Way back on September 30th, I wrote about replacing my computer’s free AVG antivirus program with Microsoft’s new, and also free, Security Essentials antivirus. I said then, that I would run it on my computer for a few weeks to see how it performed, and then I would decide whether or not to keep it as my default antivirus program or switch back to AVG. After almost a month of operation and testing, I’ve decided to stick with Microsoft’s Security Essentials antivirus.
While out for a walk today, I took a few pictures of some old moss covered trees
In fact, just 2 weeks ago, I switched my laptop computer, Paulette’s desktop and our spare desktop to MSE as well. I really like MSE’s small resource requirement and how it runs quietly in the background with no annoying pop-ups, messages or urging for me to upgrade to the new, improved and cost-based version. MSE is it, the version I use is the only one available and it is free. I like that!
How do I know it’s doing what it’s supposed to? Well, I did in fact have MSE catch a virus on my computer while I was looking at a techie webpage – which I thought was kind of ironic in itself. An MSE warning screen popped up immediately, warning of a “critical” situation involving a virus on the webpage I was visiting. It asked me to click on “Clean My Computer” to safely remove the virus and continue. I did that, and the problem was taken care of with no further issues whatsoever.
Another way I know MSE is working is because of a few parallel tests I ran. I reinstalled AVG, disabled MSE, and then ran a complete AVG system scan. I followed the same procedure using a trial-version of McAfee’s antivirus program. Neither AVG, nor McAffee, found any hint of a virus present on my computer system which was good, because if they had, that would have meant MSE had missed it.
A few weeks ago, Al of The Bayfield Bunch, emailed me asking if MSE scanned incoming and outgoing emails like AVG does. He mentioned that AVG shows the scanned message on email’s while MSE does not. Great question! The answer is though, that MSE does, of course, scan all emails. But, Al’s question does raise an interesting point that deserves a bit of further explanation about email messages and antivirus scanning.
First, email is a just a digital file. It’s a file like any other file on your computer’s hard drive - whether you read it or not. To an antivirus scanner, it doesn’t matter whether the virus came by email, file-sharing, or because of a download - it’s all the same. Any of today’s good antivirus programs will prevent you from opening an actual virus no matter how it arrived.
Most of the major antivirus suppliers have been telling their customers for a few years now that 'email scanning' is no longer necessary, as it's just a holdover from the early days of antivirus programs when Microsoft hadn't yet created the API (Application Programming Interface) sets. API’s allow the antivirus programs to scan a file before any user access, including emails, is allowed. So why does AVG show this? Probably because the message works and gives the appearance that it is doing something that other antivirus programs are not.
Microsoft has a huge stake in trying to ensure that it’s Windows platform is safe and secure. To date, they have relied on other vendors(i.e. Norton, McAfee, AVG etc.) to handle this function – with mixed results. It sounds like Microsoft has decided they can do a better job of protecting Windows themselves. I’m going to stick with MSE in the hope that they are right! So far, so good.
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