watch out for microsoft security essentials

farmer007

I downloaded the free microsoft security essentials after reading about it on money expert. It was going great and seemed to have me protected, but after 2 months a pop up from V8 security essentials completely attached to my desktop and basically scrubbed my whole computer and m.s.e. did nothing. I have just paid 100 pounds to dell to retrieve and reinstall all files and dell have also insisted that I buy proper security, as freebie's are no use - even from Microsoft!!! I can assure you I clicked nothing to accept the pop up and M.S.E. were still telling me with scans that I was protected. So be aware - this has been a headache. Anyone else had problems with so called "Free" security?:(

GunJack

No security, paid-for or free, will stop 100% of all malware. Sounds like you've just been unlucky, and learned a valuable lesson on backing up your important data...

spike7451

I've been using MSE for over a year now on my Dell Inspiron laptop & had no drama's with it as all.It's caught any nasties that tried to get onto my PC.I also run Spybot SD next to it as well.
Only thing I don't like about it is it updates at the most inconvenient times & the is no option to turn off/postpone the update when it does.

poppie123

farmer007 wrote: »

I downloaded the free microsoft security essentials after reading about it on money expert. It was going great and seemed to have me protected, but after 2 months a pop up from V8 security essentials completely attached to my desktop and basically scrubbed my whole computer and m.s.e. did nothing. I have just paid 100 pounds to dell to retrieve and reinstall all files and dell have also insisted that I buy proper security, as freebie's are no use - even from Microsoft!!! I can assure you I clicked nothing to accept the pop up and M.S.E. were still telling me with scans that I was protected. So be aware - this has been a headache. Anyone else had problems with so called "Free" security?:(

Is this the AV8 fake virus scan? i posted earlier today about it. Basically i clicked on a website and immediately there was a popup to say AV8 had found virues or something like that. Anyway i immediately closed it, shut my computer down, ran malwarebytes and avast in safemode and at the moment it seems ok. No pop ups or anything.

How long after the pop up did you start to have a problem? was it immediate or did it take a few days before you realised there was a problem?

DatabaseError

farmer007 wrote: »

...but after 2 months a pop up from V8 security essentials completely attached to my desktop and basically scrubbed my whole computer and m.s.e. did nothing..

I consider AV software like condoms, very useful protection, but not 100% safe..so I be careful where I put my...erm...browser to be extra safe

debitcardmayhem

DatabaseError wrote: »

I consider AV software like condoms, very useful protection, but not 100% safe..so I be careful where I put my...erm...browser to be extra safe

?Spam? Durex Extra Safe .... be careful where you put your meat :rotfl:

debitcardmayhem

Also ....I use spywareblaster free from http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/ and also mvps hosts file from here http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts2.htm
and Firefox and No Script , but watch what you click on.The above four help but nothing is certain but hey I haven't had a virus/trojan when using any of MSE/Avast/Avira/Norton nor AVG. Spywareblaster/Hosts and No-script have a lot to recommend themselves. There is nothing better than using your own common sense. Plus there really is no need to pay anyone to sort out these, there's lots of folks on here who could have saved you money, and some grief if you invest some of your time following instructions. I hope your PC is now running as you would wish , but blind faith on recommendations and clicking on links in web pages needs a little more research and less faith.

End of advert of MSE/Techie Forums.

farmer007

almost immediately!!! I right clicked on it as I could not get rid of it and then clicked on scan with microsoft security essentials, which I did, it claimed "protected" - it kept popping up with all these threats - I went to close down and "crash" - left with blank screen!! I just can't understand why M.S.E did not over ride it!!! Paid Dell 27.00 for one year security - never risking that again!!

DD3006

Never had any problems with MSE... we put this on any machines that come in to us without any antivirus so that at least there is some protection, its very good for "nothing" but if you want a real antivirus I can’t recommend Kaspersky highly enough.

Stompa

spike7451 wrote: »

Only thing I don't like about it is it updates at the most inconvenient times & the is no option to turn off/postpone the update when it does.

FWIW I believe that if you perform a manual update it won't attempt to automatically update itself for the next 24 hours.

debitcardmayhem

Both of the following go to filehippo, at the top right of the screen (in the page) select the green download versio.
Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
Run the program then Click on the Update Tab and check for updates, to get the latest version , then select the scan tab and run a quick scan, let it fix what it finds , post the log here(Even if nothing is found)*.

Reboot .

Now download HijackThis from here http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/ .
Run that with elevated rights, (shift key + right click run as administrator). Then post the log here*.

*Note for users not sure how to post the logs then
Each of the above programs should open their logs in Notepad so on the menu bar select "Edit+Select All" , then "Edit+Copy" or (Ctrl+a to select all and CTRL+c to copy), then post the logs here using CTRL+v (or right click Paste)