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Security Essentials Screensaver – Scan While Your Screensaver Runs
What if a screensaver did something more functional than just show you pretty pictures? Security Essentials Screensaver does just that; when it turns on it initiates an update of Microsoft Security Essentials and then a scan. The screensaver is a small file that does not require an install and it has a freeware license.
Security Essentials Screensaver comes in two flavors: the original screensaver with a Security Essentials castle graphic and a cmd prompt that shows the progress of the update and scan and a no-graphics version that performs the update silently and does not show any graphic.
The computer has to of course have Security Essentials installed already to run the scan. This would be a good app to give clients because its simple and does what it says. Clients can use the extra security of having frequent scans and it is good for old computers because the scans will happen when it is idle rather than crippling an already lagging in-use machine.
The screensaver should work in Windows XP and up. The creator tested it on Win 7 x64 and considers it currently in beta.
Screenshots:
Downloads:
Download from Official Site – 1 MB
Thank you to AtYourService for recommending this one
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I hear a lot of good reviews about Microsoft Security Essentials but am still scared to rely on it.
Sort of like putting the cat to watch the milk.
Microsoft puts out code that is always only 80% finished, hence the updates and service packs.
Why should I rely on them with there past track record?
I am hoping that this will tick off a real discussion about this.
Jo
I’ve no doubt that the screen saver does it’s job, however I feel MSE is only suitable for Vista & 7. XP just seems more sluggish (with good system specs) when installed.
Interesting idea, though MSE allows for the “scan while not in use” setting, and I suspect that’s good enough for most without installing something else. Plus, for many installs I usually configure a display sleep mode rather than a screen saver, for power savings.
So far, I’ve used MSE to fix infected machines with fully updated/functional copies of McAfee, Norton, and AVG products. In some cases, they were infected so badly that the other AV products became disabled.
I’m not sure I understand the MS paranoia voiced above, since simply using a MS operating system would be inconsistent with that logic, especially if you put your personal information on it. Unless you’re a Mac user, then forgive my skepticism.
MSE has an excellent reputation, and I’ve used it extensively with good results so far. There are plenty of fairly convincing independent reviews.
I’ve found that MSE is far less demanding of system resources than some of the major “internet security” packages, and I tend to prefer it on XP machines in particular. I haven’t seen any benefit for the firewall portion of those suites, since the system is getting infected through user action at the browser 99% of the time anyway.
MSE or not, there’s not much you can do about an Admin account, IE, and a web page with malicious script.
good concept but one downside it wouldnt be verry energy efficiant if im not at the pc i want ti to be using less power and cycles not initiating a scan so i wouldnt use it but cool idea thoguh for maybe a office building
I’ve installed MSE on my cousins XP machine. Whenever I configure it to do automatic updates and scans it never does it for what ever reason. I’ve read reviews claiming its superiority but Have yet to see it…. probably its just good for scanning infected machines when Norton, McAfee, AVG, Avast etc, Can’t handle the task at hand but not being the main antivirus on a system. Panda cloud antivirus does a much better job in my experience…
I agree, MSE on XP machines seems to have issues. Updates sometimes take forever and sometimes MSE wont startup or starts up 2min after the system has booted. Maybe Avira for XP Machines?
On Vista and Win7 machines MSE is the way to go. Its unintrusive, fast, and catches a lot of baddies.
I find that MSE useful except at preventing tracking devices and this annoys me!