However, it has a few quirks (two, to be specific) that may drive you to using another security tool (a cracked Kaspersky or Norton, maybe?). So we’ll see what these two quirks are, and why you should rather ignore them and keep using this awesome tool.

#1 Revoltingly long first update

Microsoft Security Essentials takes a ridiculous amount of time to update for the first time (just after you install it). On a slow connection, it can be as long as an hour or more! Since future updates are all automatic and silent, this is likely the only time you’re gonna notice the update, and naturally you feel pissed off. People assume it’s always gonna take that long to update (which would be outrageous), and uninstall it without thinking twice. This is not true. The subsequent updates are small and fast as any other antimalware program. So why the gigantic first update? Lets see.

You must have noticed that the MSE installer is surprisingly small (about 8 MB) as compared to other antimalware tools. However, this is because the installer simply installs the core MSE program. Absolutely nothing that’ll protect your computer – the scanner, real-time engine and the malware definitions – come with this installer. After MSE is installed, it downloads and adds these components during the first update. Hence the huge, long update. The solution is just to be patient the first time.

Also, you can simply minimize or close the MSE window when its updating without stopping the update itself, and let it do its job.

#2 Revoltingly long time to remove malware

If you’ve ever been in a situation where MSE detects anything over 10 infections on an external drive or something, you must be knowing it takes just too much time to wipe those out. Most other antimalware that I’ve used suspend/quarantine/kill malware in a matter of seconds. But MSE will often take more than just a few minutes to get the task done. Sometimes it can take upto 20 minutes, or might pretend to just plain hang (while it clearly hasn’t). This can lead you to falsely assume that MSE can’t remove malware effectively.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it. For now. Remember that MSE is still very young (not even a year old, to be exact) and the upcoming version 2 might very well take care of this issue. For the time being, just put MSE in the background, leave it to do its job, and get back to your own work. Be assured that it will remove the malware it detects, no matter how long.

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MSE is a really, really good security product that doesn’t deserve to be ditched for these minor quirks. If you’re currently paying for your PC security, you should seriously stop now and get MSE instead. Lifehacker tries to explain why.

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With the social networks Twitter and Facebook growing like wildfire, especially the latter, it’s inevitable that the bad guys will target them to spread malware across the Internet. Hackers misuse the social hubs’ ability to create chain reactions to spread their malware with minimum effort. Here’s how – they somehow discover and hack an account with a poor password (a lot of people use really stupid passwords). Now that the account is compromised, they use it as a centre and send some malicious code, hidden beneath a cute looking dog or some scary warning, to each of the account’s friends. A couple of recipients fall for this trick and their accounts are immediately compromised. This goes on, and soon the hackers have their own virtual botnet of malware retching accounts.

Immunet aims to counter these growing attacks from social networks by pulling in realtime updates from the large community of other Immunet users. It works pretty much the same way as the previously mentioned Panda Cloud Antivirus, albeit with one remarkable difference – Immunet can be used both as a primary or secondary antivirus. That is, you can use Immunet as your only antivirus, and you can also use it along with your current antivirus. Immunet, unlike other antivirus tools, doesn’t conflict with rival products.

Using Immunet as a secondary antivirus has its own benefits. Lets say your primary antivirus catches a virus on your computer, but Immunet doesn’t. However Immunet, being compatible with the antivirus, will immediately log that virus in its own database, which will then be delivered to all other Immunet users. Neat!

As with Panda, you need an account to get started (you can use your Facebook account). It’s pretty light on system resources, and I’d recommend you to use it side-by-side with your current antivirus, as it’s still very beta and not quite a full blown security solution.

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Also read,

10+1 free antivirus tools for Windows

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SpywareBlaster packs in some additional useful features as well, like

• configuration options and custom blocking in Internet Explorer
• System Snapshot, which can reset browser and important system settings after a malware attack

Easy as it is to use, SpywareBlaster lacks the power of a traditional anti-spyware – it doesn’t have a scanning tool which can clean already infected systems. However, it can be used alongside any anti-spyware, as it doesn’t run in the background, thereby ruling out possibilities of confliction.

SpywareBlaster is free to use, but you can pay a small fee to enable automatic updates (you can still update manually for free). The program runs on Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2000. It supports Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and other Mozilla based browsers.

SpywareBlaster – Home

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