Microsoft's Security Essentials - Thoughts?

Discussion in 'Software' started by dlb, Sep 29, 2009.

  1. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    http://www.majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Security_Essentials_for_Windows_XP_d6243.html (WinXP)
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/Microsoft_Security_Essentials_for_Windows_VistaWindows_7_d6242.html (Vista/Win7)

    I just installed this, and after rebooting, my PC was considerably slower. The little hourglass thingy was floating next to my mouse pointer constantly; it would be there for about 5 or 7 seconds, disappear for maybe another 5 seconds, come back for 10 seconds, go away for maybe 6 seconds, come back for another 7 seconds, etc etc. I checked my CPU usage and it didn't seem to be abnormally high, but my hard drive LED was flashing off and on regularly, much more than usual. I disabled the automatic scan feature in MSSE, and disabled the automatic update feature after manually making sure it was up to date, and still the hourglass thingy, and the HD activity continued, and the general sluggishness of my usually snappy PC persisted. Then, out of the blue, I got a "Windows - No disk in drive" error with a loud GLONK! What the ****?!?!?!! No disk in drive?!?! I'm just sitting here with the task manager open trying to figure out what's going on with this new app. After I got the error box to close, I uninstalled MSSE and will never install it again, unless MS makes some changes. So, I guess I'm wondering what other folks have experienced with this. I noticed that the Vista version has high marks (over 4.5 stars here at MG) and the XP version has low marks (3 stars when I last checked). So, any opinions, thoughts, or experiences are encouraged.

    [dlb]

    (BTW- I'm running XP Pro SP3)
     
  2. Geminiione

    Geminiione Private First Class

    when you install a new and you have trouble first thing to do is uninstall it and see if the issues go away. however sometimes installing a new app puts strain on your system and acelerates an issue to the forefront. "glonks" in my experiance usually mean hard drive issues so try to test your HD with a utility. if needed i can recomend some that i find are very good and also most hd makers have a test app.
     
  3. iwunderdownunder

    iwunderdownunder First Sergeant

    i to installed the xp version this morning and had the same thing the power light around the on off switch that lights up when the pc is in use was going nuts but when i brought up task manager it would stop. it seems to have settled now i think with the fresh install the program is making a image of all that is on the pc so it can note any changes that may occur with malware or a virus.the installation was fairly quick and simple not much to the program at all but does use a lot of resources e.g the MsMpEng.exe memory is at 74,870k and V M 135,330k.
     
  4. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    @ iwunderdownunder & Digitalocksmith: thanks for your input! It is appreciated. ;)

    @ Geminiione: I consider myself to be pretty savvy with PCs, esp my home system, and I'm VERY familiar with it's usual operation and any particulars unique to the system (each PC has it's own "personality") and the moment MSSE was installed, all kinds of slowness and weirdness started happening. I tried to track down the issue thinking that it was something else and not MSSE. After about 30 minutes of poking around, and the "Windows - No disk in drive" error out of no-where (which was quite bizarre - this has never happened before or since), I uninstalled MSSE just to see if the sudden strange activity, and consistent HD activity was caused by MSSE either directly, or indirectly. Well, the moment the app had been removed, everything returned to normal. My system is normally pretty quick and responsive, "snappy" is a good word to describe it. However, I will try MSSE on some other PCs with both Vista and XP, just to see how it works on those.....
     
  5. Geminiione

    Geminiione Private First Class

    I did not mean to imply you aren't, sorry if you got that impression. I have found that sometimes the simple things get overlooked and was just giving another option
     
  6. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    One user posted at another forum that running the beta and now the release product really slowed down his computer. He removed MSSE.
    dlb, you are not the only person who notices a lag.
     
