Don't forget: Today's the day for Morro

Would it still work if you managed to obtain it, even though you were in the UK?

Possibly, realtestman, if you're running the US-localized Windows (with the funny way words are spelt here, etc) and have a US-based live ID. But more likely, you hit UK-based update servers which say "Huh?".

https://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx I tried it a few times this morning, and it kept telling me that my invitation already was used by someone else. But I just clicked the "Get it now" button again, and this time, it took me to a survey, then to the download page. Seems it may have gotten out an hour early ;)

Not available in Canada? But it's available in China and Brazil? Give me a break!

Has anyone else downloaded this who already downloaded the leaked version last week? It appears that the build number of this public beta version is EARLIER than the leaked build. I'm seeing build 1.0.1407.0 for the public beta and build 1.0.2140.0 for the leaked version of last week. When I try to install the public beta it tells me that a newer version of Security Essentials is already installed. Anyone else seeing this? Why is Microsoft giving the public an outdated build?

my *guess* is, it's capped at 75,000 USERS...looks like they activate the MSE "channel" of your Connect profile, but then once you're one of the users with that channel, YOU can download it as much as you want, for as long as they leave it up. There wasn't an activation (at least, not a visible one) once I installed the software, but then again, neither could it update my definitions the first time. So maybe I just haven't gotten to that part yet.

While going through the settings, I noticed that you cannot exclude server drives from being scanned. Could add some time if they are included by default. The drives do appear when using a custom scan.

De Silentio, my uninformed guess would be that MS would prefer to sell you ForeFront for your servers.

(my comment above was directed at CyBrett)

CyBrett As I understand it, Security Essentials incorporates Defender and replaces the separate version when it is installed.

@CyBrett: "While going through the settings, I noticed that you cannot exclude server drives from being scanned. Could add some time if they are included by default." This can also reduce server performance in a large network. Imagine 700 desktops reading files from a shared network drive.

This is what I got from a *not so* legit source install: Microsoft Security Essentials Version: 1.0.2140.0 Antimalware Client Version: 2.0.5612.0 Engine Version: 1.1.4803.0 Antivirus definitions: 1.61.206.0 Antispyware definitions: 1.61.206.0 Note: there is no sign of beta/rc/test anywhere (besides the EULA). This seems to be a 1.0 product. Product is stable and light on Win7 x64.

I managed to get MSE quite easily downloading the x64 bit version in less than a minute. Install was lighting quick and MSE immediately began updating signatures. I'm running the scan right now. It seems to play nicely alongside AVG. 11 minutes into the scan, a little over half of my hard drive has been scanned. So far its very lighweight and moves rather quickly. If this is what Microsoft has in mind, I'll have to see how better it is versus other products. However, from my first impressions, this seems to be a great, compact, lightweight, and fast antivirus/antispyware solution. If it can perform better than the other freebies, I might have to consider it as a replacement for AVG. However, I reserve final judgement until we get some more verdicts and testing on MSE's effectiveness.

subzero It is a VERY BAD idea to run two antivirus products at the same time.

@de silento That's what I meant. You would want to exclude these locations from scans. One other thing I noticed is that there's no way via the app to see the scan history. I ran a full scan on my system and wanted to post the statistics, but when I went to the home screen the stats were gone. Trying to find the log file now.

@CyBrett Hopefully MS includes Group Policy configurations for it. Otherwise, that is a hefty configuration policy. I know that this is probably not meant to be used in a medium sized network environment, but it is hard to pass up a free client that is truly free (no advertisements for pro versions and the like).

I just installed MSE (I had to first uninstall OneCare) and it all went w/out a glitch. The first, quickscan took about 7 minutes. Has anyone run a full scan? I'm guessing scanning times will vary due to the number of files in a user's computer? BTW is the Windows XP firewall any good? OneCare had it's own firewall (Right?) and I thought it was great. I was alerted when an unknown program, or one that wasn't in the allowed list would try to connect to the Internet.

techfan There were more than one firewall shipped with Windows XP. The initial one was a one-way firewall. That got replaced by a two-way firewall with SP2. The SP2 and later firewall is reasonable.

