It’s been a while since I posted to Fix My Broke PC! I have been working on advancing my knowledge of Information Technology. I just finished a Data Communications and Networking class as well as a Discrete Mathematics course. I passed both courses and have decided to try doing one course per semester instead of two so that I can have more time to focus on Church and hobbies. Needless to say I am behind on the times and a lot of new or neat stuff has come out. I am back to start sharing some of it.

My first order of duty is to brag about an antivirus suite that I am highly recommending to all of my clients. The cost of this antivirus is, FREE! Normally I do not promote free antivirus suites, especially after running both AVG and Avast antivirus on my home computers. I have had more calls from clients running those two free antiviruses and getting infections than any other problem. This new software is supported and developed by Microsoft and is called Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).

Here is how I tested this software. During the beta phases I signed up (prior to starting classes in August which was the reason I had not posted during that time) and started testing it on my personal machine. After a while of running it and testing stability I decided to put it to the test and created a virtual Windows XP Machine. I fully patched the machine (if you don’t keep your machine patched you might as well just install the trojans and viruses yourself) and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). I then tested the machine using Secunia PSI to make sure I had no vulnerabilities.

I then researched on the Internet about known malware sites and came across a database of sites at MalwareURL. Using these known malware sites I attempted to infect my virtual machine over and over with Malware. Internet Explorer allowed the install to start and MSE blocked the installation. Firefox allowed the download of about 4/5ths and blocked 1/5ths and MSE blocked the installation of the ones that got through. Amazingly, Google Chrome allowed the download of about 1/5th of the programs and the others were blocked by Google Chrome itself.

I am unable to verify the sites that supposedly had keyloggers or viruses that I attempted to install but “supposedly” they were legit. I had a bunch of blocked notices from MSE so maybe they were. Either way I have been completely happy with the program and have replaced using ESET’s Nod32 Antivirus for this free application (not because I would cheap out on security either). So head on over and try it out before renewing your antivirus software again. Also I highly recommend everyone trying out Secunia before I blog about it.

Microsoft Security Essentials