McAfee Internet Security Or Microsoft Security Essentials?

Atlantic1

My McAfee package is about to fall due for renewal. A friend told me about Microsoft Security Essentials, which is free and is as good as McAfee, he reckons.

I downloaded the Microsoft Security Essentials. It failed to complete a full scan the first 2 times I tried it but I left it running overnight last night and it succeeded in doing the full scan.

My McAfee normally only finds tracking cookies. I did a McAfee scan before the Microsoft one last night and it said that my system was clean at the end of it. Like I said, I then did the Microsoft scan during the night and it picked up one tracking cookie and a number of trojans.

My question is, is the Microsoft Security Essentials better and should I therefore let my McAfee lapse? Is anyone else here using it? Thanks.

FSL

Most of the free anti virus software is fine and it is normally a matter of personal preferences.

Two things however are essential firstly do not run two or more anti virus programmes simultaneously they will only conflict with each other and slow your machine down.

Secondly remember that there is no anti virus in existence and there probably never will be one that gives 100% protection, you need to use common sense when browsing and with emails even emails from people you know.

Will_H

FSL wrote: »

Two things however are essential firstly do not run two or more anti virus programmes simultaneously they will only conflict with each other and slow your machine down.

Secondly remember that there is no anti virus in existence and there probably never will be one that gives 100% protection, you need to use common sense when browsing and with emails even emails from people you know.

+1.

I've tried most out there - Kaspersky, McAfee, AVG, ZoneAlarm, Norton, Avast, MSE, F-Secure. I was using Kaspersky with Avast, but as my subscription to Kaspersky finished, have moved to Comodo Internet Security.

I found McAfee, AVG, Norton were pretty resource intensive and difficult to un-install. I liked ZoneAlarm but it gave me issues with iTunes.

Try the free ones, and see which you like the most. SuperAnti Spyware and SpyBot S&D are great at finding tracking cookies. I use both as one will find some that the other won't.

I've also heard good things about Avira but have not tested it myself as of yet.

PogMoThoin

Will_H wrote: »

I've tried most out there - Kaspersky, McAfee, AVG, ZoneAlarm, Norton, Avast, MSE, F-Secure. I was using Kaspersky with Avast, but as my subscription to Kaspersky finished, have moved to Comodo Internet Security.

Never have 2 av progs, they'll conflict and besides that, will slow your pc to crap

jimmyw

Does this have any firewall? If you do install this, do you have to uninstall the likes of mcafee, norton etc?

Kristopherus

I'm running MSE on 3 computers and find it way, way better than any of the commercial ones. It auto-updates. Only problems I had was in trying to get rid of the commercial rubbish that came pre-installed in the machines:(

CaSCaDe711

Using Avira, and Comodo Firewall (both free editions) the last few months, all good so far. Again as mentioned previously, just be careful where you browse, click etc, and keep your software updated

chinwag

I pay for bullguard and have wondered about trying MSE when my bullguard sub is expired. I've also heard that it can be difficult to get rid of old AV progs from computer, as mentioned above, but does a prog not just vanish when you uninstall it? (I'm not a whiz kid). Heard about two anti virus progs being a problem, as mentioned - is this always the case? Also, any opinions on bullguard?

davidk11811

I have BitDefender and SuperAntiSpyware. Should I only keep one as many of you are saying more than one slows down your PC.

ASJ112

no that is fine, just don't have two anti-virus or two firewall programs installed at once. SUPERAntiSpyware is spyware related so it wont cause issues with bitdefender.

I'd recommend using malwarebytes instead of SAS though, way better

http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button

Will_H

ASJ112 is spot on, however, I use both SAS & MalwareBytes as SAS picks up lots more tracking cookies than MalwareBytes does. They are both good programs, just slightly different in what they do.

davidk11811

ASJ112 wrote: »

no that is fine, just don't have two anti-virus or two firewall programs installed at once. SUPERAntiSpyware is spyware related so it wont cause issues with bitdefender.

I'd recommend using malwarebytes instead of SAS though, way better

http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button

I had MalwareBytes but was annoyed at it since it didn't spot the startsear.ch spyware while SUPERAntiSpyware did, I'll just get both of them.