Scanning Emails from Outlook 2007 using Microsoft Security Essential

[Poeter]

Hi, I recently purchased my new Sony Vaio laptop which is running Windows Vista in it. I am a new computer user so I don’t posses much knowledge about it. I have connected my laptop to Internet so that I can access my emails by using Microsoft Outlook 2007. For the security of my computer my friend suggested me to install Microsoft Security Essential. So I downloaded and installed it in my system. So I wanted to know whether Microsoft Security Essential scans inbound and outbound emails from Outlook 2007. Please help me.

[teenQ]

Microsoft Security Essentials is capable of scanning the data stored inside the Outlook PST storage files and has the ability to detect the attachments in your emails(if any) that are infected only after you receive those emails. I am not sure whether the Microsoft Security Essential is capable of scanning the inbound or the outbound emails, but the real time protection always lets you know about the treats as soon as the email is delivered in your hard drive. It will inform you about the treat whenever you try to open the attachment which holds that infection.

[Visala28]

I had used the Microsoft Security Essential long time back and I would like to inform you that it does not have the functionality to scan any of the inbound or the outbound emails. It will just check the email in your memory only when you try to open the attachment. This is probably the only drawback of using the Microsoft Security Essential. This is the only reason I have stopped using it. It would be so good if the Microsoft Security Essential was capable of scanning inbound and outbound emails as it also comes in real time.

[Poeter]

Thank you, guys for your useful posts. That was so kind of you guys to reply back to my thread so quickly and give me the exact answer that I wanted. So now as you guys said that Microsoft Security Essential is not capable of scanning the inbound and the outbound emails, so what should I do now? Is there any way by which I can perform the scanning of all the mails as well, so that I don’t end up getting some kind of malicious germ or virus in my system through mails. Your suggestions are always appreciated. So, please help me. Thanks in advance.

[Sabastiaan]

Emails are just like any other files in your system. No matter, whether you have read it or not, the email is stored on your hard drive. If any malicious files are attached to any email which is located on your hard drive, you anti-virus will detect it while it is performing scanning. The Anti-virus does not see whether the virus has arrived through email or file-sharing or through downloading, it will just detect it. So it is always recommended to keep the anti-virus updated to prevent the user from opening any files which has got infected with any malicious worm or virus. The virus gets executed when the user clicks on the infected file. And as you are using Microsoft Outlook 2007, I would personally recommend you to keep your system updated with the latest patches which Microsoft releases every now and then.

[addie]

The most important thing that I would like to emphasize on is that you should get a very good Antivirus for your computer. You can either go for the paid licensed version of Antivirus or you can get any good free antivirus that is available in the market. You can try Avast and AVG free antivirus, they are the best free antivirus software available in the market in present time. Always remember to perform complete system scanning after specific interval of time so that you will always be alerted when your system is attacked by viruses and germs. And don’t forget the most important thing after installing a antivirus in your system, keeping the antivirus updated. Just follow these few steps and your computer will function smoothly and efficiently for long period of time.