  7. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    I have tried installing MSSE on 3 different PCs today: it errored out on 2 of 'em and wouldn't complete the install, and installed OK on the 3rd, and it's still updating as I type this. All 3 PCs had WinXP, the 2 that errored out had SP2, the 3rd has SP3. Maybe MSSE "doesn't like" Service Pack 2? I haven't seen anything about it requiring SP3, but maybe it does. The one PC that accepted the full install is experiencing many of the same symptoms I described earlier: constant HD activity and general malaise/slowness, and the hour glass appears for a few seconds, the disappears for a few seconds, and so on.... I'm going to leave MSSE on this one PC overnight and see if maybe it's actually doing something useful like creating an image or system snapshot, and maybe the HD activity will stop after some time.... I guess we'll see.....
     
  8. iwunderdownunder

    iwunderdownunder First Sergeant

    G'day dlb
    this is day 2 with this on my system and you are right about the symptoms of hard drive activity but it did settle on my system and i have had no recorded slowness of anything i have used.for you knowledge i am using an amd athlon 2000 1.5 gig processor with 740 meg of ram and only a 40 gig hard drive with 14 gig used.i would presume with a larger hard drive it would take longer for the program to finish building an image.
    so far i have not had any issues or any reports of malware.i was using the comodo security antivirus + firewall and now just the firewall and mse and everything seems to be performing quite well.will let you know if any problems as they occur.
     
  9. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    I'm tempted to give MSSE a try, but are you guys removing any resident protection first, such as AVG and Defender?
     
  10. martiniqueeni

    martiniqueeni Private E-2

    The techno guy at boston.com was singing the praises of this program in his column today. So, for kicks, I downloaded and installed it on my primary home pc, which runs XP SP2 (because SP3 won't load no matter what I try). The installation was smooth as silk, as was the retrieval of the updates and the initial "quick scan" of the system. The scan came back clean, which is pretty much what I expected.

    I uninstalled nothing before doing so. I haven't rebooted the PC yet, though. That might be another story.

    After lunch, I'll try loading it onto our much slower desktop and our ancient laptop, both of which run XP SP3.
     
  11. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    So how are you going to judge its effectivity?
     
  12. martiniqueeni

    martiniqueeni Private E-2

    I'm no pioneer. I pretty much install/run very regularly whatever the smart people on majorgeeks.com recommend. I check in every few months to see what's new or deleted on the list. I happened upon this discussion and added my $.02.

    I'm running AVG 8.5 (freeware) as my antivirus. This slows my machine down to a crawl when it runs the daily scans and hasn't found anything of consequence on my system since installation a couple of years ago. Ergo, I have a sense of being pretty adequately protected with AVG.

    The programs that don't run well or at all on my pc (Spybot and Ad-aware) I've uninstalled.

    The MSSE ran its initial scan in about a third of the time AVG uses and didn't bog down the machine. I'm willing to let them coexist (since there are no issues) until I feel secure to uninstall the AVG, which has been pretty trustworthy for all it's klugy-ness. I'm primarily concerned that MSSE might be as full of security holes as any number of other MS products.
     
  13. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    Like you I've been sheltering behind AVG for more years than I care to think about, and simply can't recollect the last intruder I had. Maybe I've never had one :-D I don't know whether this because AVG is so good or because I never do anything the least risky. But there seems little point adding additional security software if in fact my existing setup is 100% effective.

    So I've uninstalled AVG and disabled Vista's Defender before installing MSSE and will wait and see. Certainly the installation and initial scan were problem free.
     
  14. avondude

    avondude Senior Member, 25% Off All Posts

    Am running XP---SP3---Dell computer---desktop---absolutely love it!---no installation problems---runs smooth and quiet---am typing this as a full scan is going on with no slow down to my system---my roomie has the same computer as me with Vista SP1---runs equally well---completely satisfied---my roomie's unit picked up two trojans that Norton had not found as soon as it was installed---
     
  15. martiniqueeni

    martiniqueeni Private E-2

    Good luck!

    This is the article I mentioned earlier:
    http://www.boston.com/business/tech...crosofts_free_antivirus_program_changes_game/

    It suggests that MSSE incorporates Defender so I didn't uninstall Defender first. Maybe I should look at that.
     
