She also directed me to others who were able to confirm my understanding of the entire situation.Īt the top of my list of concerns was simply whether people currently using MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender 1) should be concerned – is Microsoft committed to making sure that consumers who choose to use MSE are safe and will remain so in the future?

I managed to contact Holly Stewart, the person quoted in the original article, who pointed me at some recently posted official clarification. Should people using MSE today be concerned? I went to the source and contacted Microsoft directly for clarification. But even I know that just repeating and embellishing what others are saying about what others are saying isn’t the right way to approach something like this. Now, I don’t call myself a “journalist” – I’m just a geek with a voice on the web trying to help people use their computers. As the story was repeated, even more speculation was added and assumptions were made. Worse, the repetition included not only a couple of quotes without full context from a Microsoft spokesperson and also additional speculation by the author of that original piece. I’m also not changing what I use myself, which is MSE.Īs it turns out, the majority of the “journalism” on the topic over the past couple of weeks has simply been repeating a single source of information. Microsoft Security Essentials remains my recommendation for most people. To put it a different way, I’m not changing my recommendation. If you’ve been happy with it, you’re perfectly welcome to keep on using it as you have in the past.

Should i run windows defender and avast