Free anti-virus for Microsoft Windows 7

I've been assisting with and working with Windows 7 a bit lately. It's pretty good, they're really working to catch up with Ubuntu although there's a way to go yet.

On my little dual boot $400 netbook:

Windows 7

• boot to login prompt in 34 seconds


• login to desktop ready 11 seconds (a bit hard to say)


• Cold launch of Chrome 5 seconds


• Shutdown is 16 seconds

Ubuntu 10.04 (pre-release)

• boot to login prompt in 25 seconds


• login to desktop ready 12 seconds


• Cold launch of Chrome 5 seconds


• Shutdown is 5 seconds

Here's a chart I carved out of marble tablets to illustrate that (for real carving work, I use a Mac).

Smaller is better.

Installing Windows is scary, it warns the user about things a lot, presumably with good reason. Right out of the gate it warns you that you need virus protection and directs you to a web page with lots of options.

When I ask long-time Windows users about what anti-virus software they use the answers are either that their employer pays for a commercial solution or that they use AVG-Free.

It turns out that there is a free solution from Microsoft that does the job. Microsoft Security Essentials seems to be good.

Presumably to avoid accusations of anti-competitive behaviour, Microsoft rather down plays their own product and lets the other vendors have a good go at selling their products.

My view is that we shouldn't have to pay extra for something the operating system should take care of.

Has anyone noticed how many Macs you see at conferences these days? Here's a shot from a PyCon 2010 conference video:

I doubt any of them are running a virus scanner, let alone a free one.