Microsoft Security Essentials is making its way

Microsoft has offered limited downloads (75,000) of Microsoft Security Essentials beta – free antivirus/antispyware replacment for Windows Live OneCare.

Microsoft has pitched the software as a basic antivirus, antispyware product that consumes less memory and disk space than commercial security suites like those from vendors such as Symantec and McAfee, and so is suitable for even low-powered PCs such as netbooks.

“Netbooks are one focus of Windows Security Essentials,” said Alan Packer, the general manager of Microsoft’s anti-malware team, in an interview last week. “We have tested it on netbooks, and a gigabyte [of memory] is actually plenty“.

He conceded that on systems with slower processors and limited RAM, however, the software will hit performance, especially when users run multiple applications at the same time. “I don’t want to oversell here,” Packer said. “There’s definitely an impact on netbooks, and although we’re trying to minimize that, you’re going to notice it’s there.“

Microsoft Security Essentials has passed its first anitvirus exam with “flying colurs“.  Below is an excert from a ComputerWorld arcticle.

Microsoft’s free security software passed a preliminary antivirus exam with flying colors, an independent testing company said today.

AV-Test GmbH tested Microsoft Security Essentials, the free software Microsoft launched yesterday in beta, on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, putting it up against nearly 3,200 common viruses, bot Trojans and worms, said Andreas Marx, one of the firm’s two managers. The malware was culled from the most recent WildList, a list of threats actually actively attacking computers.

“All files were properly detected and treated by the product,” said Marx in an e-mail. “That’s good, as several other scanners are still not able to detect and kill all of these critters yet.”

AV-Test also measured Security Essentials against a set of in-house false positives to see whether the software mistakenly fingers legitimate files, a nightmare for users, who can be left with a crippled computer, and a disaster to the reputation of a security company.

“None of the clean files were flagged as being malicious,” noted Marx. “Very good.”

AV-Test also examined the program’s anti-rootkit skills and its ability to scrub a system of malware it finds with a limited number of samples and “found no reasons to complain,” Marx said. “It is able to remove found malware very well, but further tests against larger sets of samples are required before we can come to a final conclusion.”

Marx put to rest the once-rampant rumor that Security Essentials would operate “in-the-cloud” by scanning PCs from Microsoft’s servers. “The scanner works with the locally-installed anti-virus and anti-spyware databases — it doesn’t appear to use ‘in-the-cloud scanning’ methods,” he said.

AV-Test’s results will disappoint some rivals in the security market, who yesterday knocked Microsoft’s effort. “It just doesn’t give you the protection that you need,” argued J.R. Smith, the CEO of AVG Technologies, a company best-known for its free antivirus software.