What is Microsoft Security Essentials?
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is an antivirus software product that provides real-time protection against different types of malicious software such as viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojan horses.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft (Space demand: only 17.63 MB.) that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology.
It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.
Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft (Space demand: only 17.63 MB.) that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology.
It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.
Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.
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Discontinued
MSE is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 only and it's no longer actively supported and developed. Windows Security is for Windows 8, 8.1 and 10
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Platform details
Windows: For Windows Vista and Windows 7 only
Tags
- anti-spyware
- Anti-Virus
- virus-scanner
List containing Microsoft Security Essentials
Windows Maintenance
Microsoft Security Essentials
Summary
Our users have written 8 comments and reviews about Microsoft Security Essentials, and it has gotten 586 likes
- Developed by Microsoft
- Proprietary and Free product.
- Average rating of 4
- 58 alternatives listed
Popular alternatives
View allMicrosoft Security Essentials was added to AlternativeTo by Ola on Sep 29, 2009 and this page was last updated Nov 2, 2017. Microsoft Security Essentials is sometimes referred to as Security Essentials, MSE.
Recent user activities on Microsoft Security Essentials
- yonootz321 liked Microsoft Security Essentialsyoabout 2 years ago
- JonReppDoneD liked Microsoft Security EssentialsJoover 2 years ago
- Faradeus liked Microsoft Security Essentialsover 2 years ago
I don't want to config an anti-virus application a lot to make it work well so MSE is my choice.
The best antivirus that does not need configuration is Bitdefender. More like it has no options for the user to config. It kills anything dangerous and it's paid version has the best database.
I am not replying by the way to a 3 year old comment. I am saying this for people that might see this nad think MSE is good for such a reason.
Reply written about 6 years ago
Microsoft Security Essentials needs only 17.6 MB on harddisk, Avast Free Antivirus 149 MB.
If you have a virtual machine, which you will keep small in order to copy or backup it on small USB-disks Microsoft Security Essentials is a very good solution because of its very low space demand.
I've tested MSE on several computers for over two months - is seems to be a bit lighter on resources and interface is decent (why does every antivirus MUST have some custom interface with ludicrous colors and interface styling?).
On the other hand, to complete removing a virus from USB flash drive - you have to reboot (this is not very convenient). And finally, one of the computers caught some bogus fake antivirus malware, which somehow bypassed MSE and removed it from startup.
Real-time protection seemed to hog a lot of CPU for me (up to 20-25% on a Q6600) while scanning. RAM usage was also high (70-80 MB).
By far the best free anti-malware program available. It's easy to use, a single interface, virus signatures updated daily and very light weight on system resources. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Better than AVG, Avast and Avira.
Also, this software wasn't made by Microsoft. It was made by some security software companies that Microsoft acquired.
Lightweight, ad-free, free, and easy to manage oh, and it has rootkit protection. Frankly, Security Essentials beats AVG and Avira in my opinion, despite it being created by Microsoft (possibly the only drawback).
Fast, free, and gets out of your way. It's the polar opposite of Norton/Symantec. Wonderful app.