MSE didnt stop a Meredrop payload deploying on a user I help. It was a couple of months ago in the early days of Zeus2+3.

Drastic measures were called for since it was impossible to be sure what had been dropped or whether it had been detected.

Security software will never guarantee safety, the cops are always playing catch up with the robbers.

@Leon - Hate to piss on your bonfire mate, but gmbh means "Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung"... basically means the same as Ltd in the UK!

avtest is considered independent, and is pretty respectable.

Yes, GmbH owns av-test and Avira is a great product (and rates very highly on av-test... who would have guessed that?)

I think http://av-comparatives.org/ might be a better place to get reviews of AV products.

It is nice that Microsoft makes this "Security Essentials" available for free, but it would be even better if they would code their software using a bit of care so that so many security holes are not eagerly waiting to be exploited by malware.

So, making Security Essentials a free download -- for verified "genuine advantage" (TM) versions of Windows only -- is really the minimum level of required effort, given the continued vulnerability issues related to Windows use. Unfortunately, it only addresses around 90% of virus issues, and it only takes one virus to bring down your computer, network or steal your identity. A fly swatter can only swat so many flies. But there is always Linux...

Doesn't sound great to me. Linux does better than that from its basic design.