@subzero Mike is right its a very bad idea to run multiple AV packages. MS bought there way into this market. They bought the company that made Defender and they bought Sabari the makers of Antigen which was considered one of the best Exchange AV software around. Its all Forefront technology now. This is just a watered down version of the Forefront client. Probably same scanning engine. Defender was even less of the same tech. Lots of third party AV software would turn off Defender during their install.

"Can anyone recommend a good home hardware firewall? I'm using an old router now, and want to upgrade..." Any router with a SPI firewall is more than sufficient, if you use it with a software firewall like what Windows already has. I agree with Mike that the XP SP2 firewall is just fine, as software firewalls go. You can tell a 1-way firewall from a 2-way firewall, since a 2-way firewall will ask if programs should be allowed to access the internet. "I was alerted when an unknown program, or one that wasn't in the allowed list would try to connect to the Internet." That's what XP SP2's firewall does too. It IS a 2-way firewall. OneCare just takes away the control from the Windows component and does it itself, so the user can see the status from a central program. It's just like how the auto-defrag is done by OneCare in Vista, even though Vista already does auto-defrag. Ditto for backup. A firewall just needs to block unnecessary network traffic though. You don't really need anything special as far as that goes. Anybody trying to hack into your system would more than likely try an operating system hole over a standard open port, rather than hack a closed port, so it's probably more important to make sure your OS is secure first and foremost by installing security updates. "Hopefully MS includes Group Policy configurations for it. Otherwise, that is a hefty configuration policy. I know that this is probably not meant to be used in a medium sized network environment, but it is hard to pass up a free client that is truly free (no advertisements for pro versions and the like)." You need Forefront Client Security for that. It's about $12US per computer, per year, and needs to be purchased through a Microsoft volume license agreement with a minimum of 5 licenses. The management console costs extra (a LOT extra actually), but it's optional. It also requires a very hefty and expensive SQL Server setup for monitoring and reporting and such. That is the supported option for businesses. Business will get direct support from Microsoft as part of their agreement. MSE is designed for consumers. The technology is the same though. MSE is just a repainted, consumer version of the client agent program from Forefront Client Security 2.0 - that's where the agent version comes from. If you want to use MSE in a business environment, I would only recommend it in completely unmanaged environments (no AD server) of less than 10 computers. You don't want to deal with support calls because it's not centrally managed and several machines are down. Be aware that MSE will not likely have mainstream support for any business environment though, so if you have problems, you should remember what I told you before you consider calling Microsoft.

"This might be useful to admins of lower end machines that need the computer useable during a scan." Admins should schedule scans during off-hours, and have the program initiate repairs automatically, or else quarantine the system until they can investigate the problem.

"MSE allows third-party firewalls? Won't it detect Windows's firewall and stop the installation?" MSE doesn't include a firewall. Just antivirus and antimalware protection. "I thought OC had its own firewall. I didn't know it just used the built-in one." OneCare has it's own firewall. It doesn't use the Windows Firewall - it turns it off during install. It's just that the Windows Firewall (since XP SP2) and OneCare's own firewall are nearly identical, except that XP SP2's firewall doesn't have the location setting for Private/Public (did that change in XP SP3, anyone?). Vista's firewall does. Mike could probably point out a few other additional differences though. "I think my Connect issue was that I used a WL ID but registered my ISP's email address and had to first verify it. I did verify it but somehow right after I verified the email address, I still kept getting a message about trying to use an invite meant for someone else." Try a Hotmail address instead. That should work.

"Anyone still using XP shouldn't be depend on the XP Firewall. The Vista firewall is very good and the third party option isn't as critical in my opinion." Aside from the difference that Vista has the location setting for firewall, I would like to know what you think is different between the Vista firewall and the XP SP2 firewall.

Third party firewalls are BS. You can run windows fine these days if you have the following... 1. Automatic updates on. 2. Like Wae said a hardware firewall in your home router, one the that does SPI - stateful packet inspection. 3. Free AV, probably this new one will be fine. 4. Dont be stupid and turn off the firewall or UAC. 5. Practice safe computing. 1 and 2 alone probably block 98% of crap.

This is basically a re-branding of one of the worse rated security packages on the market, OneCare.