…
    http://www.itoperationz.com/2010/03/microsoft-s…

  • Richard

    I like the new MSE but miss and need the options in windows defender, like to disable programs that start up with windows. I hope they stil provide a way to access the startup folder.

    • dan

      msconfig… type it in “start” search bar?

  • Keith

    MSE was the first thing I installed on a new computer I just received after deleting all the bloatware programs that originally came on with the computer (Gateway FX6831-03). Then the tedious process of moving over all my files began. MSE detected and removed a Trojan called JS/Kak.gen. It was hiding in one of the many e-mail folders I brought over to the new computer via a flash drive. So tip of the hat to MSE for detecting a Trojan that had been sitting on my old computer, probably for years (was using McAffe on that one).

  • shaun

    I have been using the MSE for a few weeks now & I found it extremely good in detection of spyware & Trojans & viruses..(this is subjected to the frequency on which the program is updated of course!!).. If you are updating with latest definitions per 2-4 days its the best AV program I have encountered yet ..

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