Security Essentials - Free Virus Protection

Microsoft Security Essentials provides protection against computer viruses comparable to other free anti-virus programs. AVG Free has been very popular over the years and has been joined by many of the top security providers including McAfee and Norton who provide free versions of their entries in the field. Used in conjunction with Windows Firewall, Windows users can feel reasonably comfortable with the security of their home systems at no cost.

Free anti-virus applications, regardless of the developer, lack the functionality and thus the level of protection of their paid for couterparts. Most don't offer spam control, scanning of incoming or outgoing mail or some of the clean up, privacy protection and backup utilities found with security suites offered by Bitdefender or Symantec. Some of these items may not be essential depending on how you use your computer and what you store on it.

Lack of some of these features doesn't necessarily mean you are unprotected. While free offerings such as Microsoft Security Essentials doesn't scan incoming mail like BitDefender Security Suite 2010 or Norton Security Suite 2010 it will detect and infected message when opened. Privacy control features also prevent personal information from being distributed over the internet. They also let you control what specific users are able to visit on the web if you have children who are using your system. Some also provide intelligent analysis that anticipates viruses yet to be defined. But all this technology comes at a cost.

If you have a slow internet connection or a laptop with a slow hard drive and minimal memory all the features that come with the top security suites can stifle performance. In such circumstances mail scanning may make delivery impractical causing server time outs. When this occurs some of the advanced features may be useless to you. If that's the case the choice to go with the no cost Microsoft Security Essentials becomes easier.

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Addition won the PC Magazine Editors Choice Award for 2009. It is a SaaS [Software as a Service] that is delivered over the Internet. As such, connectivity problems can interfere with it's capability. AVG Free Edition is the most popular free offering owing to it's longevity as a free application. But it has failed to keep up with more recent offerings such as Microsoft Security Essentials.