Dittos what you said. I have four machines set up with MS Essentials, two with Win 7 and two with XP,and virus/malware free for 18 months.
My wife still runs XP on her computer. After I set up MS Security Essentials on my own computer, I set it up on hers, and it’s worked like a charm on both.
I’ve had my gripes with that company in the past, but I’ve got no complaints with that product. I give it high marks.