How to use Microsoft Security Essentials

Posted by on Jul 23, 2010 in Blog | Comments Off

Think you have a virus? Or just want to be safe? Microsoft Security Essentials is now the best free Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware solution available. It proves that just because you pay for a Security Solution, it doesn’t mean you have the best protection. It’s easy to use, reliable, and best of all free. Microsoft has finally realized that their OS is vulnerable, and has created MSE to compensate for their users having to pay for Anti-Virus software. Whenever we fix a computer, we always ask the client if they want to switch over to Microsoft Security Essentials from their current Security Software. Feel free to give us a call or drop us an email if you have any questions.

If you have a different Anti-Virus solution and want to switch over to Microsoft Security Essentials, you should do the following:

  1. Open up the Control Panel and go to Add/Remove Programs (in Windows 7 it’s “Uninstall a program”)
  2. Select your current Anti-Virus and press the Uninstall/Change button.
  3. Follow the prompts to completely uninstall it.
  4. For added precaution, go to your current Anti-Virus’ company website and download their Removal Tool, and run it after step 3.
  5. Restart your computer
  6. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ to download MSE
  7. When it’s done downloading open the install file and follow the prompts to install
  8. Once it’s done installing restart your computer

How to Run a Virus Scan

  1. Double-click the Microsoft Security Essentials icon on your desktop, or go to the Start Menu and press the Microsoft Security Essentials icon.

    2. How to Scan for Viruses - Opening Antivirus MSE

  2. When the MSE window pops up, go to the Update tab at the top. Then press the Update button. This ensures that you have protection for the newest threats. This is a good habit to get into before scanning with any Anti-Malware application.

    3. How to Scan for Viruses - Running updates in MSE Anti Virus

  3. Once the updates are done, go back to the Home tab at the top of the window, and select the type of scan you wish to run. Quick scans are less thorough, however full scans can take more than an hour. If you want to scan a specific folder you can use a custom scan. Once you choose what kind of scan you want, press the Scan button.

    4. How to scan for Viruses - Running scans in MSE

  4. You should try to leave your computer alone for a while while it scans, although using an Internet Browser or a Word Processor isn’t going to make your scan faulty. Once it is done scanning it will tell you if it has found malware. Remove the malware and restart your computer. DONE!