Some Questions About Microsoft Security Essentials

[ckaz]

Hi all,

For a while, I had been running Avira Anti-Virus (free) and SpyBot Search and Destroy (free) but I decided I wasn't to happy with S&D. I then heard that Microsoft's new MSE was good, up-to-date, light, easy to use, and good at doing what it was supposed to do; protect my computer.

Now I have some questions:

First, does MSE cover all common kinds of anti-malware? Which ones do it cover (spyware, anti-virus, ad-ware etc.)

Secondly, it wanted me to uninstall all other anti-malware programs. I uninstalled Avira, S&D, and Windows Defender. The question I have is whether or not MSE acts as its own firewall, and whether I should disable Windows Firewall

Thirdly, keeping in mind that I'm only open to new programs, am I set with MSE? Are there any extra programs I should be adding to get full coverage against malware? I had heard good things about it but I want to be sure.

 

[cardinal_]

Microsoft Security Essentials

A quick story; a friend of mine was recently infected with Antivir which practically hijacked his PC.

We downloaded MSE in safe mode with networking. Disabled any traces of unwanted executables in the startup. Restarted the computer in normal mode and immidiately installed MSE.

In not only installed correctly in this hi-jacked environment it installed and found and removed all, malware & the virus itself.

To be safe we ran Ad-Aware next (lavasoft) and removed a few more finds. Spybot SD may have worked for this stage as well.

I am happy with MSE for the main feature that on my 64 bit machine it is the only client that runs in startup without the *32 tag. Runs in 64 bit protects well and would come highly recommened from me here on out!

Firewall: If you are behind a router set its protection at medium and turn-off any interior firewalls.

If not keep your firewall on for MSE itself may not protect the way you would like against IP hits.

_cardinal