I’ve used free avast! for several years with no big problems, just occasional glitches. Then I ran across Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) and decided to give it a try instead. It’s a much simpler GUI with very few user options, so I guess you could dub it “Protection for Dummies”. What appealed to me was that it provides realtime protection for malware as well as viruses. How good is it? I don’t know but haven’t been infected with anything yet, as far as I know. 
Will I keep it? That’s still undecided, but unless there are problems, probably… Just one thing I noticed when scanning a big file, it took a very long time, longer than avast! would have done.
Well, what to say?..
Good Luck? 
I’ve tried MSE, I prefer avast! 5. Avast! 5 is lighter & faster.
MSE doesn’t have a WebShield.
Most recently I tried MSE 2 beta,
it’s better than MSE, but I still prefer
avast! 5 for the same reasons.
MSE (1 or 2, whatever is current release)
is my second choice of av’s behind avast! 5.
@ JohnnyBob
Please go to PROFILE then Modify Profile then Forum Profile Information then Please select your country: then Signature: and put information about your system just like my signature about your system just like my signature so that the helpers can offer pertinent advice.
MSE will conflict with avast! as it is an anti virus application and using 2 anti virus applications at the same time will conflict.
Avast has never given me a reason to be more than fleetingly curious about trying out another antivirus.
You might possibly be asking the wrong forum. Most users here are probably pretty pro- Avast, and I doubt anyone would tell you to use MSE instead.
Nothing wrong with trying it out if you want, and keeping it if the trying-out period goes well. Apparently it’s a pretty good piece of kit. Up to you. If you try it, though, don’t forget to run the Avast uninstall utility.
My opinion is here:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=58207.msg490923#msg490923
MSE is better at detecting and removing rootkits, and usually fake av applications as well, but avast is better at pretty much everything else.
Does the MSE V2 solve the update issue I wonder?
I certainly prefer the 1/2/4 hourly update on Avast Versus daily on MSE
Avast V5 is lighter on all my PC’s
Web shield is, IMO, a must
When used with IE8, it has a webshield, in fact SmartScreen is a webshield on steroids as it also uses data in the cloud to check downloads, domains etc. This is the way MS probably intended these programs to work. I believe MSE 2 will feature its webshield nope, it still integrates with IE, kinda makes sense though.
On topic: I used MSE and on my machine since it came out, then I used no AV, and I liked how snappy everything felt, MSE chokes disk i/o like crazy. Now I use Avast 5, I see no reason not to. It works and I do not notice it.
1 SmartScreen is no webshield, it just refers to a white/black list, more like Avast network shield does.
2 MSE 2 doesn’t integrate anything that’s got anything to do with SmartScreen. But it does have a script shield that works exclusively with Internet Explorer.
I used MSE for a while on the Vista machine here. It worked okay except for occasionally not updating for a couple of days. The two times there were program updates however, they failed to install properly and left the machine with no protection until I was able to manually delete the old version completely and then install the new one. I had put it on that machine because I felt it would be easier to use and less complicated for the main user who has very limited computer skills or knowledge. She would never have been able to fix the program update problems on her own so I dumped it and gave her Avast!, set it up with mostly the defaults and haven’t had a problem with since it got installed properly. For some strange reason, the Avast! installer did not install the necessary C++ 2008 files so I had to install them manually before Avast! would work. Ever since Avast! has been installed and running there have been no problems and the machine boots up faster, is more responsive, and usually updates twice a day. I wouldn’t recommend MSE even though it does do a very good job of protection when it’s working right. It’s scanning times are much slower though.
I have always been a big fan of Microsoft products but MSE is the only one I ever tried that I was disappointed with.
Does the MSE V2 solve the update issue I wonder?
MSE 2 updated reliably after boot up for me.
I never noticed it update later, but I rarely notice avast! 5 update
at any time other than after boot up. Avast! updates fine, it’s just
I don’t notice. I guess it’s like a nagging old woman, you tune her out. ;D
Not acceptable.
Not acceptable.
Users that want a little bit of freedom and configurability will run away from MSE… Like me
Short answer: avast!
asyn
http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2010/07/remove-your-anti-virus-security.html
In this link BillP of WinPatrol tells why he put MSE on Bob’s computer.
No, I don’t think it’s Bob3160. ;D
totally agree here at 100 %
avast all the way been using for about 5 years now and if there is a problem avast will fix it fast ex when the defs were messing up computers that was fix very fast and that is the first and i bet the last time that will happen so i remand avast 100%