  16. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    I'm not exactly sticking my neck out. I took an Acronis image first ;)
     
  17. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    I was able to successfully install MSSE on an XP system with SP2, so the two SP2 systems where MSSE errored out during install are still mysterious. It wasn't due to MSSE not being compatible with SP2. Luckily, I took a screen shot of the error (attached below) so I could research the error when I get some time.

    UPDATE- I posted above (#10) that I installed MSSE on a PC and noticed the same symptoms as I did on my home PC. Well, I left this PC alone overnight and it seems to have settled down. It does seem a hair slower, but it could be my imagination. I did notice that MSSE enabled Windows Automatic Update without any sort of warning which I wasn't real happy about. I figure if WAU is disabled, there's a good reason for it, and if some software is going to re-enable WAU, the user should at least be notified that this is taking place. Other than that, so far so good.
    :-D
     

    Attached Files:

  18. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

  19. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    MSSE definitely seems to prefer SP3 over SP2. I have only had install issues on SP2 computers. On SP3 systems, the slowness and HD/hourglass activity is minimal when compared to SP2 systems. And MSSE 'plays nice' with the full paid version of MalwareBytes, and I'll be checking to see how it functions with other AV apps like AVG and/or AntiVir. I'll post the results...

    Well said! So far, my overall opinion of MSSE is pretty positive. I haven't had a chance to throw it at a system loaded with malware, but as soon as I do, I'll post!!!

    :)
     
  20. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    Below is a full paragraph from the same article which was quoted and linked to above by plodr, and referred to by Digitalocksmith also:

    "Security Essentials successfully detected all of AV-Test's current wildlist samples, nearly 4,000 of them. In a test using over 500,000 samples of viruses, worms, Trojans, and other high-risk malware, the product detected 98.44 percent. It wasn't quite as effective in a separate test using about 14,000 adware and spyware samples, but it still detected 90.95 percent of them."

    I meant to add this to my post above but I waited too long..... 98.44% and 90.05% are really good numbers for freeware, and I think that these numbers may actually get better as time goes on and improvements are made to the software. Running MSSE alongside another active AV/AS app should provide excellent protection.
     
  21. samtal

    samtal Corporal

  22. elbiatcho1

    elbiatcho1 Specialist

    Erik Larson only reviewed a beta and complained mainly of slow scanning. He didn't even examine the final release.

    "... MSE did a good, but not top-notch job at detecting Trojans, keyloggers and other malware, with a 97.8 percent overall block rate as tested by AVTest.org. It did shine in proactive tests that simulate how well an antivirus program can detect new malware that doesn't yet have a signature, and its performance there was topped only by Avira's AntiVir Personal....

    ...That beta looked good and was easy to use. If Microsoft has managed to ramp up Security Essential's scan speed, and ideally bump up its detection rate just a tad, since I checked out the beta, then it will likely be a good choice for budget-conscious protection."
     
  23. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    Judging speed is obviously a subjective thing, but after uninstalling AVG 8.5 Free and installing MSE my Vista system is really snappy. Only time will tell whether MSE is doing a good job though. Hope so, as I'm quite taken with it.
     
  24. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Ran this in the beta period mainly on XP SP3, Vista SP2 and Windows 7 RC, but have it on a Windows 7 RTM laptop and works fine, I agree with Digital's comments and 98% is pretty good for a new product IMHO, over time they can only improve this as I know that MSFT are having a bit of a push on denting in a small way malware!

    Slowdowns in some PC setups could be due to a number of things like what other 3rd party security apps are installed that "may" conflict.

    While MSE disables Defender, it does it on XP and Vista to the detriment of you loosing the Software Explorer options in defender which is good for disabling startups (bit StartupCPL or alternative can be used), another thing I kinda think is lacking and OnECare had this was a GUI front end for the Windows Firrwall which allowed you like other 3rd party FWs to manage the apps as while the Windows FW can do this its not as easy as the likes of ZA, PCTools etc

    Having run this in beta and final version for a while I find it ok and worth a try.
     
