Given that Microsoft Security Essentials has copped a bit of a pasting in the press lately I thought I would review both the current offerings and my stance on antivirus products. Of course, free is a good price for many plus it is an easy way for antivirus vendors to upsell you to other bundled …
Tag: Antivirus
Feb 18 2012
Antivirus Software is a Potential Preventative Measure, Not a Cure
This might polarise the audience a bit but I just wanted to expand on my thoughts in this earlier article. In that article, I noted the only 100% effective solution to cure an infected computer is to format and reinstall or restore from a known good backup. Today, I tried and tried unsuccessfully to eradicate a trojan from …
Dec 01 2011
Microsoft Security Essential Beta – Testing Underway
Just a short update tonight. I’ve installed the recent beta of the upcoming version of Microsoft Security Essentials (Version 4.0.1111.0) to see how it performs and how different it is to prior versions. The upgrade only took a minute and I am setting it off on a scan to assess its speed. No major red …
May 01 2011
Microsoft Releases a New Portable Antivirus
Sometimes it can be hard getting an antivirus to install on an infected machine especially when malware is making it difficult to use an internet connection. I have covered other tools such as MalwareBytes in the past but I thought a new tool released by Microsoft was worth a mention. The Microsoft Safety Scanner is …
Sep 01 2010
Intel Buys McAfee… But Why?
Just a quick one for tonight. A few days ago, it was announced that Intel had bought McAfee for under $8 billion. McAfee was not in any financial trouble despite sending out an update to its antivirus software that rendered computers inoperable when a critical system file was quarantined. The question here is what is …
Jun 23 2010
Should ISPs Disconnect Infected Computers?
In a new parliamentary report, Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime, it has been recommended that it become mandatory that computers have firewall and antivirus software installed prior to an Internet connection being activated. There have also been other measures suggested to assist in containing infected machines such as the “walled garden” approach …
Mar 08 2010
Microsoft Security Essentials – No Bloat, No Fuss
Since I got my first computer back in 1995 (with Windows 95 on it) I’ve gone through several different pieces of antiviral software as well as the incremental upgrades that became more common. As time progressed, the size of the software increased as well as the scope of what was included in an AV package. …
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