A built-upon successor of the LiveOneCare (2009) security program, Microsoft Security Essentials has won praise from both users and the computer industry. The cloud-based program protects computers running on Windows7 from viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, and malware. It can run whether a computer is at work or idle, notifies the user if a security problem arises, then tells whether the risk is potential or dangerous and makes recommendations for removing the threat before damage is done to either the computer or its files.
The top of the program’s screen has four tabs – home, update, history and settings.
Home
On the home screen, the user is able to monitor the status of the system’s operations. It shows whether real-time protection is active, whether virus and spyware definitions are up to date, three scan options, and the scan details.
Status is shown in one of three colors. If all is well, the icon of a computer screen is green. If a potential threat is detected or if the computer has become unprotected, the icon is yellow, and the user is provided with options for turning on the protection system, running a scan, or implementing corrective action against the potential threat. If an actual threat exists, the icon is red. The program cleans the affected file, then runs a scan to search for additional problems.
Directly beneath the status icon, “Real-time protection” needs to read “On” to activate Microsoft Security Essentials. If the system is in good working order, the “Virus and spyware definitions” will read “Up-to-date.” If not, one should make needed updates on the Update screen.
On the right of the screen are three scan options, “quick,” “full,” and “custom.” The quick scan surveys the most likely areas for a virus or malware to attack. The full scan reviews every file on the computer. The custom scan allows the user to select the files, folders, and drives to be scanned.
Under Scan Details are the date and time of scheduled scans, the scan option, and the option to change them. The last scan date, time, and scan option are shown.
Update
Although updates to virus and spyware definitions are provided automatically, the user has the option of making updates. Information on the “Update” screen includes the dates and times when the current definitions were created, when the current definitions were updated, and the version numbers of the virus and spyware definitions.
History
When the scan detects a problem, the nature of the problem is noted on the “History” page, and a record is kept of the action that the user chose to take to resolve the problem. The problem is recorded as a “quarantined item,” “allowed item,” or “all detected item.”
Quarantined items are prevented from running on the affected computer but are not removed from it. Allowed items are those that the user chose to allow to run on the computer despite Microsoft notification that problems exist. All detected items are those that the scan detected on the computer. The user uses buttons at the bottom of the screen to remove all affected items, selected ones, or to restore them.
Settings
The user can tailor Microsoft Security Essentials to schedule scans; determine whether to quarantine or remove severe, high, medium, and low alert levels; be notified whenever a threat is detected; indicate files or file types to be excluded from scans; remove quarantined files after time periods ranging from one day to three months; and join the Microsoft Active Protection Service for automatically reporting unwanted software.
Microsoft Security Essentials downloads within minutes and is easy to use when threats are detected. A link to Microsoft’s help pages is found on every page. Best of all, the program is free!
