Microsoft security essentials

[Conan The Librarian]

I've been using it for a few months now and it seems to be pretty good. Not nearly as invasive and irritating as McAffee or Norton. Have you heard any feedback from people who have benefitted from it?
 
As far as I'm concerned, I like it because it doesn't dominate the machine so that the computer is only good for doing virus checks, as opposed to running applications, and the fan doesn't run at full blast anymore. It used to do that all the time, and it's probably put more wear and tear on our old laptop than everything else put together.

[magooch]

Yup, I've been using Essentials for quite awhile and I see no reason not to continue.  I am very suspicious of Norton, McAffee and most of the others.  Some of them are downright pains in the butt.

[JustaShooter]

MSE recently lost its certification from AV-Test, which (obviously) isn't good.  Also, I've found it to be less able to protect systems than other free AV software.  I often help friends and family with their computers, and I've had to clean way too many systems that were supposedly protected by an up-to-date copy of MSE.  In fact, all but one of the last 10 or so were MSE, the other was Norton I think.  Anyway, some were quickly reinfected until I started replacing MSE with Avast.  Since then, I've not had to re-clean any.  So for me, MSE isn't worth the price you pay for it.

Just a Shooter (and professional computer geek)