MSE detects Adware, Spyware, Malware and virii.
Just yesterday it caught a trojan.
I mean seriously, what OS gets targetted and attacked more than any other? Microsoft know this, hence why MSE was written.
It gets updated more often that any other AV simply because Microsoft hear about the virii first. It's also completely and totally free without clause or annoyance.
For example with Avast ! I would get a nag EVERY DAY at least twice to update to the new version with the stupid woman voice. At one point I got so sick of it coming up in the bottom right corner that I updated it, and the updated one simply didn't work for me. So I put the older one back on and then it pestered me every day to upgrade. This wouldn't have been so annoying but when in game it would bleed through the game itself and or cause the game to crash. That's not exactly stealth. MSE waits for a more appropriate time to tell you about it.
You've then got to register for a serial every year, which again is no problem but it does mean the software doesn't come without clause.
The only pain with MSE (and I emphasise only ) is that it can not be disabled at all. However, it's also not a resource pig so it doesn't really matter.
So yes, both are free. TBH both are as good as eachother (even though Avast ! carries another bug that doesn't auto update so you have to keep remembering to download the definitions yourself, where as MSE brings up the program window from time to time to remind you) but as I said before MSE is a lot more stealthy and out of your face. Even if you disable the sounds from Avast ! it still bleeds a box through your game.
Strange. When I installed Avast! on my brother's computer, I set it up to update automatically without asking him to and I even turned off the alerts that it did so it wouldn't annoy him (I only kept virus alerts on). I guess there must have been an update recently that caused a glitch or something...
I mean, he hasn't complained once about the AV getting on his nerves or whatnot.
Again, I'm not saying MSE is complete and utter crap. I'm just saying that I'd recommend Avast! over MSE for most people, as it seems to have a bit more "power" in the prevention features than compared to MSE. For instance, Avast! has a P2P shield, which is very useful for those who use .torrent clients (like my brother). MSE does not. I'd also recommend Avast! more to the advanced users as well, as they can fully customize their protection levels, what file types/signatures to scan/skip, and a slew of other features. MSE is more for people who just want to download it, install it, and forget it.
It's entirely up to the user on what they want, and if they'd rather have MSE, then I have absolutely no problem with that. I won't rag on them and say that it's crap, because it's not. It's among the top 3 in my list for free AVs, so yeah. I don't have anything against it.
The only free AV I really don't like is AVG, because despite it's popularity, it is complete crap compared to MSE, Avira, and Avast!. And anyone who is using that should just go ahead and shoot themselves in the foot, because that's basically what they're doing.
