Free antivirus software from Microsoft

I never understood why Microsoft would leave the job of securing their OS to 3rd parties.  They recently made available a free antivirus program called Security Essentials. Not to be confused with their Defender program that has been out a while, and that only dealt with malware.   I had been using and recommending the free and capable Avast program but I am now migrating to Microsoft’s offering.  Not that I know it is better but I am hoping it is good and it is more convenient and integrates better than Avast.

Windows 7

I updated my work laptop from Vista Ultra to Windows 7 Ultra.  I downloaded the install from MSDN.  I first downloaded and tried upgrading to Windows 7 Pro but that  didn’t work and I got some very unfriendly messages when I tried running the Setup program (something about a DLL not being made for this version of the OS). Trying to boot from the CD  was  simply ignored.  I then tried with the Windows  7 Ultra image and it booted fine.

It took about 4 hours to upgrade.   So  far I like the performance and the look and  feel.  I couldn’t wait to leave Vista.  The only gripe so far is that they turned off the Quick Launch toolbar where all my shortcuts were and which I depend on.  Not cool at all.  They’ve reworked the taskbar and the ability to “pin” any program to it.  All that is fine and good and I’m sure I’ll like the new functionality, but that was really rude to not have a migration path for my quick launch shortcuts.  They could have very easily created a new toolbar containing my quick  launch items.  As it were I had to search and find out how to get my quick launch shortcuts back.