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Microsoft Free AntiVirus vs. Paid Competitor

Nov 14, 2010·Dustin

Estimated Reading Time: 1 min

Some people use the old adage, you get what you pay for. Well, in this case you might get more for less. Microsoft Security Essentials caught a few viruses that McAfee had missed. All files were verified as being malicious, and they were fairly older exploits. Why they were not added to the virus definition on McAfee is beyond me.

Only 17 of 43 antivirus products detected this as a threat. The full results page showed the identification, if any, for each product on the list. Microsoft, Symantec, Avast, and F-Secure were among the engines that flagged the file. But the majority didn’t. That means one of two things. Either the file was a false positive, and I was about to delete something harmless and perhaps even necessary. Or it was real, and most AV programs were missing it.

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#McAfee #MSE
Written by
Dustin · Founder and Head Editor, News Poster
Sr. Cybersecurity Engineer - Microsoft MVP Windows Experience (2014-2015)

Dustin is the founder and head editor of MSTechpages. He started the site to help other users of Windows. He has been very active with helping others throughout the years, from USENET to Microsoft Answers to the latest Microsoft Communities as well as other internet forums such as Reddit. He is a Sr. System Administrator, holds several industry certifications and degrees.

View all 1499 articles by Dustin →

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