Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 beta
Since its first release back in September 2009 Microsoft Security Essentials has given those who hadn’t got Anti-Virus or didn’t want to pay for Anti-Virus, the chance to protect themselves from the nasty’s of the internet, the program itself is quick to download, easy to install and very easy to use, it was never ground breaking or feature rich, but certainly filled a gap in the market, the free market.
Many people since its release have been calling for the program to have the ability to be able to be installed on Windows Home Server, after 10 months since first release Microsoft have announced version 2.0 due for release around the end of September 2010, this next version does now have the ability to be installed on Windows Home Server v1.0 and Windows Home Server Vail v2.0.
There has been much discussion on the web as to whether Microsoft will with draw support for Windows Home Server during the final release, that at the moment remains to be seen but this has certainly been a big talking point, Microsoft have sought to clarify the situation:
“Installing Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) Beta on Windows Home Server is not supported at this time. As MSE is in Beta, the Windows Home Server team is in the process of ensuring the use of MSE with Windows Home Server will meet customer expectations. We will release a statement of support once the validation is complete, when we are confident that this combination will meet customer expectations.”
We clearly know that this product can be installed on WHS, but officially for now at least it seems Microsoft will not confirming this until the WHS team has authorized the product for use on WHS, this doesn’t mean you can’t install until then, this just means you would do it without Microsoft’s backing and that means if anything goes wrong you’re on your own, my advice for now would be try it only in a test environment.
You can get the beta release by going to http://connect.microsoft.com/securityessentials where you will be able to download the program and see the release notes and install instructions.
The program itself has changed very little since the last version, so much so that other than the color scheme I think you would be very hard pushed to find a difference. It would seem that all of the new features have been in the background:
What’s New in the Microsoft Security Essentials beta?
This Beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials includes these new features and enhancements to better help protect your computer from threats:
- Windows® Firewall integration: Microsoft Security Essentials setup allows you to turn on Windows Firewall.
- Enhanced protection from web-based threats: Microsoft Security Essentials has enhanced integration with Internet Explorer® which helps prevent malicious scripts from running and provides improved protection against web based attacks.
- New and improved protection engine: The updated engine offers enhanced detection and clean-up capabilities and better performance.
I have included all screenshots of the program installer and the interface below and I will be doing a full review of the final program once it has been released.
Written by
Matthew Glover
www.matthewglover.co.uk
www.lpower.co.uk | Quality Laptop Batteries, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee, 12 Month Warranty.
Share this WHS Article with Others:
Sadly, MSE beta is NOT stable for WHS yet. I have 2 WHS machines. One is an HP MSS (Celeron D) and the other is a home built using an Athlon 64 box I had.
I installed on both machines at the same time. Installed fine on both and operated smoothly for 5 days on both. Day 6, the HPMSS became unresponsive. Home built WHS is still going fine with MSE on it.
The HP box would boot fine and I know would get into WHS as it would register through my Hamachi network. However, it would not allow ANY access either through Hamachi, RDP, or through the Network locally.
Troubleshooted with HP’s WHS support (which was phenomenal BTW) and end conclussion was that something with MSE and the firewall must not have been cooperating. Had to do an image restore of the OS in order to resolve.
MSE is still working fine on my home built WHS box so far.
MSE is not only not supported on WHS, but if you dont add exceptions paths once you install it then you may have problems like Dave had.
Best thing with this sort of software (ie antyhing that is security related or antivirus/antispyware) is to wait until a fully supported version is available.
Just because it does install, doesnt mean its a good idea to install it!
Andrew
Thanks for your comments Andrew as I mentioned in the article MSE installs without any issue on WHS, it just hasn’t gone through final ratification from the WHS team. The reason why people are getting problems is because this is beta software which means it will have bugs. I have clearly stated in my article that using this software on anything other than a test environment is nothing short of stupid.
Andrew you are right when you say *”Just because it does install, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to install it!”* the only thing I would add to that is this software is in beta, Microsoft need real world feedback in order for the product to have most bugs removed before launch, I say install this software but be careful with your data, install only in a test environment.
If you do install on a production machine and it does go horribly wrong, you only have yourself to blame.
Thanks Matthew
Just wanted to reiterate what you were saying about being careful 🙂
unfortunately a lot of people assume that because its Microsoft it will work, and work flawlessly.
I love your last comment 🙂 And couldnt agree more!
Andrew
Believe me, I agree with everything said. In the end, I simply use that HP box as a backup server for the computers in my small office so I figured even if something did go wrong, there was nothing mission critical.