Goodbye MSE?

[Chicog]

Microsoft actually bought a few AV companies (Sybari and GeCAD and I think one other), so I doubt they actually wrote it themselves.

They didn't even write Remote Desktop, Citrix did that for them.

So I wouldn't necessarily say it was something developed originally by Microsoft.

Anything can work at a low level providing the authors have access to the API's, which they do, although there have always been rumours that while Microsoft do that to keep on the right side of the fair trade police, they do keep a few undocumented calls to themselves.

[lopburi3]

I'd rather have a virus than a processor-sapping, advert-bothering free AV. A virus is a short-term annoyance solved by a reimage - free AVs annoy every time you boot your pc.

There is no advertising or processor sapping action using Bitdefender - it runs normal scans only when processor is not busy and does not use much power at all and there is no start up annoy of any kind. About the only time you know it is there is report clean after full scan or you try to visit a web site containing malware. There might be a once a week pop up or something - can not even remember as so minor.

Well that sounds promising, and might be a good alternative then. Though a once a week pop-up would still annoy me a bit. My understanding of MSE is that it works at a lower level than others due to it being an MS product, hence the lightness. Maybe Bitdefender is equally light, but I suspect it isn't.

You might want to read this - I have not seen any indication of system usage issues.

http://bitdefender-antivirus-free.en.lo4d.com/

[JetsetBkk]

There is no advertising or processor sapping action using Bitdefender - it runs normal scans only when processor is not busy and does not use much power at all and there is no start up annoy of any kind. About the only time you know it is there is report clean after full scan or you try to visit a web site containing malware. There might be a once a week pop up or something - can not even remember as so minor.

Well that sounds promising, and might be a good alternative then. Though a once a week pop-up would still annoy me a bit. My understanding of MSE is that it works at a lower level than others due to it being an MS product, hence the lightness. Maybe Bitdefender is equally light, but I suspect it isn't.

My MSE is limited to using 20% CPU during scans. However, there are times - e.g. after a download or file copy - that it grabs 100% CPU for long enough to be an irritation.

The good thing about this announcement is that it has made me look again at different AVs, even though I haven't had a any malware in years. So I'm now considering BitDefender as it does appear to come out near the top in all tests.

I understand what MS is saying - that the tests aren't realistic and that a lot of AVs are designed to pass the tests rather than deal with real world threats - but I think I'll give BitDefender a go even though I may go back to MSE after a time.

[JetsetBkk]

You might want to read this - I have not seen any indication of system usage issues.

http://bitdefender-antivirus-free.en.lo4d.com/

The only problem I have with BitDefender is that it apparently doesn't play well with Comodo firewall. That's something I need to investigate.

[taotoo]

I'd rather have a virus than a processor-sapping, advert-bothering free AV. A virus is a short-term annoyance solved by a reimage - free AVs annoy every time you boot your pc.

There is no advertising or processor sapping action using Bitdefender - it runs normal scans only when processor is not busy and does not use much power at all and there is no start up annoy of any kind. About the only time you know it is there is report clean after full scan or you try to visit a web site containing malware. There might be a once a week pop up or something - can not even remember as so minor.

Well that sounds promising, and might be a good alternative then. Though a once a week pop-up would still annoy me a bit. My understanding of MSE is that it works at a lower level than others due to it being an MS product, hence the lightness. Maybe Bitdefender is equally light, but I suspect it isn't.

You might want to read this - I have not seen any indication of system usage issues.

http://bitdefender-antivirus-free.en.lo4d.com/

Thanks for the link - promising that they found it to be lighter than the old version, though that suggests the old version at least was somewhat heavy.

[taotoo]

Anything can work at a low level providing the authors have access to the API's, which they do, although there have always been rumours that while Microsoft do that to keep on the right side of the fair trade police, they do keep a few undocumented calls to themselves.

I got the impression (several years ago) that it worked below the API level - there's no reason existing software couldn't have been partially rewritten, perhaps to take advantage of your last point. I might be misremembering though.

[jocko]

I've also been searching and reading various sites about this interview and what was actually said, as well as the AV gurus take on it and the responses in various forums.  This has sure been a big bombshell thrown in the middle of the AV community. 

 

While being a linux user, I still must live in a windows world, and I maintain a number of windows computers for my family and a few friends, three of which are using MSE.  So far, from everything I have read, I'm not going to be installing other AVs in those computers.........yet.   I'm going to wait a while for all of the dust to settle down and see what response MS may have to all this. 

 

Meanwhile, jocko, your attachment looks very interesting, so if you wouldn't mind posting the link, I would be interested in reading more of the responses.  I think a link to this would be OK for the mods, but if not, you can PM me. 

Post 27 has the link the magazine I read it in is

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