How do I set Microsoft Security Essentials to always ask before taking any action?

Question

How do I set the antivirus known as Microsoft Security Essentials to always ask before taking any action?

I'm paranoid after dealing with Norton's ridiculous false positive rate. I don't need any AV but corporate policy requires me to have one.

Answer 1

I've used Security Essentials over the past 2-3 years now and its been pretty stable and solid. To date no false positives and it hasn't missed anything.

Two things to note:

1. You should ALWAYS have an anti-virus product installed of some sort. I don't care if you use Mac, Windows or some *nix variant. Computers are meant to break and not having AV, especially a good free client is just asking for it.

2. By default MSSE does not remove anything without asking you first. It will however quarantine the file instantly if it matches a definition however it will never remove the file unless you tell it to. There may be some per-version settings for how long to keep a file in the quarantine bucket but its pretty good at alerting you to the fact that something is up.

Overall I've found MSSE to be a set it and leave it kind of program. Like DJ Pon3 mentions its certainly not the most robust system and if this is a corporate laptop or being using for business and your company has a policy on AV they should provide you with an AV client/license or a computer to use that meets their policies.