Report: Microsoft Security is Unexceptional

[dedhorse]

If this is only offered as a free download off Microsoft's site, then AV companies have nothing to fear, as the average user won't be bothered to go searching for it.

However, if Microsoft decides to roll it out on Windows Update, you can bet the **it will hit the fan. The only reason people buy anti-virus software is because the average user doesn't know there is free software out there that is just as secure as the pay stuff. The Microsoft brand with the easy roll out will eliminate that problem, and that should make all security companies very nervous.

 

[Guest]

Obviously shilling for their corporate sponsors:

"the software works, but doesn't blow your mind"

OK, it keeps out the nasty stuff, aka "works"? What constitutes "mind blowing"? Would a mind blowing antivirus launch a counterattack and steal the virus writers personal info and take control of their laptop?

 

[grieve]

When this is out of Beta and many reviews are in I will give it a shot. Should m$ rate Higher then Antivir or AVG ill move to it permanently.

I don’t understand why many people are so ANTI m$. Seriously, if this program beats out the other free programs why wouldn’t you use it? I’m sure many of you are using Avast or Avg… well guess what Antivir is the best free AV right now. Perhaps we should hack up AVG or Avast even though they are perfectly good programs.

 

[Marcus52]

[citation][nom]sp0ns3rzzz[/nom]Is it possible that Norton and Symantec might sponsor those guys, and they are trashing the free solution to protect their sponsor's profit? Or for that matter, is Intel sponsoring Tom's ? PS: The Windows Security model is crap, Windows + Antivirus is about on par with Linux + no firewall + no antivirus. OSX is obviously crap no matter what...[/citation]

You, sir or madam, don't know what you're talking about.

http/www.tomshardware.com/reviews/joanna-rutkowska-rootkit,2356.html

She does. Both Vista and Win 7 as well as OS X are superior to any Linux solution currently out there (or should I say any Linux distro other than OS X, heh), in terms of security. Note, she also says OS X is NOT better than Windows, contrary to what Apple would have you believe. She uses Macs too, so she's no Apple hater, just a realist. Refreshing!

She also says A/Vs are worthless (I'm not sure I agree but I bow to her superior knowledge) - so, if an A/V makes any difference at all, and apparently Microsoft's is a small step better, I think that's worthy of an 'attaboy!'

Fact is, people don't want to do what will really make them more secure. Gripes about Defender and the UAC proved that.

 

[grieve]

nice Marcus52
The 'attaboy!' is that from 2 and a half men?

 

[Guest]

Marcus52: What about pwn2own? Epic fail on your part, read this interesting comment in the comments section:

"A interesting and informative article but there is a lot of self praise and back slapping, seems that these folks are not the geniuses they make them selves out to be:
http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Pill_(malware) "


Of course, if you back up your comment by referencing a Tom's article *snicker, snicker*, then you must be right. /sarcasm

How often does Tom's have to do a "follow up" article on an initial article because it was flat out wrong? About 50% of the time?

 

[Guest]

OMG, just went back and read that entire article...

First: Joanna debunks her own cred.
2nd: The article debunks itself
3rd: The comments section debunks the article again out of spite

What a sorry excuse for an article, I can't believe you'd be dumb enough to cite that to back up your point. I bet you've jerked off to Joanna's picture atleast 3 times since it was posted 2 days ago.

Of course, Marcus52, if you think you're up to the challenge, I'll whip out my Backtrack3 live cd and try to "pen-test" your Mac, and you are welcome to try the same on my Linux box(not that you'd even have a clue how).

 

[dextermat]

you know what:

If MS would care about costumers, and therefore done something good for them, they probably have positive comments...

from what i know, it's not the case....

 

[p05esto]

Sounds exactly like what I want:

Lean AV software that doesn't have a bunch of stupid and pointless features that will slow my system down. But it does catch "everything" thrown at it and is free. Microsoft is finally starting to get it - lean, fast, bloat-free. Now let's stop with stupid reviews looking for "exceptional" bloated features to write about. Just say it's fast, free, catches everything and how could it be any better than this?

 

[Platypus]

[citation][nom]Niva[/nom]As far as I'm concerned this is the best thing from Microsoft since sliced bread.[/citation]
FYI: Microsoft isn't the one who gave us sliced bread.

And Kevin, your journalism skills are vastly improving. You managed to take an ordinary comment and twist it into an insult. "It works" is about as much as anyone can expect out of AV software, but you made it sound like "Ah damn... this frickin program actually works, but it's not mind blowing. M$ is shite!"

 

[anamaniac]

...
My neighbor spends more on anti virus software than what I believe her computer is worth...

It will likely vastly improve through time, because from my understanding, this is only a beta so far. With a larger test group however, Microsoft can ramp it up likely, making it somethign decent (hopefully).

 

[cregan89]

This article is extremely twisted. Basically, eWeek said "the software works but won't blow your mind" and "Security Essentials scored (surprisingly) well on early wild list tests, finding everything that was thrown at it, an achievement rarely made when testing retail solutions".

Yet they then go on to say the program is crap. And they give absolutely no justification for why it is crap, except that "it won't blow your mind". WELL, a security solution isn't supposed to blow your mind!! The best security solution, is a security solution that you don't even notice is there! In a perfect world, a security solution would never ever pop up asking you to register or update the program. It would have zero effect on performance. And would obviously make your computer perfectly secure. And from this article, eWeek basically said that this MSE is the closest a security product has ever gotten to this perfect world program.

Kinda reminds me of the Oatmeal Crisp commercials.

"MSE, it won't miss a single virus attack, has extremely little negative performance impact, is completely free with no ads built in... But you won't like ittttt....."

 

[Guest]

Microsoft Security Essentials was developed to be used by the same people who still use Internet Explorer because they just don't know there's anything better out there for free and don't really care either. I used it for a few weeks and found that like any other M$ software that if you turn certain features you don't want to use off it bugs the crap out of you about it. Such as the setting that allows the software to scan every folder you open for eleven minutes before you can open the file you were looking for. This is more of a issue in vista than in xp though. I run all my security software manually once a week or less. I setup my security software to not do anything unless I tell it to. The only thing you really have to do to avoid getting malware is use common sense while you browse the net. Right now I'm using Avira and It's probably the best free av software right now. Was using AVG for a while but it's detection rate is lower than Avira and Avast right now.

 

[countorobas]

MSE is CRAP! It allowed a virus through that NORTON'S IE would have caught right away. It ended up costing me a HUNDRED bucks to have my computer wiped clean. After that, NO MORE FREE AVs! I went back to Norton Internet Security (2011 and 2012 editions are REALLY good). And haven't had a problem since. Plus, I like having my firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus all in one, with a relatively small footprint (NIS 2012 does a good job of this. So, STAY AWAY from Mircosoft security essentials, Microsoft's firewall AND Internet Explorer. get Norton's 2012 Internet Security and Firefox 10.0 version. Together you will be much safer.