Microsoft Essentials

[Expiry]

I was having trouble downloaded my new McAfee virus protection, and when I called to sort it out, I was told by the sales agent that I could download MS Essentials for free and that it's pretty much the same standard as any that I could buy.

Is this true?

 

[Domski]

I read about it a while back and most of the reviews I checked were fairly positive but not enough to stop me renewing my Kaspersky license.

Dom

 

[Firefly2012]

On the grounds I'm tight-fisted, I run MSE on all my home computers and have never had a problem with it (that I know about )

 

[diddi]

yay for kaspersky. i have been reselling it for about 6 years now. never had anybody not like it or think they did not get value for money. have had a few people not take up the subscription after the trial period i install, and they use *something free* and in almost every case they have wanted me to return to "fix" their puta again cos they have a virus or problem. i usually find i am too busy. LOL

 

[xenou]

I use MSE. In general I believe it is considered to be on par with $$ AV programs, but you don't get all the "extras" that I don't want anyway. Prior to that I used AVG Free which also was a good product.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

I've never had any problem running AVG Free and MSE.

 

[Domski]

Even with the sites you visit Jon

 

[diddi]

"The sites you visit"

isnt that the key, or more so "The rubbish ads you click on"

i have found that educating customers that "click here to get free smiley icons and loose 10kgs" really means "click here to get a trojan", and that makes a huge difference, especially if you can get through to the feral teenage know-it-alls that are generally responsible for the clicks in question.

out of interest, i have found the commercial product AdBlock Pro very good, and also for recalcitrant teens, a little tweaking of the HOSTS file can be useful too.

 

[shg]

I switched to Kasperky a few years ago after I got a virus while using McAfee that was so deeply embedded I had to move my laptop drive to another computer to get rid of it.

No problems since then, and the three-computer license is very convenient.

 

[RoryA]

I use ESET on all my Windows machines. Initially because I get it free as an MVP, but it is the most efficient and least intrusive AV/Firewall I have ever used (my wife actively noticed that she wasn't getting pestered by alerts/messages unlike some others) so I have cheerfully recommended it to family and friends, though I also suggest MSE since it seems to have good reviews and do as well as most products in tests I have seen.
The only place I use McAfee is at work because I have no choice. Only 4 virus outbreaks last year...