Microsoft Security Essentials wasn't able to check for virus & spyware definition updates. Virus & spyware definitions update failed I immediately installed it for the customer on Sep 30. Not wanting the bloated stuff, I dragged my feet until MSE was released. Lately I had to work with a customer who 'needs' AV software. Now that I have my own small business I finally have the satisfaction of banning AV software within my company. In the last few years of my working life I struggled with evading corporate requirements to have anti-virus software. All our computers are connected to the Internet all the time, and web browsing and emails are the major activities.
It's 10 years later and none of our computers have been infected, not even once. All our computers are running Microsoft Windows and none of them has AV software installed. So within my family you can find the full range of computer users. My wife uses the computer daily to check mail and browse the Internet but she belongs to the group of the most elementary and novice type of user you can find. My daughter started using Windows 95 at age 5 and went through the peak of virus mania circa post-2000. If you have problems updating the MSE anti-virus files due to a proxy server, you may want to skip the long story and jump to the last paragraph below.
