• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Free Microsoft Anti-Virus?

IanHenry

IanHenry

Charter Member
Hi,
Has anyone tried the new Microsoft Security Essentials with FSX? It is the replacement for the now discontinued Windows Live (payware) OneCare Apparently Microsoft claim that with Windows 7 it is the only security that you will need and also very undemanding on the system. It is available here:
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:eek:ffice" /><o:p> </o:p>
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
<o:p> </o:p>
Sounds good from what I was reading about it but is this too good to be true?
I am very curious about the claim that it has a small “footprint”
<o:p> </o:p>
Regards,
Ian.
<o:p> </o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
 
Hm, if it really proves to be as secure as other solutions I might dump Antivir.
 
It's for 64 and 32 both...I'm running win 7 64 and it loaded fin. Theres links on the download page for both.
 
Running this on 64bit Vista and must say I much prefer this over the newest version of AVG. Easy to understand UI and not very resource intensive. Ive always found antivirus programs to be pretty much nothing but overkill so this should be pretty much all one needs.
 
rwmarth said:
Ive always found antivirus programs to be pretty much nothing but overkill so this should be pretty much all one needs.
Click to expand...

I'd have to disagree with you on that point.....a good AV is an absolute necessity on any computer that is connected to the internet in this day and age. Also, you tend to get what you pay for so I generally steer clear of free AV software.:kilroy::engel016:
 
Does it have a firewall with the anti-virus part? I'm currently using TrendMicro's Internet proctection package that has AV and Firewall in the same package.
 
Ive been running it for a month now and I like it. Takes less time for your system to start up, and it's not a resource hog like AVG and Webroot SpySweeper are.... especailly during scans.

One thing to note. Uninstall SpySweeper if you get Security Essentials. If you don't, and even shutting it down with msconfig, SpySweeper will still load on start up. I had it shut down but all of a sudden it would load, now I can't keep it from loading on start up. And it's p*ssing me off. I've been letting it load the last couple of days and then shutting down. Tho I would like to compare what Essentials and SpySweeper find, and if their scans come up with different findings.

Odie, Essentials doesn't have a firewall, as far as I know. But XP does and that's what I'm using with no problems. Besides, if you have a router, that also has a firewall in it. So you should still be safe.
 
A timely subject for me. I just installed MS Security Essentials on two of my computers, and am in the process of trying to remove the nsrbgxod.bak virus from my other computer. It’s a mother to remove. I’ve tried MalwareBytes and Spybot Search and Destroy, to no avail. I’ve booted the computer using a boot CD and deleted the file, and the three dlls that it also places on your computer, and deleted the two registry entries it creates. No joy. Every time I boot the machine, nsrbgxod.bak is back, sitting in the c:\documents and settings\[user]\local settings\Temp\ folder. I’ve run all the anti-virus and anti-malware applications on the boot CD. Still it comes back. Tonight I’m going to try turning off system restore and eliminating the disk drive space allocated for that, and I will also try repairing the master boot record. If that doesn’t work, it may be time to re-format the drive.
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:eek:ffice" /><o:p> </o:p>
But as for MS Security Essentials, looks like a good application. Running fine on the other two machines.
 
Answered my own Firewall question **Doh***

From the MSE answers section:

"Although MSE will not include a firewall in the first version as Jim mentioned, we are considering adding a firewall management capability in the next version of MSE. It will not be an integral firewall but will enable management of the Windows firewall"

So it looks like a 3rd party firewall will still be needed for the time being.
 
Odie said:
So it looks like a 3rd party firewall will still be needed for the time being.
Click to expand...

I think it will always be the safest bet to have separate firewall. Windows firewall is only for inbound connections and does not block outbound traffic. And I once run ShieldsUp firewall test with windows firewall and it didn't pass:kilroy:.
 
PRB ... try crapcleaner ... and select all options.

Beware of CC though, cuz if you have forgotten all your passwords to your websites you visit, you'll be asking for them to send you that information, as CC will eliminate everything. :)

I use it everyday at work just before quitting time, and I run it at least once a week at home.
 
bushpilot said:
I think it will always be the safest bet to have separate firewall. Windows firewall is only for inbound connections and does not block outbound traffic. And I once run ShieldsUp firewall test with windows firewall and it didn't pass:kilroy:.
Click to expand...

XP's firewall was only inbound. Vista and 7 are for outbound and inbound.
 
kilo delta said:
I'd have to disagree with you on that point.....a good AV is an absolute necessity on any computer that is connected to the internet in this day and age. Also, you tend to get what you pay for so I generally steer clear of free AV software.:kilroy::engel016:
Click to expand...

I have ran without an AV for years on my laptop never had a virus, and this was connected 24-7. It's more important to keep your OS and programs up to date and steer clear of the obvious pitfalls of the web. Of course I wasn't running IE much as that used to be a prime way to get an infection.
 
PRB said:
A timely subject for me. I just installed MS Security Essentials on two of my computers, and am in the process of trying to remove the nsrbgxod.bak virus from my other computer. It’s a mother to remove. I’ve tried MalwareBytes and Spybot Search and Destroy, to no avail. I’ve booted the computer using a boot CD and deleted the file, and the three dlls that it also places on your computer, and deleted the two registry entries it creates. No joy. Every time I boot the machine, nsrbgxod.bak is back, sitting in the c:\documents and settings\[user]\local settings\Temp\ folder. I’ve run all the anti-virus and anti-malware applications on the boot CD. Still it comes back. Tonight I’m going to try turning off system restore and eliminating the disk drive space allocated for that, and I will also try repairing the master boot record. If that doesn’t work, it may be time to re-format the drive.
<o:p></o:p>
But as for MS Security Essentials, looks like a good application. Running fine on the other two machines.
Click to expand...


Try creating a notepad file called nsrbgxod.bak after you have deleted it all and save that file in the same spot where the virus tries to create it. Hopefully when the virus tries to reinstall itself to that file, Windows will not allow it to do so since it wont let it create a new file with the same name.
 
Speaking of keeping programs up to date, anyone notice the HUGE security update for MS Visual Studio recently? Might as well have called that one SP2.
 
But can they be trusted?

Having read the threads it does seem a bit too good
to be true.

I had a look at the licence agreement (probably the first
one i've ever read).

It gives Microsoft all sorts of rights over adding, removing and disabling software (and not only viruses and malware).

You might think this is fair enough if all your software
is legit (as is mine), but based on past experiences
with Microsoft products, I wouldn't be at all surprised if
FSX were to be suddenly disabled as 'non genuine'.

Just saying -do you really want to hand over control
of your computer to Microsoft?

(P.S. on the bright side, you can claim up to $5 damages if you win a case under the licence agreement).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top