Always-on antivirus from Microsoft Security

World-Class security for Windows XP, Vista, and 7, to protect your business and stop threats before they become problems, without getting in your way. 

Security

Microsoft Security Essentials Product Information

What is Microsoft Security Essentials?

There are a host of nasty intruders on the Internet including viruses, trojans, worms and spyware. Microsoft Security Essentials offers award-winning protection against these intruders without getting in your way.

The best brains and brawn in the background

Microsoft Security Essentials is built for individuals and small businesses, but it’s based on the same technology that Microsoft uses to protect giant businesses (security products like Microsoft Forefront, the Malicious Software Removal Tool, and Windows Defender). We have a whole team watching for new threats and coming up with ways to squash them.

Scheduled to prevent delays

Microsoft Security Essentials is efficient and compact. Scans and updates are scheduled to run when the PC is idle and the software works in a way that your PC is still snappy when you’re using it. All this makes Microsoft Security Essentials friendly for all sorts of computers—your old PC, your new PC, your laptop, as well as your little netbook.

Easy to get, easy to use

Downloading and installing Microsoft Security Essentials is easy. Once you have installed it, the software updates automatically once a day. We’re constantly tracking new threats and keep your PC updated.

Traffic Light Alerts

Microsoft Security Essentials uses green, yellow and red color codes to designate the security status of your PC and a color-coded icon in the taskbar tells you at a glance if your attention is needed. It’s simple—when you’re green, you’re good. However, if there’s a red or yellow threat, Microsoft Security Essentials will alert you and recommend what to do.

Runs quietly without hurting PC performance

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly in the background. You’ll only be alerted when there are specific actions to take. When you’re away or busy, Microsoft Security Essentials can take the default action on your behalf and you can open the program later to review and undo those actions.

Features and benefits

Why get Microsoft Security Essentials?

Microsoft Security Essentials is world-class security for your PC that’s free and easy to download. Here are some ways Microsoft Security Essentials helps keep your PCs safe without getting in your way.

Real-time protection

Real-time protection means addressing potential threats before they become problems. Alerts notify you when spyware, viruses, or other malicious software attempt to run or install on your PC, and suspicious files and programs are prevented from opening.

System scanning

Microsoft Security Essentials offers complete system scanning capabilities with both scheduled and on-demand scanning options to provide an extra level of confidence. Scheduled scans are turned on by default and configured to run weekly at 2 a.m. when the system is likely idle. The three scanning options:
You can choose when you want a scheduled scan to run, view the scan results before cleaning, or run a scan on demand. If the PC isn’t turned on when the scan is scheduled to run, Microsoft Security Essentials will start the scan at the first opportunity once the PC is awake and idle.

System cleaning

When Microsoft Security Essentials determines a possible threat on your PC, alerts notify you of the threat. Threats are categorized as Severe, High, Medium, or Low, and you can choose whether to ignore, quarantine or remove the item from the system.

Integrate Windows Firewall

Having an active firewall is part of securing your PC. During setup, Microsoft Security Essentials scans the PC to determine if a firewall is active on the PC. If no firewall protection is present, you’ll be given the option to turn on Windows Firewall.

Protection against threats

Microsoft Security Essentials helps block bad software. We keep a list of the most popular websites and downloads on the Internet and use it to test our antimalware definitions and updates before they get to you. This helps us make sure that the protection we offer really keeps your PC safe.

Rootkit protection

Rootkits are particularly difficult types of malware to protect against, and Microsoft Security Essentials includes a number of new and improved technologies to address rootkits and other aggressive threats.