Top Microsoft Security Essentials Alternatives

Since the dawn of the internet, computer viruses and infections have drastically increased, affecting millions of machines every day. To protect our PC and other devices against them, we take refuge in using anti-virus or anti-malware software, which helps us to clean these infections.

Among them, there is a default free service offered by Windows called Microsoft Windows Security Essentials. This is the default anti-virus service that was provided in Windows 7. It was initially released in 2009. Before the release of version 4.5, it was used on other Windows versions like XP, and Vista, but it was changed to Windows Defender in the later version of Windows like 8, 8.1 and Win 10.

Microsoft Security Essential Antivirus Features

In the initial phase, Security Essential had a lot of competition from other security service providers. Owing to its sleek UI, Security Essential did get the upper hand. The amount of resource consumption was also on the low side with a lesser false positive. This made it popular among regular folks who wanted a basic anti-virus without any brake on other system processes and spending big money. The ratings received in the certification tests across the globe were decent for Security Essential.

In the list of features, Microsoft Security Essential offers basic real-time protection, different scans, quarantine vault, diagnostic tools, and other endpoint services. The interface is quite simple. The real-time protection scans the files in the memory and points out any infections, if any. If any threats are scanned, it will prompt to act, which includes either removing the virus or allowing it.

Users can switch to the quarantine vault to see the list of infected items locked by Security Essential. After that, take the necessary actions. When the users remove a threat, the program automatically takes backup of the system via restore point. Microsoft Security Essential is also linked to the MS database, which collects all the data across various devices with different types of threat signatures. Overall, Security Essential truly is a basic and simple anti-virus program to get rid of computer infection on the Windows system, all at free cost and minimal resource consumption.