Microsoft Security Essentials

I hate paying for software.  I will occasionally do it if I cannot find it easily online or if I feel the developer deserves the cash.  I’ve used many different anti-virus software packages over the years and I think I finally found one that I really like.  It also happens to be free. 

I used to use Norton Antivirus like many people. I’d pay for it because I didn’t think there was any other way.  I then moved on to a free version of McAffee that my school gave me.  I probably used that for years before moving on to the next one; AVG.

I loved AVG for a long time.  It was fairly quick, updated often but it was a little obtrusive.  I dealt with that though because the product was truly free.  About a year ago I AVG had a false positive that caused iTunes to get messed up.  I freaked out and uninstalled AVG and iTunes so nothing bad would happen to my music collection.  The next day a fix was issued but it was already too late for me.  I moved on to Avira. 

Avira was good. Very similar to AVG. It had an annoying popup that would bug you to buy the Pro version. Not terrible but annoying (I later found out how to disable this message).  Then Microsoft releases their Security Essentials package.  In a word: awesome!

It’s been a little strange that I’ve been saying that Microsoft has had some amazing products lately.  I love Windows 7. Windows Media Center is a great media experience. And now their new security software. 

Microsoft Security Essentials combines Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware protection in a small, lightweight and very silent package.  It updates automatically, detects a great number of issues and doesn’t take up my system resources.

Get it today. I highly recommend it.  Disagree? Let us know in the comments.