All the Makers of Windows Antivirus Software are about to have a Very Bad Day

Microsoft is not a quitter; when they come to market with a product, and it isn’t a hit, (think Microsoft Zune), they stick it out for the long haul, until they finally get it right. So why is it that their great hopes in OneCare, Microsoft’s proprietary Windows antivirus software, was alive and going ahead full steam one day, and just suddenly terminated the next? Microsoft was not even doing badly with OneCare to want to quit. Could it be that Microsoft only did this only because they changed their minds about making it a paid program to go up against Norton or Kaspersky? That they want want to give it away like Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer? Is Microsoft just making it a part of Windows itself and upending the plans of a dozen Windows antivirus software companies?

It is available to download for free now. If you think about it, Microsoft Security Essentials is one of the best out there, even if it is pretty basic. All the reviews put it right up there with the antivirus software majors McAfee or Norton or Kaspersky at catching viruses and other nasties. Sometimes it does the established players one better too - with no false positives either, what is more. And it doesn’t even bring your computer to a crawl when it is doing its scan, like those products do. Read More

People hate unnecessarily resource-hungry programs; think Outlook, or think any major Windows antivirus software weighed down with useless parental controls, alternative firewalls, and backup systems. Microsoft does not smuggle in bloatware with Security Essentials, because everything on the operating system comes from the company already anyway. The Snow Leopard on the Macintosh has a malware engine integrated right into the OS, and Security Essentials does enough of a job that you never have to look at a third-party product again. Security Essentials for Microsoft is available as a free download off their site.

Now why exactly is Microsoft doing all of this for free? One possible explanation could be the way Microsoft is moving quickly to take advantage of the cloud, just the way Google is. You keep hearing news like how Google Docs was just hacked into bymiscreants, and how Gmail went off the air for long time earlier this year. Perhaps Microsoft would like to hedge its risks before it steps out on the cloud, and feel safe that computers the world over will help protect Microsoft’s Cloud reputation. And Microsoft’s product has better root kit removal, and much higher scan speed too.

So does this mean that this is the end of the road for paid retail Windows antivirus software? It certainly looks like the beginning of the end for them.
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That's a good development.

Have been using this anti virus since 2013. Lord knows if it wasn't published like 10 years before then. Op.... I no know wetin to tell you