Monday, November 02, 2009

Free Antivirus and Malware Protection from Microsoft - Microsoft Security Essentials

I recently ran into in an old friend of mine who gave me a USB flash drive with a file that he wanted me to print. As soon as I plugged it into my PC's USB port, my Anti-virus software flashed a loud alarm - "Virus Detected"!! I asked my friend if he has an anti-virus software running on his PC and he said he does. So, why was the virus not caught? His anti-virus software was not getting definition updates!!! Anti-virus software is useless without frequent definition updates.

Microsoft recently released Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) for Windows based PCs. Check out how MSE compares to other anti-virus software in the market ->  http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/10/av-comparatives-picks-six-malware-removal-winners.ars. One of the critical elements of any anti-virus software package is automatically updated virus definitions. Most anti-virus vendors provide you limited automatic updates for free and then whack you with an annual subscription for the updates. Microsoft Security Essentials gives you free automatic updates. Download it from here -> http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/. It's free for both home and business use as opposed to other companies' anti-virus software that are free for home use only.

I predict Google releasing an anti-virus software in the near future!! :-)

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