Shall we see how efficiently Microsoft managed to implement their immense software development proficiency while making one of the world’s most popular Windows security apps? And yet, there is barely any other tool that compares to MSE in the free AV software niche. So, with this application running on your machine, it’s not too easy to predict what happens when it is confronted with security hazards. What is more, cleaning a malware-infested system with Microsoft Security Essentials might be only a partially effective endeavor because it isn’t stable at eliminating even the threats it found. Let’s not forget it’s freeware though, hence some typical drawbacks: while detection rate of widespread and prevalent malware is decent (90% according to AV-TEST), possible 0-day infections are likely to be missed as the solution fails to even come close to the industry average on that one.

Furthermore, the amazingly simple controls make the product perfectly understandable in terms of all usability benchmarks.

Microsoft managed to hit the nail on the head achieving the bulk of this mission: MSE came out fairly tough on viruses and spyware due to intelligent real-time protection supported by one of the most extensive virus definition databases out there. Security Essentials was made to be an easy-to-use and effective product requiring no special user expertise and consuming a minimum of system resources. In the long run, this went way beyond a mere response to the negative feedback as the program turned out a success, growing into the most popular antivirus in North America, and one of the prevalent AV tools worldwide within its 4-year lifetime – an attainment not many counterparts can boast. Considering the criticism based on multiple reported security flaws of the operating system prior to the launch of this software, incentives for its advent are obvious: Microsoft was seeking ways to compensate for such allegations. Microsoft Security Essentials was introduced in 2008 as a free antivirus solution maintaining adequate protection for workstations running Windows.

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