![]() ![]() "Security Essentials offers only the basic protection," said Marx today in an interview. His company, which regularly evaluates Windows security software, gave Microsoft's program a zero score for the obviously-important "Protection" category in tests run in late 2013. In some cases, those vendors have committed to delivering new signatures for years, as Andreas Marx, the CEO of AV-Test told Computerworld earlier today.Īfter Microsoft's announcement, Marx cautioned Windows XP users against relying only on Security Essentials. Virtually every third-party antivirus vendor will continue to ship signatures to customers running Windows XP long after Microsoft pulls the patch plug. The decision to drop Security Essentials and more importantly, halt the delivery of new signatures - fingerprints, essentially, of newly-discovered malware that makes it possible for Microsoft's antivirus engine to detect and block those threats - was seen by some as an arm-twisting tactic that would leave users even more vulnerable to attack after patches were no longer shipped to quash vulnerabilities in the code. Microsoft will ship its final public security updates - patches for known vulnerabilities - in less than three months, ending nearly 13 years of support for the ultra-successful OS.īecause of that impending deadline, Microsoft has been urging customers to dump XP for a newer edition like Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Earlier this month, Microsoft added that it would discontinue downloads of Security Essentials for Windows XP on the same last-patch date facing the operating system. Last year, Microsoft was adamant, saying it would stop serving signatures to XP users of Security Essentials, the free consumer-grade AV program that launched in 2008, when the OS reached its end of life on April 8.
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