  25. duckfeet

    duckfeet Corporal

    This seemed inevitable. And most people just keep what's already installed on their computer, and get malware because they don't "pay" once the free installed Norton AV expires. Most people aren't savvy enough, or don't much care enough, fo find out about different AV programs, until, or course, they have malware. This seems to eliminate the last chink in MS's armor. I felt that--like it or not--the Cloud types of AV would eventually win out.

    I myself use Panda Cloud AV, free beta version, on Win 7, http://www.cloudantivirus.com/ after years of using Avira, simply to see how effective it is, and I'm pleased with it, but I bow to the powerhouse future somewhere between google and MS, and will probably check this out too...
     
  26. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    One thing I'm a bit weary on with the new buzzword of Cloud AV is that while it does have a installed application with a virus dat file, it relies iirc more so on an internet connection to use huristics and upto date dat information, this being the case and with many malwares disabling internet access, it would cause cloud AVs to loose an important part of there protection.

    Did run the Panda one to see what it was like, until the previous beta ran out and I at that time re-installed a PC with win7.

    Back on MSE, and forgot to mention this before is its missing one and I would say good option in huristics, while other freebies dont also have this, it would be a great option for MSFT to add to MSE.
     
  27. Taurus57

    Taurus57 Private E-2

    Dell Dimension 4600 w\1 GB RAM XP SP3

    Installed Microsoft Security Essentials without any issues. It's running very smooth. Boot Up time is a bit slower, but no slow downs noted after boot up.

    Updating without issue.

    Quick Scan - 1 min. 30 sec.
    Full Scan - ~ 25 minutes

    No virus\malware found which is not surprising.

    SAS Free Installed\WIN XP Firewall on with no exceptions.

    Running internet facing programs from a Limited User Account (LUA).

    No problems or issues at this time.:major
     
  28. avondude

    avondude Senior Member, 25% Off All Posts

    I love this new system---installed on 3 new computer systems after Norton ---anyone notice a delay in updates???---seems I have to update manually each time---just me or am I a bit inpatient from Norton's 5-15 min burst updates?
     
  29. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    The more I use MSSE, the more I like it. I just now installed it on a PC that was LOADED with malware, adware, the works. I had run scans with MalwareBytes and Super Antispyware; combined, they removed over 700 items! I then installed and updated MSSE and it immediately picked up 3 things that MBAM and SAS overlooked! On a different WinXP SP3 system, I installed it alongside MBAM full/paid version, and Avira's free AntiVir, and it plays nice with these 2 apps, no lag in system use either.

    NOTE: it's been my experience so far with MSSE, that it is MUCH happier with SP3 when installed on an XP system. It seems to lag with SP2, and slows down the PC for the first 10-20 minutes after installation, and then seems to periodically cause lag here and there. I have not noticed these same symptoms on PCs running XP SP3.
     
  30. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    Good to know. SAS loads up so slow every time I go to manually update that I was thinking of removing it.
     
  31. Amethyst_08

    Amethyst_08 Corporal

    My 16 yr old has a laptop on order, and it's coming with Vista Home Premium 64 bit and McAfee virusscan plus pre-installed, 30 day trial. I think I'll recommend he toss the McAfee right away and give MSSE a try, since it sounds like you folks are getting along well with it. :) I wouldn't mind trying it myself, but my machines are both running XP SP2, and they're both getting along with things as is.

    Hmmm...His laptop is also coming with a free Windows 7 upgrade coupon, but that's maybe another post...

    Plodr, SAS certainly IS slow to start up. The last program update was supposed to fix that, and I think it sped it up a wee bit, but there are still moments when I wonder if it's even going to open up at all. I'm still gonna keep it, though. ;)
     
  32. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    I haven't tossed it either. Malwarebytes seems to open slow too but I won't toss that either. I'll start one of them, head to the kitchen, grab a cup of coffee and maybe by the time I return, it will be loaded.
    I'd rather waste a few minutes than be unprotected because cleaning up would take a lot longer!
     
