Microsoft is poised to start giving away security software.

The company is reportedly trialling free anti-virus software internally and said the beta version would be released "soon".

Called Morro, the software will tackle viruses but lack the broader range of utilities, such as parental locks, found in paid-for security suites.

Morro will be Microsoft's second venture in the highly competitive security market.

Microsoft's first attempt revolved around the Windows Live OneCare service that did not succeed in turning many customers away from rivals such as Symantec and McAfee.

Microsoft plans to discontinue Live OneCare once the Morro software is ready.

No specific date has been given for when Morro will be released, but in the past Microsoft has said it would be out by the end of 2009 at the latest.

Microsoft said Morro would tackle viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Janice Chaffin, Symantec's president of consumer products, said customers wanted more than just basic protection.

"A full internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected," she said.

Security software for home PCs typically cost around £30-40 and often allow users to install protections on more than one computer.

Other companies, such as AVG and Alwil already produce and distribute free anti-virus products.

In its latest update, Microsoft added code that detects and deletes the widespread Internet Antivirus Pro family of fake security software programs.

Such programs, also known as scareware, have been proving more popular with hi-tech criminals in recent months.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimated that there were 9,287 bogus anti-malware program in circulation in December 2008 - a rise of 225% since January 2008.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8095932.stm

In what I have saw, Microsoft needs to reflect on the fact that virus removal is the best they can do for users. Charging users for a fix for the OS they create is just redundant.

Hoping to get best product for security of their own created OS.

and its nice increment of detection and deletion of the widespread Internet Antivirus Pro family of fake security software programs.

cool...

Hopefully it will do what it says on the box when it's finally released, it's time Microsoft started help and supporting it's customer base rather than touching up an existing OS and re-releasing it in a new color. :cussing:

Windows 7 is now less technical and very easy to use. So easy, when I use it, I feel like I am not at home. I prefer Vista over 7 for the moment. I think I will go to 7, but Vista is just appealed to me better.

I have yet to get round to running Windows 7, i keep meaning to do it, i feel like I'm missing out but I always have other things that come up.

i have got to stick my 2p in here and say that i really like ms security esssentials i have been using it on my old pc for a couple of weeks now and have found it too be very resource light unlike some. (AVG which is now so bloated as to become useless IMHO).M$ seems as though it has thought this product through and it is so unintusive that i hardly notice it is running.

The thing that 99% of people forget is that the program is protecting against viruses, not giving you a nice little interface with some clicky buttons. They already announced it will be based on OneCare, which had THE lowest detection rates in the industry rating at around 88% where as avira was around 98.7% being ranked the second best antivirus available.

This antivirus will be the new norton, and the new mcafee. They are both terrible, but in their own way. MS Essentials will be terrible, not because it is so slow and makes the computer unusable, but instead because the detection rates will be no better that OneCare's... The reason being that if they aren't being paid then why put in an effort? Your average 50 year old wont notice that MS Essentials let an infection in, he will think that every other antivirus is the same.

And as for AVG, it was the best in terms of free antivirus... then Avast took it until Avira slowly but surely increased detection rates and improved its heuristics engine, and then by version 9 it included its anti-spyware module which is very powerful.

=)


EDIT: Very old post.