According to OPSWAT, Microsoft’s free security solution Microsoft Security Essentials is most used antivirus worldwide. OPSWAT covered 43,000 computers around the globe for Q2 Antivirus Market Share Report and found 10.66% PCs are running Security Essentials.

Microsoft Security Essentials was initially launched in 2009 and downloaded 30 million times and still counting as per company statistics. Now its version 2.0 is available which was released at the end of 2010.

After Security Essentials, Avira Antivir Personal and AVAST Free Antivirus take second and third place with a share of 10.18% and 8.66% respectively.

In addition, OPSWAT explained about the popularity of MSE – “Microsoft’s gain from last quarter could be attributed to the distribution advantage that Microsoft Security Essentials holds due to the convenient installation through Windows Update and its smooth integration with the popular IE browser.”