New and free anti virus from Microsoft ...

A

Allanon

Moderator
Microsoft has finally released to the public their new AV tool which has been in beta for months.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

If you have an updated AV purchased (and maintained in the past 9 months), this likely won't interest you. If you do not have an updated AV or you have another free AV (I used Grisoft's AVG for years), this is a good substitute. I have provided a review for your interest ...

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/first-look-microsoft-security-essentials-impresses.ars

As a side note, a guildie has their account jacked and this new version found it while others did not. It is important to keep your AV updated (daily or at least weekly).
 
I'm am waiting a month or two until various third party researchers actually pit this against various malware databases.
 
more likely sour grapes as i have had to clean more symantec infected computers lately than ever. It's not hard to do better than symantec.
 
It looks interesting to me - I may give it a go when I upgrade to Windows 7.
 
I've used this software since the first beta was available and it's great. No reason to not install it (unless you recently purchased an A/V). If you run Norton 2009 or earlier i'd suggest you hurry and install it. You'll probably get 10-20 more FPS in your games :P
 
Just want to bump this to say I have been running another piece of software alongside of MSE but I have been waiting to talk about it until now. ThreatFire is a compliment to your AV. Based on it's heuristic's engine, it provides zero-day protection which means that it can detect "strange" or "usual" system behavior before the AV companies have had time to update their signature databases. It is free, auto updates, doesn't conflict with your primary AV.

One quick note, a box I bought for one of my son's had a keyboard logger in which no AV at the time could detect. It was driving me nuts, I installed this, and the very next day it popped up and told me that a particular .dll was doing something it should not be. It found the keyboard logger, even when AVG could not, or Trend Micro (or any of the engines I tested - 10 in total).

I won't keep going on about MSE because it just works. I have now removed the last AVG install over the weekend (I have 7 boxes, it takes time ;) My only complaint is that ThreatFire does not support 64 bit OS so for a few of my Window 7 boxes, I only run MSE but the 32 bit (mostly XP), I run both and sleep better.

Here is an updated review (Nov 1) with MSE along with a number of major AV players ... Be educated
http://www.teknobites.com/2009/11/0...sentials-rated-high-in-malware-removal-tests/
 
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Thanks for the info. Threatfire is great stuff and I like what I am seeing with MSE so far.
I mix TF with Avira AntiVir for a superior combo.
 
Just a brief description on ThreatFire from their FAQ:

ThreatFire is zero-day security software designed for the average consumer. ThreatFire protects in real-time against viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, rootkits, keyloggers, and buffer overflows. It is designed to be used alongside your current antivirus to protect you between antivirus updates. Because it is behavior-based and not signature-based, ThreatFire protects against both known and unknown, or zero-day, threats. It is easy to install, painless to use, and immediately effective against today's computer security threats. And best of all, ThreatFire is free to all home users.
 
Release of 4.6.0.19

Website download only, auto updates will be activated later on.

Now supporting:

Win 7, and both 32Bit and 64Bit installations.

Many bug fixes, thank to our beta users!

I will be installing this on my window 7 64 OSes this evening - w00t.
 
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Allanon: In your experience, how hard does Threatfire hit system resources? I'm on a notebook I use for gaming, so every bit of processing power is precious.
 
Great question, don't know that for sure as my box is "slightly" overpowered and I am not sure my wife and kids can tell the difference.
 
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