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I recently decided to see what life is like without Kaspersky Internet Security and have installed MSE. I'm concerned about receiving malware via SPAM etc. Does MSE scan emails and/or attachments? Is there anything else I can do (that is free) to minimise malware grief?

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As the answer in this thread on Microsoft answers states:

There's no need to scan email, only attachments and that is done by all modern antimalware programs as the files are written to the PC file system.

So as long as MSE scans attachments before they are saved or opened you should be as safe as you would be running any other virus scanner.

Another thing to do to protect yourself while reading e-mails is to view them as plain text (rather than HTML) and make sure your e-mail client doesn't execute any scripts that may be lurking in them.

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That's fair enough, but what about dodgy URLs (especially ones that look plausible to non-IT mortals)? Would something like OpenDNS or Google Public DNS (hopefully) cover this? – Umber Ferrule Mar 1 '10 at 13:36
@Umber - your browser should warn you if you are following dodgy links to known malware sites, but yes if OpenDNS blocks these then that might be the way to go. Not rendering the e-mail as HTML (as I mentioned) means that dodgy URLs will be exposed and not automatically followed. – ChrisF Mar 1 '10 at 13:41
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