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Microsoft Security Essentials – hands on…

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It was in tech news today that Microsoft has let loose its new free security system to replace Windows Live OneCare. It’s been expected for release for quite a while but we didn’t know an exact date.

So, GEEK! decided to have a quick go with the new software and see whats up.

You can download it for free here, providing you have genuine Windows software. The download is under 5MB, so you don’t have to worry about a large download. Once it is downloaded and you run it, it will do a verification of genuine Windows software, and then it will install. Installation is remarkably quick, and before you know it the software will be downloading updates.

Surprisingly, this took a very long time. It took nearly 10 minutes for my mid-spec laptop (dual core, 2GB RAM) to download the relevant updates.

Once it had finished, I did a quick scan. This wasn’t too bad actually. I was quite pleased at how little resources this used. While it was scanning, my computer told me it was using about 7MB of RAM and very little CPU power so I was very impressed at how quietly it runs.

I also did a couple of hours of browsing around the software. I have to say it is extremely simple to use and navigate.

I’d like to see it become popular because I’ve always had my views that paid antivirus is a waste of time.

In my case, I won’t be keeping it because I like Comodo Personal Firewall a lot, but if you’re a novice computer user and you need a simple way to get protected, this might be for you. It will work on Windows XP, Vista and 7 and as long as you have genuine Windows software you can get it for free.

I have to say I like it, but I’m looking forward to seeing if it gains any form of popularity.

Convert your .ts PVR recordings to DVD format with ease!

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If you’ve got a PVR (personal video recorder – a device that records TV programmes), you’ve probably get a few recordings lying on the hard disk that you really don’t want to delete. But now you’re reaching the stage where you’re running out of hard disk space and sacrifices are going to have to be made.

Well have no fear, because I’ve found a nifty little program that will convert the videos from your PVR into a DVD format ready for burning to DVD.

If you have a USB connection from your hard disk PVR to your computer, you’ll be able to copy the contents of it to your computer. Hook up your USB cable to it, put it into the necessary USB mode, and see what’s on it.

If you find various .ts files, you’re in luck. Because there’s a free program available called HDTV2DVD which will rewrite your .ts files into MPEG files for DVD burning. Even better – it will even organise the files into VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS so all you have to do is burn the two folders to DVD and it’s done.

The only thing you have to be aware of is that when you use HDTV2DVD on long programmes (eg. films which are more that 1.5 hours), you are going to struggle to fit it onto a 4.7GB DVD. You might need to get a dual layer disk.

There is an “autofit” feature which will effectively shrink the video into a size that will fit onto DVD, but it can really pixelise the image.

The one bug in HDTV2DVD that really annoys me is that the percentage done calculator is totally screwed up. By the time my 2 hour film had go to the end of conversion, the percentage done calculator was edging on 1,000,000%.

Other than that, it’s a really handy piece of freeware. I can’t seem to find any other program that will do the same job for free, so this one is a definite must have if you have a PVR.

Try it out and see what you think.