patndoris TechnoGeek

Being that it is Wednesday, and I’m OCD, it is my "check for program updates" day.  I use Filehippo’s update checker since it does a really good job for me (and it makes downloads a snap!)  One of my many programs to update today was Trillian.  I always download my setup files and run them separately.  (In other words I don’t click Run from a browser pop-up like many do in IE.) I was happily downloading files when HORROR! up pops my Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) with an alert!

It actually caught adware in the download for Trillian before I even tried to run the executable file.  Certainly, many antivirus and malware programs will scan files for you before you run them, but in my experience you usually have to specifically tell the program to scan a particular file.  Otherwise, you click on the file and pray that your antivirus notifies you when it finds any bad files while you are installing.

I was very impressed with MSE this morning.  It did a fantastic job.  True, I was already aware that Trillian is ad supported but it was fantastic that MSE alerted for those people who might not be paying as much attention when they install.  Not to mention, ad supported does not usually trigger an antivirus response - that actually concerns me a little more.  While I’m not really using Trillian, I’m really thinking hard if I even want it on my machine at this point.

Anyway, I do highly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.  It’s what I use on my machines.  It runs on XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7.  It is a lightweight and really good FREE solution for antivirus.