{"id":12503,"date":"2012-04-25T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=12503"},"modified":"2012-04-25T18:18:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T17:18:00","slug":"microsoft-updates-the-free-security-essentials-antivirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=12503","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Updates The Free Security Essentials Antivirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.neowin.net\/news\/microsoft-security-essentials-hits-40?\" target=\"_blank\">Neowin<\/a>, Microsoft has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/download\/en\/details.aspx?id=5201\" target=\"_blank\">released<\/a> a new version of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), their free antivirus protection for PCs.&#160; It supports:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)<\/li>\n<li>Windows Vista (Service Pack 1, or Service Pack 2)<\/li>\n<li>Windows 7<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yes, Windows XP and Windows Vista are both still supported for this new development, even though they are both in <a href=\"http:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/gp\/lifepolicy\" target=\"_blank\">extended support<\/a>.&#160; You can understand this exception when you consider the reason for MSE\u2019s existence.&#160; It exists to help prevent the spread of malware on PCs that otherwise would not be protected:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People who get free 90 days of AV with an OEM PC but never buy the subscription<\/li>\n<li>People who can\u2019t afford to or won\u2019t buy AV<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One of the best stories we have of MSE locally was when we did a community launch event for Windows 7 in Belfast.&#160; We talked about MSE and how it could help defend against Conficker which was all the rage with unpatched PCs at the time (and unfortunately still is thanks to negligent [IMO] admins\/managers).&#160; Irish DPE, Dave Northey, saw a photographer was taking photos on behalf of the venue and asked for a copy of some of the photos.&#160; The photographer came over at the end of the event with a USB stick.&#160; Dave joked that he hoped that Conficker wasn\u2019t on the stick \u2013 MSE was on Dave\u2019s laptop and screamed about finding Conficker on the photographer\u2019s USB device <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile\" alt=\"Smile\" src=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/wlEmoticon-smile4.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You might ask about support for Windows 8.&#160; Good question.&#160; Windows 8 comes with Defender built in (more later).&#160; Defender in Windows 8 is not the Defender of old.&#160; It actually is anti-spyware <em>and <\/em>antivirus, meaning that you don\u2019t need to download\/install MSE on it.<\/p>\n<p>Built-in AV, eh?&#160; Imagine what Symantec\u2019s lawyers, the EU, and so on will think of that!&#160; Many of us are presented with a browser chooser when we setup Windows 7 for the first time.&#160; I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we see something similar for AV.&#160; Personally, I\u2019d stick with Windows 8 Defender, but there\u2019s nothing to stop you from choosing an alternative.&#160; I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if OEMs continue to ship subsidised trial copies of AV and retail stores continue to push AV boxes on customers with their PC\/laptop\/tablet purchase.&#160; You still have a choice, but at least with Windows 8, you have protection by default.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px\" id=\"scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:bc590db0-4ea3-4fb9-9b76-cf8b81795baf\" class=\"wlWriterEditableSmartContent\">Technorati Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Security\" rel=\"tag\">Security<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Windows+8\" rel=\"tag\">Windows 8<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Windows+XP\" rel=\"tag\">Windows XP<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Windows+7\" rel=\"tag\">Windows 7<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tags\/Windows+Vista\" rel=\"tag\">Windows Vista<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Neowin, Microsoft has released a new version of Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), their free antivirus protection for PCs.&#160; It supports: Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Windows Vista (Service Pack 1, or Service Pack 2) Windows 7 Yes, Windows XP and Windows Vista are both still supported for this new development, even though &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=12503\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Microsoft Updates The Free Security Essentials Antivirus&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[190,108,109,123,124],"class_list":["post-12503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","tag-security","tag-windows-7","tag-windows-8","tag-windows-vista","tag-windows-xp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}