MS Security Essentials beta: Initial thoughts

Against my better judgement, and despite the fact that MSE beta was not targeted for release in Canada (only in the US, Brazil, and Israel) I was able to snag a copy from Softpedia (thanks, RD!). This despite the fact that it was apparently "sold out" from MS within 24 hrs. I definitely do not recommend this route, (better to get get the final release from MS, when it is available later this year). I have already uninstalled this beta, after my very limited trial.

 FWIW, my impressions:

- My first concern was that my resident AV (NOD32) would conflict with it. So I disabled its (NOD32's) resident protection prior to installing MSE. My resident anti-spyware was Windows Defender, so I also disabled its real-time protection.

Bottom line: MSE beta installed quickly and easily, without a hitch. During installation, it automatically updated, and offered an initial scan. This took about 10 minutes. Subsequent "Quick Scans" took about 4 minutes. All detected nothing.

- My second concern was reports that MSE forced enabling of Automatic Updates. And indeed, during the initial installation scan, I noticed that Automatic Updates had been enabled in my XP Security Center. I disabled AU, and after several reboots, it remained disabled. It seems that MSE can be updated (like Windows Defender) manually, possibly via Windows Update/Microsoft Update, or from this site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971606

I did not keep MSE beta installed long enough to confirm any of the above regarding  subsequent manual updates.

- I note that "msseces.exe -hide" was added to my startup, and in my services. CPU usage was minimal. The UI was very intuitive. MSE uninstalled easily, and I was able to re-enable my resident NOD32 and Windows Defender protection without problems.

Summary:

This is the simplest MS product I can ever recall testing. I was very impressed. There is very little to configure. It did not conflict with any of my on-demand scanners, and caused me no other grief. 

I cannot comment on its ability to block or remove infection - preliminary testing by AV-Test suggests it is good-  but for sheer user-friendliness and simplicity, it absolutely blows away the competition. It's almost like an "AV/anti-malware for Dummies", with guaranteed compatability with Windows.

AV-comparatives intends to test this MSE beta it in its August comparisons against the paid competition. Recall that its latest tests of Live Onecare (which MSE replaces) in May did extremely well. MS certainly has a huge database on which to draw.

And it will be free. Let the games begin! Stay tuned ...