14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Security Essentials, often described as the baseline of anti-virus protection in security tests worldwide, has received a brand new preview version this morning, so those who cannot wait for the next stable release can give a shot to this fresh build right now.
While it’s not really recommended to download and install testing builds of anti-virus software on your computer, Microsoft Security Essentials 4.6.302.0 Pre-Release should work smoothly on all supported Windows versions.
A number of bugs and performance issues could also be found, but that’s why the app is still in the pre-release stage, so reporting them to Microsoft is the thing you should do in order to make sure that everything is corrected before the stable build comes out.
Microsoft itself has explained that it expects every user who installs this preview version of the anti-virus to report bugs to the company, as it’s essential for the overall stability of the final product to do that and collaborate with software developers for a much better anti-virus solution.
“As a Microsoft Security Essentials Prerelease user, you will have the opportunity to explore and test new builds of Microsoft Security Essentials before they are publically available and provide feedback to Microsoft. Your feedback helps Microsoft to make its software and services the best that they can be,” the company says.
“As a Microsoft Security Essentials Prerelease user, Microsoft Security Essentials updates will automatically be installed on your computer through Microsoft Updates. To help us improve the software, you will be enrolled in the Microsoft Error Reporting, Customer Experience Improvement Program, and Microsoft Active Protection Service.”
This pre-release version of Security Essentials no longer works on Windows XP, so only those on Windows 7 and Windows Vista are allowed to install it.
At this point, it’s not yet clear what exactly it brings new as compared to the previous builds, but expect this version to include stability and performance improvements that would lead to enhanced reliability on the aforementioned Windows versions.
Windows 8 features the updated version of Security Essentials called Windows Defender, which is installed and enabled by default on all builds of the operating system. Once a third-party anti-virus solution is deployed on Windows 8, Windows Defender is automatically disabled, but never uninstalled, as it’s automatically re-enabled once third-party protection is removed.
In the meantime, this preview version of Microsoft’s anti-virus is up for grabs for everyone, so go ahead and download Security Essentials 4.6.302.0 Pre-Release to see what it brings new.