Microsoft Security Essentials
On September 29, 2009, Microsoft released their free comprehensive anti-malware solution, called Microsoft Security Essentials. MSE adds anti-virus and other malware protection to the ant-spyware protection that was already available in Windows Defender, which shipped with Windows Vista and was also available for Windows XP.
Microsoft Security Essentials is designed to protect you from all sorts of malware, including viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojans. But, you don’t have to know what those words mean to use it. It is available for free, with no yearly subscription fee to worry about like many other major anti-malware solutions. It also runs quietly in the background, so you won’t even know its there after you get it set up—aside from the green icon it places in the system notification area to let you know that it is working properly—unless it detects a problem. It has been independently verified by West Coast Labs.
The purpose of this article is to get the non-expert up and running with MSE. MSE can run on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
This guide is split into several sections. You may read it top-to-bottom, or click the section you are interested in to jump to it.
- Download Microsoft Security Essentials
- Remove existing anti-virus software
- Install Microsoft Security Essentials
- Update Microsoft Security Essentials
- Settings
- Verify that Microsoft Update is enabled and configured
- Verify that the Windows Firewall is enabled
- Closing thoughts
- Acknowledgments
- Appendix: Which version of Microsoft Security Essentials should I download?
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Download Microsoft Security Essentials
Obtaining the software is easy. Just go to its official web site, here:
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
…and click the big “Download Now” button in the middle of the page.
Depending on your configuration, it may present you with a window like this, asking which version of Windows you are running.
Click the link corresponding to your version of Windows to begin the download. (Don’t know which one to click? Go to the appendix to figure out which one.)
When you click the download link, your web browser will give you a window like one of these, asking you what to do with the file. Click “Save” or “Save File,” and be sure to note where the file is downloaded to and what it is named so that you can find it later. (Do not run the file yet.)
Once the download is complete, close the download window.
Remove existing anti-virus software
We don’t need to have more than one anti-virus solution running on your computer; in fact, that may actually cause problems. If you already have one installed and you want to switch to MSE, now is the time to remove it. (If you do not have any anti-virus software installed, you may skip this section.)
You may want to disconnect from your local network and the Internet at this point, to minimize any chance of malware infection while your computer is unprotected. Since you have already downloaded Microsoft Security Essentials, you will not need the Internet connection until it has already been installed and it is time to update the virus definitions. Simply unplug your network cable or turn off your computer’s wireless connection.
To remove your old anti-virus software, open the Control Panel (from the Start menu) and locate the “Add or Remove Programs” control panel (Windows XP) or the “Uninstall a program” control panel (Windows Vista, Windows 7).
This will open a list of programs installed on your computer. On Windows XP, locate your previous anti-virus solution in the list and then click on the “Remove” or “Change/Remove” button to begin the uninstallation process.
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the list looks more like this, and you just locate your old anti-virus solution in the list and double-click on it to begin the uninstallation process.
You may be asked to close other programs or restart your computer. Once the uninstallation is complete, you may proceed to the next step.
(If you disconnected from the Internet and are asked to close your web browser or reboot, make sure that you can access this article by saving a copy or printing it out… or just read ahead and remember what to do next!)
Install Microsoft Security Essentials
Now, it is time to install MSE. Find the file we downloaded before, and double-click on it to begin the installation.
The installation is pretty straight-forward. Just follow the directions. Once you get to the end of the installation, you will have this option:
Leave the box checked if you would like to go ahead and run a virus scan now. You may uncheck the box if you are pretty sure that your computer is already clean. (If you disconnected from the Internet prior to removing your old anti-virus software, now is the time to reconnect.) Click the “Finish” button once you have made your choice.
Update Microsoft Security Essentials
Whether you chose to scan now or not, you will proceed immediately from the end of the installation to this update screen. Just wait while MSE downloads and installs the latest virus definitions.
Once the update is finished, MSE is running and you are protected from the latest threats.
Settings
You may want to decide when the scheduled scan happens. Click on the “Settings” tab in the main MSE window, once the update is finished.
Here, you are presented with options pertaining to the scheduled scan. You may choose to scan on a particular day of the week, or every day, from the “When” drop-down menu. You should choose a time when your computer is likely to be on. You may go through the rest of the settings menus (by selecting different categories on the left) if you like, but I found the default selections to be fine. Once you are done, click on the “Save changes” button in the bottom right.
You may now close the Microsoft Security Essentials window, it will continue running in the background.
Verify that Microsoft Update is enabled and configured
These next topics don’t have much to do with MSE, but rather with ensuring that your computer is in a secure state.
You should verify that Microsoft Update is installed by visiting http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/ using Internet Explorer (even if that is not your default web browser, the site only works in IE). If Microsoft Update is not enabled, you can follow the directions to turn it on. If it is enabled, you will get to a screen asking if you would like to check for updates. All I care about is that Microsoft Update is enabled, so if you get to the update check screen, you are fine.
Now, we should check the automatic update settings. This is in the Control Panel (accessible from the Start menu).
On Windows XP, from the Control Panel, click on “Security Center” and then “Automatic Updates” (at the bottom). You will get a window like this:
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, the Windows Update control panel is located under “System.” Once you open the Windows Update control panel, click on “Change settings” (on the left) to get a window like one of these:
Once you’ve found the automatic updates settings for your particular version of Windows, choose the option that makes sense for you. I recommend “Install updates automatically,” unless you have a particular desire to approve each update before it is installed.
Verify that the Windows Firewall is enabled
While we’re at let, let’s make sure that the Windows Firewall is turned on.
Open the Control Panel (accessible from the Start menu). In Windows XP, click on “Security Center” and then “Windows Firewall” (at the bottom). In Windows Vista and Windows 7, find the Windows Firewall control panel under “Security.”
In Windows XP, the firewall control panel looks like this:
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, it looks more like this:
In either case, it is easy to tell if the firewall is on, and to turn it on if it is not.
Note: The Windows Firewall blocks unsolicited external connections to your computer. If you are ever prompted to allow a program through the firewall, you do not need to allow it unless you think that the program needs to be able to accept connections from someone else to work.
Closing thoughts
No amount of security software is going to keep your computer safe better than some healthy common sense and skepticism.
If a message pops up on your computer telling you that you are infected, be skeptical. A common thing to see these days are web pages or advertisements disguised to look like security alerts, trying to trick you into downloading and running something bad. Do not allow anything to run if you do not know what it is. If you think your computer is infected with something, launch Microsoft Security Essentials from the Start menu (you can find it right under “All programs”). If MSE has detected any problems, there will be a warning in the main window. You may also run a system scan from here.
And in closing, thank you for reading! If you have any thoughts as to how this article could be improved, send me an e-mail or leave a comment below.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Carl Mehner for assistance in the writing of this article.
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Appendix: Which version of Microsoft Security Essentials should I download?
It is important to download version of Microsoft Security Essentials that corresponds to your operating system; knowing which version of Windows you have (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) and which system type (32-bit or 64-bit) is important for a smooth installation. If you were asked which version of Microsoft Security Essentials you wanted to download and you do not know which to select, you can see which version of Windows you are running by checking the System control panel. To open this, click on the Start button, then right-click on “Computer” or “My Computer,” and select “Properties” from the menu.
On Windows XP, you get a window like this.
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, you get a window like this:
If you are running Windows XP, select the version of MSE for Windows XP.
(Note: If you have the 64-bit version of Windows XP, which is identified as “Windows XP Professional x64 edition,” there is no version of MSE for you to download, unfortunately.)
If you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, look in the System control panel to see if you have the 32-bit or 64-bit version, and then choose the appropriate version of MSE.