Microsoft Security Essentials doesn’t need a “wing man” AV, and it should not act as a wing man to another antivirus product.

Microsoft is telling users that its free security solutions offered for customers with genuine Windows platforms needs to fly solo on their computers.

Essentially, the Redmond company is recommending that Microsoft Security Essentially be installed alone on a Windows PC, and not in any combination with additional security offerings 

“A reader recently asked us if they need both Microsoft Security Essentials (free antivirus and antispyware software) and another security suite that requires a paid subscription service,” revealed Microsoft’s Marcelle Amelia.

 

“Microsoft Security Essentials is free software that helps protect against viruses, spyware, worms, and other malicious or unwanted software. Microsoft Security Essentials has already won awards and gotten great reviews from security experts. And it's free,” she explained.

“If you use Microsoft Security Essentials you don't need to install any other antivirus or antispyware software.”

It’s generally a very bad idea to attempt and combine various antivirus on the same computers.

Security solutions from different vendors are by no means designed to work in concert. Quite the opposite in fact, two AV products installed on the same PC will end up fighting each other for resources, delivering an extremely poor overall user experience.

“If you run more than one antivirus or antispyware program at once it might affect your computer's performance,” Amelia said.

“If you already have antivirus software and you want to install Microsoft Security Essentials, see Uninstalling existing antivirus or antispyware programs before installing Microsoft Security Essentials.”

Of course, that the same goes both ways. Users currently running MSE and looking to try another AV, should first make sure to remove the Redmond company’s free security solution.

MSE is not even set up to run in tandem with Windows Defender, which ships by default with every copy of Windows.

“Windows 7 and Windows Vista both come with antispyware software called Windows Defender. If you install Microsoft Security Essentials it will automatically disable (but not uninstall) Windows Defender. It does this so that you don't have two programs on your computer that are doing the same thing,” Amelia explained.

The software giant continues to offer Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 for free to users running Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP

At the same time, the company is developing and offering testers Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 Beta.

Microsoft Security Essentials for win7 / Vista 32bit is available for download here.