Microsoft Security Essentials ?

[Somnolent]

Anyone have any opinions on it's ability to detect malware, it's effect on system performance, conflict with any other AV software ?

Reason I'm asking is this...
Just packed #1 son off to uni for his1st year of M.Eng, with a new (but fairly low budget) Sony laptop.
Before he left we binned the trial copy of McAfee that was pre-installed and loaded up Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 2013.
We have various version of Kaspersky Internet Security running on every computer we own - with a good deal on a multi-user licence.
So far it's been great at keeping us protected so I saw no reason not to give the new machine the latest, greatest version.

His room in hall has wired network - and on first connection the laptop was scanned by the Uni's "security scanner" sofware... and failed as not having adequate protection.
It suggested downloading Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) instead.

First time he tried that there were dire warnings about un-installing all other AV software first, so he did that, but then the link to MSE was unavailable - apparently (not sure about this) because having "failed" once, the security scanner wouldnt let him back on at all.

So I had him re-install KIS 2013, and he found that he could get wi-fi Internet Access in the hall bar without going through the Security Scanner process.
He was then able to download MSE and install it after just pausing KIS protection (not uninstalling it).

This seemed to do the trick and he can now get online in his room - which is good because the bar is not exactly an ideal environment.
(unusual for an 18+ y.o. - but he don't drink !)

He has not yet unpaused KIS, but says the Internet connection on his machine is slow compared with other freshers, and thinks it may be because he has two different AVs installed.   He is wondering whether to un-install KIS again.

My Googling tells me MSE is not bad for free software, but not great either, and presumably not half as good as a pay one like KIS.
We don't know yet whether the initial problems are because Uni Security Scanner just hasnt caught up with the latest version of KIS and whether it might work fine with KIS 2012, nor do we know if once having passed the security scan, he would still be able to get online if he ditched MSE and unpaused KIS 2013
 
Unfortunately despite it being Freshers Week (which I recall as being somewhat "relaxed") the Engineering Dept seem to want their new students for a lot of teaching sessions already which gives him almost no time to take his machine along to the Help centre.    And all the teaching resources seem to be delivered online - so he doesn't want to take any risks losing his connection.

Can't promise he'll act on any advice we receive on here (he's not that un-typical an 18 y.o. !)  - but I'd certainly like to know what all you more expert folks think.
 

[TimC]

PC Advisor and PC Pro both found MSE to be OK, within its own self-imposed limitations, and certainly better than nothing. One or other of them recently found it to be better than full-fat McAfee, which got a dire review in the same group test! I use MSE on one or two low-value uncritical laptops, and have done so for some time, and have been very satisfied with the level of protection and the general hit-rate of picking up malware. It takes a little more intervention than the big payware Internet suites, but it's pretty good.

[rogerzilla]

McAfee and Norton are both teh suX0r.  I am highly sceptical of all AV products but MSE seems to have a fairly small footprint and isn't nagware like AVG has become.

[Somnolent]

McAfee and Norton are not in the running... although I am higorant of the meaning of "teh suX0r".

I was told, some time ago, that both were very hungry of system resources, and that Kaspersky was better at that time.   Of course things could have moved on since...

But the one time I came, apparently, under attack (in a slightly less than "international class" hotel in China) Kaspersky seemed very quick to detect and shut down every port the hacker was trying.   So I've stuck with it, and stump up for a multi-user licence that covers every computer in the household - and there are quite a few !

[tom_e]

I think it's most likely that you just need to configure Kaspersky in a slightly different way, probably close off a few ports.  It is unlikely that the University scanner is attempting to detect a particular version of antivirus, more that it does a few standard tests for either common risks or specific vulnerabilities.  If you can talk to the right people or read the relevant helpful webpages you might hopefully even find instructions for configuring Kaspersky to suit.

My own experience is that Kaspersky appears good, but is a bit of a slowdown.  Combined with Vista <spits>, it rendered a PC verging on unusable.  I took it off, but that was at home behind a router, with me at the keyboard.  If I was sending someone I thought less clueful into a high-threat environment like a university network, I would be inclined to keep it.

I should keep Kaspersky disabled and MS on until you can find the information from an authoritative source on what bits they want configured to pass the test.