The Media Guru

Jun 19, 2009



Morro8 A pre-beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials (codenamed Morro) was leaked by Somalian pirates someone. As usual, I took it out for a test… :)

Microsoft Security Essentials is Microsoft’s free anti-virus solution – an indispensible app which should have been bundled since a long time with Windows like Windows Firewall (but won’t be because of the EU).
MSE will launch around the same date as Windows 7. A public beta of MSE will be available on 23rd June to the first 75,000 downloaders. What I’m testing is a pre-beta build, so a couple more features may be added at launch. Download links are on JCXP.net.

Morro The setup file of MSE is just 5MB (it doesn’t come with definitions). Installation took a couple of seconds with no restart required.

MSE also comes with a built-in antispyware, which automatically turns off Windows Defender to prevent conflicts (actually MSE is supposed to replace Windows Defender).
It took around 2 mins to download all the updates – thanks to Akamai! ;)

Morro6 MSE is a very basic anti-virus app – there are not many settings to customize. Real-time protection, option to scan archives & removable drives, create restore points and that’s it. So I started straight away with a scan.

Morro2 Scan was relatively fast, with CPU usage being equal if not less than other anti-virus apps… but then it detected a virus! :| Now, that’s worrying… because I never installed any anti-virus on Windows 7.

Morro3 Turned out the virus is actually not a virus. :)

Morro4 Konboot is a boot disc which allows you to bypass the password of a system (Windows & Linux) – obviously a potential threat according to any anti-virus! :P
Note: I ran the same scan on Eset Nod32, & it took twice more time, much more CPU usage (around 80%+) and it did detect Konboot as a virus.

Morro7 Memory usage is 4MB + 30MB for the anti-spyware. But I was astounded with the overall resource usage. It’s a fact that all anti-viruses slow down your computer, causing lags & slower start-ups but MSE? Nope, not at all – I saw absolutely no difference in speed when extracting archives & installing! It’s almost as if it’s not there!

Morro5 MSE is free and as such it comes with some restrictions. You cannot prevent MSE from sending information to Microsoft Spynet concerning viruses detected & where it came from. But I suppose this information will actually help Microsoft in tackling virus outbreaks faster. Other short-comings include no heuristics or malicious activity detection, no email protection, no boot/startup protection, no web access protection & no antispam.

So?
Overall I’m impressed with Microsoft Security Essentials with especially with no loss in performance. But the ultimate test will be the detection rate of the engine. & if it turns out to be pretty effective… & add the fact that it’s FREE - Norton, McAfee, Eset, Panda, Kaspersky and the rest definitely have a cause for worry. :)

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Sun said...

i installed it on 7, and vista, i confirm, it just sits and does its jobs. no noticeable change in performance.

i have a question though. Will the final version be free?

carrotmadman6 said...

@Sun
Yes, it will be totally free! :)

Kurt Avish said...

Somalian pirates..lol :P

Somehow I no more use an anti virus. It seem the weird pirated version of windows am using it resistant till now :-?

Last time I used an antivirus...i GOT a virus...(I mean there was no virus..but i GOT one after installing the AV) huh... no infact it was not a virus..it was just an innocent crack for IDM :-/

carrotmadman6 said...

@Avish
If you have used your removable drives at UOM, then you must install this ASAP, coz all the computers there are infected!
That's the only place from where I get my viruses... ;)

Cobobe said...
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Yasir said...

Have u tried it mate??Is it worth the pain to ddl?? Does it consume memory??

BTW, WEP is flawed :( you need to use WPA-PSK :) this one is pretty much more secure than WEP

carrotmadman6 said...

@Yasir
As I mentioned above, both mem & cpu usage are very low.
I'm waiting for the more in-depth tests to know whether it's better than the commercial anti-viruses. Otherwise, it's the best free anti-virus solution available. :)

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Adam Woozeer said...

Everyone loves to knock microsoft for everything. Thanks for finally putting out something about one of their better products

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