Since I installed Windows
7 RC a week or two ago, I haven't installed an anti-virus
application. In part because I am very careful what I run on my
machine, but also in part because I was keen to try the new Microsoft
Security Essentials Beta that was released today. So I filled
in the Connect survey,
downloaded an install MSE this morning. A few of my first
impressions:
- The installation was very quick, and the whole application was
only a 4.5mb download, was smaller than some other anti-virus
applications I've used before.
- A nice touch (that is very unusual in today's Interweb) is that
it didn't ask to install any junk - didn't want to add bookmarks in
my browser, change my default browser or search provider, install
extra toolbars - it just installed the anti-virus application. Nice
work!
- On a clean install of Windows 7 with the full Office 2007
suite, Visual Studio 2010, and some other apps, a Quick Scan took
7:12 minutes - not bad!
- All the default settings looked reasonable to me so I would be
happy to recommend it to Mother Kopp for example and know it won't
suck large amounts of CPU or RAM.
All in all, first 20 minutes have been a positive exercise, and
its nice to get one Important Message cleared from my
Action Centre. Now to clear up some space on my USB drive for a
full backup :)
