Secunia, anyone?
 

Anyone know if this is okay. I'm one of those that just uses MS Essentials, and leaves it at that.

http://secunia.SAFETY BREAKcom/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

Hi Loose rivets,
I've used Secunia PSI now for about a year, on an XP machine and a Windows7 64bit laptop. It's good at keeping software up to date. On occasion you have to manually update sofware if Secunia is unable to do it automatically (most of the time it does though)
I don't know what that link is in your post, but I also use microsoft Security Essentials and am very happy with it's protection for viruses and spyware.

Secunia's software is safe. They're a legit company

Nothing to do with antivirus protection though - their software exists to point out vulnerabilities due to out of date / unpatched programs

Only downside is that it can be a bit of a nag, and a resource hog on machines with limited RAM

Sounds good. Thanks.

I was a bit worried because my professor son spends so much time at home working, and the thought of him loading summit norty is erm, worrying.

just a footnote
the Secunia software can be run in two modes, from memory "standard" and "advanced". The distinction at face value seems unclear, but the simple reality is
"standard" tells you which patches and updates have not been installed
"advanced" tells you which known vulnerabilities have not been fixed irrespective of whether a patch or update is available .
So in advanced mode, Internet Explorer will ALWAYS show a problem....