# Inexpensive virus checker

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexpensive-virus-checker/463940>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 17, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexpensive-virus-checker/463940 "2008-09-17T02:30:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 27

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inexpensive-virus-checker/463940/27 "2009-10-06T06:54:07Z")

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I’ve heard good things about Microsoft’s free Security Essentials. It’s available at [http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY\_ESSENTIALS/](http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY_ESSENTIALS/)

So long as you have a “Genuine” Windows installation, it’s free. I’m trying it out now on one of my virtual machines. Doesn’t appear to be a huge resource hog, and the installation was painless - took about five minutes to install, update itself and start a basic scan.

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