Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology.

It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple. Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

It automatically checks for and downloads the virus definitions from Microsoft Update.

Microsoft Security Essentials disables detected threats and prompts for user input on how to deal with them. If no response is received within ten minutes, suspected threats are handled according to the default actions defined in the application's settings. Depending on those settings, it may also create System Restore checkpoints before removing the detected malware. As a part of real-time protection, by default, it reports all suspicious behaviors of monitored programs to Microsoft Active Protection Service. If the report matches a newly discovered malware threat with an unreleased virus definition, the new definition is downloaded to remove the threat.

Microsoft Security Essentials is available in many locales and languages. If it is not available in your preferred language, you can install it in any of the other languages.