Star MSE's First Week: 4 Million Detections on 0.5 Million Machines
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 17th Oct 2009 12:45 UTC
Windows A little over two weeks ago, Microsoft released Microsoft Security Essentials, a security software suite protecting users of Windows against malware and viruses. The company has released data about the number of downloads and fixed infections, and the results are encouraging.
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RE: The question then is...
by Phloptical on Sat 17th Oct 2009 13:55 UTC in reply to "The question then is..."
Phloptical
Member since:
2006-10-10

"despite the fact that it is by far the least obtrusive and invasive antivirus tool out there. The entire install package - not a downloader, but the entire package - is only 7MB, and takes up little to no system resources while doing its thing.


...if Microsoft can create a package that small which uses that few resources why can't the others? A skeptic may think that Microsoft is somehow holding back information that would allow these companies to create something as small that uses as few resources. "

It's Microsoft's OS, that's why. They had better be able to create the best, most accurate AV out there because they have the access to all the source. They can drill down to the lowest common denominator using programming calls, and functions that are hidden from the rest of the world.

Personally, I want MS to succeed at this. It's their holes, they should be the ones to fix them.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 8

Thom_Holwerda Member since:
2005-06-29

Let's hope OEMs ship this stuff. For all I care, Microsoft hands out big sacks of money to Dell, HP, etc. to ship MSE by default.

Edited 2009-10-17 14:00 UTC

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 3

RE[3]: The question then is...
by kragil on Sat 17th Oct 2009 16:06 in reply to "RE[2]: The question then is..."
kragil Member since:
2006-01-04

You are aware that those crapware scanner Dell et al ship atm do make them real money .. not the imaginary kind you are talking about.

It may not be in the customers interest, but we have to face reality here.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

sbenitezb Member since:
2005-07-22

That could mean the end of botnets and distributed spam delivering.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

PlatformAgnostic Member since:
2006-01-02

As far as I know (from talking with people who work on MSE several years ago), it's one of the few AV systems that does not use non-public APIs or unsupported hooking.

Most Microsoft software that ships outside of Windows does not use internal Windows APIs. There are tools that are run during the build process which enforce this restriction.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5

RE[2]: The question then is...
by AdamW on Sat 17th Oct 2009 18:07 in reply to "RE: The question then is..."
AdamW Member since:
2005-07-06

"They can drill down to the lowest common denominator using programming calls, and functions that are hidden from the rest of the world."

That's sort of exactly what he was saying was the problem.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 1

Phloptical Member since:
2006-10-10

"They can drill down to the lowest common denominator using programming calls, and functions that are hidden from the rest of the world."

That's sort of exactly what he was saying was the problem.


And my point was basically, "Yeah, so?" How is that a problem? I would expect them to release enough information for devs to code apps to work efficiently with the OS, and that's it. Maybe the AV companies get a little more, due to what they're end goal is, but at the end of the day, MS is protecting their investment.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2