Finally, the new security suite from Microsoft

I've always been a lobbyist for free anti-virus software, AVG being my product of choice for the past 6 years. Now Microsoft has entered the free product fray with their newly released Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). Yes, it's free. It will check to see that you are running an authorized copy of Windows, but as long as you are, you're good to go.

There are some caveats based on the reviews I've read. Before you download and install this product, you are strongly encouraged to back up all of your personal files and documents, as MSE has been known to delete files it thinks are dangerous (infected) without asking permission or telling you where the files are being quarantined (if applicable).

That seems to be the biggest complaint about MSE. On the plus side, Microsoft claim to have created a product that is capable of embedding itself deep enough into Windows as to make it much easier to find and eliminate low level malware, doing this task supposedly better than the competition. If this proves to be true, it's going to be hard to argue against its value for the average Windows user.