Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 Released

Greg writes with this excerpt from Ars Techica: "Following a four-month beta program, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) 2.0 has been released. The new version significantly revamps the heuristic scanning engine, adds Windows Firewall integration as well as network traffic inspection. The update unquestionably makes MSE, which has already become very popular due to its quiet but effective ways, even more of a must-have for Windows users. MSE has always been very good at finding and removing malware, but it has relied mainly on antimalware definitions. The improved heuristic engine makes it even better at detecting threats; at the same time, we expect the number of false positives to slightly increase as well. The new Windows Firewall integration is a minor improvement: it lets you tweak Microsoft's firewall from inside MSE."

Re:ok on 8 year old laptops?

[the linux geek]

It seems to be a genuine improvement. I'll definitely be watching for any performance/stability issues before my company deploys it, but it seems like MSE2 is a step in the right direction for Windows security.

Re:Let the bloating begin...?

[Beelzebud]

Just installed it, having the same concern, and am happy to report that the program doesn't look obviously bloated (just some new options for the firewall), and it's consuming about the same amount of RAM as before. On my machine it usually consumed 4600K, and not it's at about 4800K. Not bad at all, really.

Re:Cannot find MS malwares

[Mortimer82]

You might be a troll, but if not, you are certainly over reacting.

I run windows live messenger and pay attention to the install options which allow me to choose *not* to install things like the Bing Search bar.

Really, you should check your install options with any *free* package, any person who just presses next, next, next without reading what they are doing is simply a fool.

Yes, one could argue that it's evil to have such things ticked by default, but in Microsoft's defense, if you are upgrading messenger, it remembers your previously selected install options and will not by default ask you again to install Bing toolbars and stuff.

Re:Nice and Easy

[datapharmer]

Actually that isn't true. It is also available to small businesses on up to 10 computers. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anything between the free 10 SMB licenses and forefront licensing which is insanely expensive for small business.

Re:Nice and Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm... from what I could find it starts at $8.64 US per user or per device, per year and goes DOWN from there. How is that "insanely expensive"?

http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/endpoint-protection/en/us/pricing-licensing.aspx

Re:Nice and Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

No it shouldn't, since MSE only runs on XP and above and IE7 and 8 were automatically pushed out via Windows Update to OS's that supported beyond IE6, which is XP and above. That is unless you knew about and employed the blocking tool for these updates. So for MSE to nag about IE6 would be inappropriate on an internal LAN, and pointless for someone who's turned off updates or is intentionally running unsafe.