opinions on "Microsoft Essentials" security software?

[surfriot]

Anyone want to share pro's/con's on this software? Is it good to have running in the background?

[Ceyfer √]

Read

Microsoft Security Essentials – Week One
Microsoft Security Essentials

[samba_siva_raju]

See the review on Raymond's blog

Review and Download Free Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows

[YuMeng]

I run MSE Final without any flaws but as my computer no malware, i can't listed out any pros and cons.

[surfriot]

thanks for the response

[LunarWolf]

I will not run MSE cause the system requirement for it is 1gb RAM. That is just too much for something that basic. Look at Avira. Offers one of the best protection but can run on very old PCs.

[safeguy]

Personally here's what I think:

It's good to have it if you are not using any other security software. It's better to have it than have nothing.

But if you are using security software like Avira or Kaspersky, you are pretty much covered. You can run MSE along with most other security software but you have to consider if it's worth the system resource usage (even if it's low)...

Think of MSE as an added bonus...it's good to have it (optional) but you are not missing much if you don't have it.

[LunarWolf]

Here is what I think. I will never run any program that require 1gb of RAM. If Kaspersky were to suddenly say they need 1gb of RAM to run, I wil give it the boot no matter how much I like Kaspersky.

PS My new system have 4gb RAM and I am running XP.

[safeguy]

MSE doesn't use up 1 GB of RAM...

System requirement for it is 1gb RAM...meaning MSE runs best on PCs with a minimum 1 GB of RAM...

Memory and CPU usage
There are 2 processes by MSE which is MsMpEng.exe and msseces.exe. Both process’ memory usage takes up an average of 60MB during idle and scanning. When running a full scan, the CPU usage goes up to around 40% but never above 50%.

Quoted from http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/07/02/review-and-download-free-microsoft-security-essentials-for-windows/

[surfriot]

guess I'll skip the MSE and stick with what I have.