Free Antivirus+Antimalware – from Microsoft!

Imagine lightweight antivirus software, that was only 3.7Mb download.  Imagine that it only took 30 seconds to install.  Then imagine that it only took up 4.5Mb of ram while it was actively running.  Now imagine that this antivirus program was a free download, and was promised to remain free even after it was finally released.  Finally, this amazing product was available for XP, Vista, and 7, in both x86 and x64 editions.  And guess what … you just imagined what Microsoft’s new antivirus software is today!

Formerly codenamed “Morro,” Microsoft Security Essentials is the successor to Windows Live OneCare.  Using the same detection engine as both OneCare and Forefront for Servers, Security Essentials is a capable antivirus/antimalware program that has been streamlined to run efficiently on even netbooks with low resources.  But even on a modern computer with multiple cores and several gigs of ram, a lightweight antivirus solution will make your computer speedier.  It is additionally ideal for running in virtualized installs of Windows, such as the new Virtual XP for Windows 7.

Security Essentials seems to be very speedy, in addition to being lightweight.  After taking only 30 seconds to install (and it may have actually been shorter than that; I wasn’t timing it that accurately!), it only took 9 minutes (with only hitting my processor at ~50%) to do a quick scan after install.  It will take more time to tell, but it seems like it is at least faster than AVG Free (the antivirus I had been using before).  And since its free, it can’t hurt to try, right?

So what are you waiting for?  Head over to the official site at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/, and try to download the beta.  But you’d better hurry … only the first 75,000 people are going to be able to download it.  If you happen to not be able to get the download (or don’t have a US, Chinese, or Brazilian Live ID which is needed for the download), then keep your eyes out for it this fall, when it will be released around the same time as Windows 7.  For more information about Microsoft Security Essentials, check out the review at http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/mse_beta.asp.

Edit:  Looks like Microsoft Security Essentials is passing security tests with flying colors, performing better than it's competators!  Check out this Computerworld article for more details: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9134753.  Oh, and it also looks like the beta is closed already ... hope you got in quick enough!

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