Microsoft Security Essentials Beta

The final release of the latest version of Microsoft Security Essentials has recently been released and the beta program will end on April 26th 2012.
During the next days, participants who installed the Security Essentials Beta and are subscribed to automatic updates will be upgraded to the final release of the latest version of Microsoft Security Essentials after they agree to a new license agreement. If you would like to upgrade manually, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials and click on the �Download Now� button. There is no need to uninstall before upgrading.For more information about automatic updates through Microsoft Update, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windowsup...
Please note that in order to continue receiving technical support, you will need to upgrade or install the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials.

no changelog?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

no changelog?

Afraid not sorry

I got on my laptop.

real time protection has been dumbed down, is only on/off switch now.

other then that no visible changes.

You can still use registry edits to get at the complex settings, do a bit of googling

Microsoft Security Essentials V4 released

Version 4.0 of Microsoft's Security Essentials (MSE) anti-malware and anti-virus software for Windows has been released. Previously only available as a beta, the new version of the program looks very similar to the previous 2.x branch; most of the cosmetic changes are to be found only under the Settings tab.

Improvements in V 4 include reduced system requirements and faster virus removal, better cleanup and removal. It still sorts threats into four levels. Severe or high threats will be automatically sent to quarantine without warning. Threats considered medium or low level will be left to the user to choose (setting > default actions).

Real time scanning has been cut back from 5 options to just one: previously, scan modules such as the one for checking downloads could be disabled individually. Now, the only choice is to completely disable real-time protection. Another change is that files in the quarantine folder will automatically be deleted after 3 months. This option existed in previous versions, but was disabled by default.

Feedback is now through "Microsoft Active Protection Service" (MAPS). The default continues to be the "Basic membership" plan that will send basic information on any detected malware to Microsoft. As in MSE 2.0, users can completely opt out of MAPS or choose to become "Advanced members", which enables MSE to pass on to Microsoft considerably more detailed information about any unknown programs that are found.

MSE 4 is compatible with Windows7, Vista (SP1 or SP2), or Windows XP Service pack 3. It is available to download free of charge, which allows installation for business systems up to 10 users. During installation, the application will check if the user's Windows license is genuine. On PCs that don't have the virus scanner installed, Windows Update will offer to install Microsoft Security Essentials 4 as an optional update.

Version 4 of MSE no longer shows the date-time the definitions were last checked, hiding the means of easily keeping tabs on the least satisfactory aspect of the product - its update strategy. The date-time an update was last applied is nice to know, but not critical.

I still see options for setting high and severe? but if I get no prompts I find that concerning.

Having to manually install MSE 4 on parents machine, seems windows update breaks and result is that MSE is turned off.

Great update MS - not!

today I booted my laptop.

the previous mse had a load of suspected trojans (which incidently are mostly false positives) quarantined.

then this mse goes to red status, I click on it to see whats up, and its reported its own quarantine as infected unreal.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 04-May-12 14:06:12)