Microsoft Forefront Client Security offers the end user several techniques to to help keep malware from infecting your PC.

Scanning your PC and scheduling scans can be set up to automatically remove malware found on your PC. You can set these settings up or even launch a manual scan if you think you're PC is slowing down or presents suspicious behavior.

You can launch a quick scan, which checks the most likely places that malware can live. In addition to quick scans, you can select specific directories to scan. If any malware is found, the software will check and run a quick scan to see if any related code is in their 'usual place'.

The full scan usually takes up many resources and slows down your PC, so scheduled full scans during idle time is best.

You can also get real time protection and alerts when the malware is running, or tries to install itself on your PC, or even changes some Windows settings that it typically should not.

Another interesting feature is how the end users use the software. This can actually dictate if the sofware is safe or not, even if it has no risks. In this case, the community members of SpyNet report if they are allowing the software to run on their PCs. Based on their input, you may decide to do the same!

Windows Automatic Updates works hand in hand with Client Security to install the latest definitions, automatically. It is very important that your PC be equipped with the latest definitions, because they provide the listing of potential software threats/malware that you might be exposed to. Without the definitions, foreign software might look safe when it's really not.

If malware has been detected, you can review the threat and apply the recommended action. In addition you can choose Smart Clean, remove, quarantine, clean, ignore, or allow the item.

Below is an image of a quarantined threat:

Smart Clean manages detected malware and applies the default actions on threats found. If they fail, Client Security applies the next recommended action. Alternatively the administrator may also remove the threat manually. This feature also removes detected malware that do not have recommended actions associated to them.

All in all, this is a great set-it-and-forget-it software that does not get in your way, unless you decide to run a manual full scan.