We have had some questions about Microsoft Security Essentials from clients and friends. At this time, we personally do not have enough experience with MSE to make a comment so we are sharing, verbatum, what Microsoft has to say and some of our research. There a many favorable reviews about this software on the internet -- we have not yet found any negative opinions. Also be aware that this software program has been reported from some sources as virus protection only and is not designed to replace complete Security Suites Packages such as available from McAfee and Symantec. If you use this product as a replacement for a full security suite, be sure you at least also activate the Windows Firewall and Windows Defender Programs along with Security Essentials. (There is some confusion on whether MSE will or will not replace Windows Defender but there seems to be no question that it does not have a firewall.) If you would like to read an independent review of Microsoft Security Essentials check out http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/mse.asp or just Bing/Google "Microsoft Security Essentials"

According to Microsoft:

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

Find information, definitions, and analyses of all the latest threats that Microsoft Security Essentials can help protect you against in the Microsoft Malware Protection Center

*Your PC must run genuine Windows to install Microsoft Security Essentials. Click here to learn more about "genuine"

To download Microsoft Security Essentials, click here.

Side Note: MSE will receive its updates through Windows Updates. If you do not turn on Windows Update, MSE updates will not happen. Also if you have set Windows Updates feature to notify you before downloading or installing, you may get frequent pop-ups to get your OK to download and install as MSE will look for new signatures 3-times per day every day.

Some of you may already be aware of the problems IE8 has displaying older websites. For example and reference http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949220 and http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/08/29/232075/internet-explorer-8-causes-problems-for-xp-users.htm.

KIS Solutions redesigned all of its websites (at no charge) to make them compliant with IE8. We got a little surprise when sites running fine in IE8 32-bit version were not running up to full expectations on IE8 64-Bit version. We found out that the 64-bit version is not up to the capabiities of the 32-bit version. For instance IE8 64-bit will not play flash sites (ours or anyone elses) because Adobe has refused to write a Flash player for the 64-bit version. There are other discrepancies but this specfic should illustrate the validity of our statement.

Our recomendation to our clients, customers and friends, stay away from Internet Explorer 8's 64-Bit version. We are very pleased, so far, with the 32-bit version now that we have completed our redesigns. (Also see our post on Vista 64-bit OS.)

Just our opinion but be aware that we find the Microsoft Office 2007 programs seem to run very slowly in the Window XP operating system on single processor PC with less than moderate RAM (around 1.0 GB ) You may want to hold off upgrading to MS Office 2007 until you are running a Vista operating system on a Vista qualified machine.

Just for information, we recently (last 6 months) purchased a new e-machines intel dual-core processor computer that had USB problems out-of-the-box. We felt that the tech support from e-machines was severely lacking. We ended up returning the machine to our supplier for refund. We also learned our supplier had decided to discontinue handling e-machine computers. We have also heard from some of our colleagues that they had similar experiences. Our recommendation, steer clear of e-machine computers.

Link: http://www.kis-solutions.com

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