Anti-Virus Software: Why Pay for it, When Free is just as good?If not Better!

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home or small business PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and is automatically updated to protect your PC with the latest technology. Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times. Before installing Microsoft Security Essentials, we recommend that you uninstall other antivirus software already running on your PC. Running more than one antivirus program at the same time can potentially cause conflicts that affect PC performance. 

   If you have been using a Personal Computer for sometime, you have a good idea about all of the problems that one could get into simply by surfing the internets. So we all have paid monthly or yearly subscriptions for FireWall and AnitVirus protection software to secure our PC's so that we could surf the internet with peace of mind. But, we soon find out that is not always the case, the paid for software is limited due to the fact of hum0n error.

 Once a PC user becomes familiar with the internet and all of the dangers of surfing it one becomes pretty savvy when it comes to knowing when to click yes on a pop-up window and knowing when not to. Once the bad guys figured this out they added flashing banners that look like Microsoft dialog windows, but once the user becomes aware of that, then it becomes much more harder for the bad guys to trick suspecting users. Something now that Apple Mac users are beginning to experience.

 The Apple Mac had it's run of freedom from malicious attacks and software for the past, almost 20 years, and now since it is gaining in use and popularity, it has put the spot light on itself. Mac Malware!

   In 2010 Microsoft quietly released Microsoft Security Essentials and I must say that I have been running it on 3 PC's, 2 Windows 7 machines and yes, a Windows Vista machine. I have had no problems, not a single security breach.

The Software package is free, as long as you have a genuine copy of a Windows OS (Operating System). Not only does the security software does an outstanding job, it also improves PC performance! Since I uninstalled Symantec's Internet Security and replaced it with MSC i have had a dramatic increase in the performance of all three Windows machines, much notable so in the Windows Vista HTPC Machine; granted it is only used to watch netcast from TWiT and Revision3 downloaded through iTunes (I haven't found a good replacement for it yet).

 The best part about Microsoft Security Essentials is the fact that it is FREE!

 We have saved about $100.00 by not having to pay for a yearly subscription and upgrade service for an AntiVirus or FireWall software package that is a drain on the system processes of our computers. Also, while we have been using the free Microsoft Security Essentials Software from Microsoft, we are still behind several hardware firewalls, one being from our net-connection provider.

Another free software tip is Glary Utilities