I don't know.....I've had MSE for quite awhile now and it has worked for me. I used to have an app that would scan your system and inform you when some programs had updates available. I thought it a bit redundant because I get email notifications when updates are available. So after I uninstalled it it left a piece of itself behind called PSI. After awhile my system became sluggish, apps wouldn't open like they normally did and it was a real pain in the butt. I checked ASC and it said PSI was slowing my system down. I got rid of it and immediately MSE pops up with an even dozen Trojans that were hidden. Nothing while PSI was there but after...Bang! It automatically quarantined them and I deleted them. My system then went back to normal so....I'm keeping MSE. Maybe it doesn't do right by others but by me it does.

I used MSE on my main computer. Twice in 2012 it allowed the Sirefef virus to infect the machine. If I recall correctly it was Sirefef.M and Sirefef.R. 

Sirefef completely disabled MSE, as well as deleting my restore points, barring my ability to access components of the Control Panel, inhibited my ability to boot to Safe Mode with Networking, disabling the Start/Shutdown, barring RUN commands and on and on.  

In both cases, after mucking around for hours, I installed a new hard drive for my OS. MS has updated their threat info to include better removal tools and instructions on reinstalling the disabled OS components.            

Sirefef is the only threat that MSE ever encountered on my computer. It failed to prevent its entry, it failed to report its presence until too late and it then succumbed to its cunning wiles, taking key components of the OS with it.     

In my case, my expectation for protection exceeded the ability of MSE to deliver. What is hard for me to know is if my expectation for protection was reasonable, as I am not the only person to have Sirefef breach their supposed security.     

I have used MSE, and only MSE, since day one and will continue to use it.  I have never had a virus or trojan or anything else infect my system. People might want to reconsider their browsing practices.

There's no arguing with that. Since installing ASC Pro there's this little green circle with a check mark in it that shows up on every site I visit. It goes red...I run like hell! As for MSE.....it has saved my lappy on several occassions despite that thing with PSI. So in reconsidering.....I'm gonna keep it.

Legit sites are unwitting vectors all too often these days, especially Facebook, which, in my experience, every employee with a keyboard and monitor believes they are required to be logged in to while at work.  They must think a law was passed preventing employers from setting rules for computer use.

Being a former computer/network technician myself Ross, I hear what you're saying! The average person is ignorant of the hazards of the Internet, and yes myfist0, unless it is part of your job all access to the Internet should be blocked from the work environment. Employers should not have to pay their employees for screwing off and possibly damaging their systems and/or network in the process.

I agree with you.  I run IE9 in protected mode and I don't click on links in emails and I never respond to phishing emails.  If I am surfing the web I also use a limited user account and never an admin account.

When web surfing in the above manner MSE found a Java hack and browser hijacker in the ie5 temp folder and removed them.  They never got activated because MSE found them and removed them as the intial temp file landed.

I have never had a virus take control of my machine in 2 straight years.

This theory is circulating ever since the WWW became popular.

I dont believe it.

Why?

They are companies. And what does any company have? It has employees. And like the way it is in life some employees may leave the company on less than friendly terms. In which case they may feel inclined to take revenge, one way or another.

Now, if you are an AV company and you were creating viruses yourself, in time you would be caught, putting you out of business permanently and in several countrys actually risking a prison sentence for the people responsible. 

The truth is that some people actually just enjoy to destroy others computers.

Now, nowadays this antisocial behavior has an economic side to it. The good news is, most viruses dont format your hard drive anymore. The bad news is, sometimes you wish it had, because they are a damm pain to remove.

Thanks moshi. That'll come in handy.