Microsoft Security Essentials- A Warning

[Orbital Shark]

You'll find that most AV/AM software is more than capable of detecting Viruses/Malware once there are infected files. It's the tw@s that make the infections that keep finding ways to bypass certain security protocols. Hijacking legit sites is 1 such example.

   Warning

Downloading illegally is not discussed in these forums and any/all virus obtained during such activity will not be supported

OS

 

[whs]

NONE of you have answered the REAL question here --what were you doing on the machine BEFORE you got infected -- without that info all this speculation is pointless.

Good point Jimbo. But I seriously do not remember what I had done before. I never go to shady websites or download illegal stuff. Both my McAfee site advisor and the NIS safe web advisor would warn me if I am on an iffy path. And if I ever need to go to such a site, I do it in Sandboxy but never pass any of the info to my main system. So unfortunately the source remains a mystery.

 

[pparks1]

Hi all
NONE of you have answered the REAL question here --what were you doing on the machine BEFORE you got infected -- without that info all this speculation is pointless.

Some of us have run computers for DONKEYS YEARS without any AV at all (although not a good idea these days) and NEVER been infected whilst others who have installed all sorts of AV and malware detection programs get infected within 30 mins of first logging on to the Internet.

This is very true. I found that nearly "all" of my issues went away when I moved away from trying to find pirated software. Seriously, it's the shady sites offering warez, and torrent downloads, and the like that are usually chock full of this garbage. I use open source and free applications for almost everything and simply pay for the few things that I actually do want that are commercial and my troubles are very, very, infrequent.

Like I said before, I haven't had a virus, trojan, or significant malware hit to my machine in years. 5+

 

[Keiichi25]

Just a minor mention also to everyone... Most people recommend MSE because it is free, comes with Windows 7.

However, the rule of thumb with ANY AV/AM based software, even I harp this to people, is that it doesn't protect you 100% of the time. None of them do. There will ALWAYS be a new version of a trojan, virus or malware that all AV/AMs are not aware of until it is too late.

Blindly trusting ANY AV/AM program to keep you protected is like expecting the an alarm system to stop a home invader from breaking in and doing a quick grab. Sure, it will get the cops sooner to your location, assuming the Alarm company is on their toes or you made sure you had it set, but doesn't mean a prepared person won't hit you all the same.

The best AV/AM system available is you and safe browsing. Safe Browsing means not getting questionable material or going to websites promoting non-legit material as they are often going to be the easiest vectors to attack a computer, especially for people who have not learned to be a little paranoid about where they go.

Using restrictive web browsing, like Firefox with NoScript and Ad-blocker goes a long way in making it a bit more difficult when accidentally tripping over sites, but again, if you set things too loose, you might as well just leave your computer without a firewall or anti-virus as you are just inviting trouble by not being careful.