  33. mladyraven

    mladyraven Corporal

    I am running XP Home, SP3, Dell desktop computer, and I love this product too. Download was a breeze, it took 28 minutes to do a full scan.

    It did not find my problem, however, nothing I have tried is able too, that is why I posted in the Malware thread and will be sending information to Hijack. I did that last night and can see the problem is in Windows in the registry and ports.
    Anyway, I really like this product so far, my computer is running great, the only thing I miss is the McAfree site defender.

    For those having problems who mentioned they are running XP with SP2 maybe that is the problem or maybe it is conflicting with other spyware programs. I deleted everything , then once I knew the product was working I added them back one by one.
     
  34. Amethyst_08

    Amethyst_08 Corporal

    Hi Martiniqueeni,

    I hope you're still following this thread. I was wondering how things are going with MSE on your system. I have a couple of computers with XP SP2 and I'm considering MSE for them. I'm currently using AVG Free 8.5 and I'm hearing things about AVG 9 that have me concerned about upgrading. My son is running Vista 64 bit and his McAfee VirusScan Plus trial runs out tomorrow, so we'll be putting MSE on his laptop. I'm sure his system will be fine, but I'm wondering my XP's will do.
     
  35. Oldphil

    Oldphil Sergeant

    I am very interested in it but one thing comes to mind, the majority of hackers have it in for MS will it become a major target?
     
  36. peterr

    peterr MajorGeek

    What firewall will work with MSE?
     
  37. Oldphil

    Oldphil Sergeant

    Seems like a long time since I hit this post again, jumped in so far I love it. Shortly after the install which was about six weeks back I ran MBAM, SAS then ran MSE, MSE found three more bits if junk. I stuck with CAV since its inception(a very long time) always did a fine job but was like dragging a stone speed wise, last January I tried KIS it was very good and also fast it would still be on my machine if MSE had not come along. With a little sprucing and a tad more code this thing smoke the paid stuff half of which stinks anyway!
     
  38. techsent

    techsent Corporal

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Feb 8, 2010
  39. peterr

    peterr MajorGeek

    I asked about MSE as an afterthought but had posted about it elsewhere so I apologize for that.
    I was not encouraged about the other response about the integrity oif MSE.
    I have more to research.
    Thank you
     
  40. satrow

    satrow Major Geek Extraordinaire

    That'll be mine in this thread :)
     
  41. peterr

    peterr MajorGeek

    >>The purpose of asking others is to arrive at the best conclusion, not necessarily the one you like.
    That is why I appreciated your comments as they have given me a chance to stop and reflect. Until then, I was convinced I had made the right choice with MSE and Zone Alarm. I am currently running these in my lap until I decide whether to stick with them, go with McAfee and pay when Comcast switches over, or give Norton another try which is now free with Comcast until May 12.
    Keep the opinions coming.;)
     
  42. pattyandme

    pattyandme Private E-2

    I ran windows live one care before it morphed into MSE.
    There ws a little more user friendly controll over the applications and the fire wall. But in general this is the same anti virus with real time protection.
    I am happy with the protection from MSE.
    what I dont like about it is the need to run a scan at system start which delays the use of the computer for 2 or 3 mins at start up. In addition the real time protection causes web brousing to slow down while it reads the page 1st as well as interfears with gaming at times causing lag from system resource useage. So I generaly keep it off unless I am surfing unsafely or downloading files from unknown places. It works.
    I had nortan installed and it has so many files in so many places I had a hell of a time removing all of the extras which were installed with it as well.
    with constant error codes if i didnt.
    :clap
     
  43. peterr

    peterr MajorGeek

    I am back with Norton as I feel more secure with it.
    No substantial reason but I am still thinking about the issue.
     
  44. foogoo

    foogoo Major "foogoo" Geek


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