Sneak Peak: Microsoft Security Essentials Beta

The newly released Microsoft Security Essentials beta is a free, solid tool that protects from malware while using minimal system resources, and runs smoothly in the background.

This is a set it and forget it program that takes care of the basic problems but does not compete with the larger security software such as Panda, McAfee, or Symantec. You won't be able to find extras such as anti-spam, antiphishing, identity protection, and firewall technologies. However, Security Essentials uses its energy by protecting the user from rootkits, spyware, viruses, and the like, and I'm happy to report it does an impeccable job of doing so.

Those who have had a bad experience with the program's predecessor, Microsoft's Live OneCare, will be pleasantly greeted by Security Essentials. Compared to OneCare, Security Essentials does not suffer from bloated software and lagging performance. Security Essentials does not back up your PC, do performance tuning, or hog up resources on your system - best of all it does not cost you a dime.

Security Essentials is packaged with versions compatible with Vista and XP. Both versions are small downloads: The Vista 32-bit version comes at 4.8MB, and the Vista 64-bit version is 3.8MB, the XP version that only comes in 32-bits is 7.6MB.

The 32-bit Vista installation took a little under five minutes and was about as simple as possible. One issue is that you must have a validated version of Windows. Microsoft's software will recognize non-validated or pirated versions of Windows and the program will not run.

After the installation finishes, the program will download the most recent definitions for anti-malware. It follows up with a system scan that took just under ten minutes on my computer.

Security Essentials implements a new feature dubbed Dynamic Signature Service, which uses various techniques to scan for malware even before the specific malware signature has been found. Microsoft claims that Security Essentials copies behaviors of malware before they actually run, then uses this blueprint to look for any potentially suspicious actions or patterns of suspicious actions. This may include someone unexpectedly connecting to your network or trying to modify portions of Windows that are protected. Dynamic Signature Service will then plot out the best course of action to protect you against the potentially bad program.

Microsoft's Security Essentials, even during its beta stages, is a great success. It is very simple to run, uses few system resources, and is absolutely free.