Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft has released a anti-virus utility named Microsoft Security Essentials. It has the ability to detect viruses, malwares, spyware, and other malicious software and provides real-time protection for your computer.

You can download the utility from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ and the installation file is around 8 MB in size. You have to perform an installation before you start using the product.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The wizard automatically validates your system. It checks whether you have a genuine copy of Windows and the installation will be continued only if you have a legal version. After the successful installation you will be prompted to restart the system as shown in Figure 3. Please make sure to perform an update and scan the system for any threats.

NOTE: Please be aware that Microsoft Security Essentials will automatically activate Automatic Updates and hence your system will respond slow after restarting. I noticed this problem while testing it on my machine.

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