Preliminary Results for Microsoft Security Essentials by Av Test GmbH

Microsoft has finally did it. MSE passed Av-Test GmbH's preliminary tests. Their tests basically consist of a mixture of 3200 common viruses, bot Trojans and worms. They were obtained from the most recent WildList, so yeah, the malwares are pretty updated.

It is also mentioned that MSE successfully detected all the threats and treated them. Not only that, it also did well in the clean files tests, where MSE are to scan files which are commonly mistaken as "fake positives". MSE did not trigger any false alarm.

Despite claims by rival competitors that MSE will not be able to provide the protection needed, MSE did well to defy the odds. Looks like its a huge slap back on their face.

More tests will need to be done to see if MSE is finally a matured AV product or not. As of now, it looks to be in pretty good shape.

AV-Comparatives.org will be testing the MSE in August, results of the tests will be know in the following month.

I won't bother running my own tests for MSE, the tests from these security companies are credible enough.

Ah, MSE does not use "cloud" to scan, it has its own local database and virus signatures.

Source

Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

This is a post that is not related to the blog, but I would like to dedicate this post to pay tribute to our King of Pop, MJ who passed away this morning at 6.55 am (Malaysian Time) due to cardiac arrest. You will be remembered and may you rest in peace in heaven.

Microsoft Security Essentials - Day 1 First Impressions

Ok I was one of the few who spammed the F5 key when midnight was nearing so that I was able to try this AV out. I downloaded the Win XP version, and its size was about 7.5 MB. Below are my quick first impressions so far (I'll write more when I have time later, together with some screenshots). MSE provides both anti-virus and anti-spyware protection.

Installation
Installation was a breeze. I encountered no particular decision making problem during the process. Perhaps the only hiccup was the WGA check, it din't bother me as mine is genuine Windows anyway. Perhaps others might not be as fortunate as me =P. It was just clicking next,next,next, finish.

Initial Run
After it finishes installing, it automatically tried to update the virus definition file, as usual for all AV products. After that, it runs a quick scan of my system. I did not notice any lag (in fact, I din't realise that it finished scanning). I did check my task manager about the memory consumption during the scan, and it seems to hover around 7.2 to 7.7 MB only. Very impressive!

Basic Testing with EICAR sample virus files
All was detected without any problems. It manages to detect and delete the affected files (Quarantine option is there as well) as soon as I finish downloaded the file.

Summary
So far its pretty good, and it is non-disruptive with its small lightweight memory footprint. This will even put AVG to shame as I do experience lag when I run a scan with AVG. I did not realise any slowness when I ran MSE. However how good is its detection engine? So far its pretty good, but its capabilities are not stretched yet. I'll probably download a few viruses to find out :).

If you have a brand new PC and need some basic protection, do consider MSE. The only catch is, you have to be using genuine Windows.

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta is now available!

Grab it from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ . Only for the first 75,000 downloaders.

Added at 11.17pm GMT + 8 Hours.

To those having problems getting the download link, or receiving the invitation errors, now its fixed. You have to answer a survey by Microsoft before you're able to get the download links. Happy Beta-ing!

Microsoft Security Essentials (codenamed Morro) beta to be available soon.

This is one of the Microsoft products that I am actually waiting for (besides Windows 7). From readings at Zdnet blogs and neowin, it does seems promising, especially for basic protection for newly installed PC. Its downloaded size of roughly 4-5 MB is definitely tiny, which even makes the lightweight AVG looks like a giant.

Stay tuned for June 23rd !

Here's some screenies for Morro.