Microsoft Security Essentials could be an essential antivirus tool
We’ve known about Microsoft’s plans to release a free antivirus tool form some time now, and last week saw the first screenshots of the software leak on the Internet. Now, Microsoft has officially taken the wraps off its replacement for Windows Live OneCare, with a beta version of the now-titled Microsoft Security Essentials, is coming on June 23.
It was last November that Microsoft announced the phasing out of its subscription-based Windows Live OneCare security suite and its replacement by a free alternative. Codenamed Morro for a long time, the new, free antivirus software has now been confirmed as on its way as Microsoft Security Essentials.
A beta version of MSE, designed for testing and ironing out any bugs, is to be made available for download on June 23 in the United States, Brazil, and Israel. Other countries will then be given the privilege of road testing the software later in the year.
MSE isn’t being marketed as an all-singing, all-dancing security suite which will make your system completely safe and hassle-free. Instead, Microsoft is promising a lightweight and compact antivirus tool which will offer protection from viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans without having an impact on the speed of your system. Which is, let’s face it, what most of us want and need. Especially if it’s free.
This is a good move by Microsoft because there are a huge number of people out there who still haven’t secured their system. With most newly sold PCs coming with some form of trial version of a security suite, many people leave their systems vulnerable as soon as this period is up, even though there are already a number of solid and reliable free tools on the market.
Hopefully, with this antivirus tool bearing the Microsoft name and being easily obtainable, some of these people will finally realize the need to take basic steps to protect themselves and their computers. And if they don’t then at least Microsoft knows it has done everything in its power to help.
No news yet on when the final version of MSE will be released, but it’s likely to be at or around the same time as Windows 7. However, due to the danger of antitrust complications, especially where the EU is concerned, it will not be bundled with the new operating system, despite being part of the ‘Essentials’ brand.
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June 22nd, 2009
Haaaaaa
I am way olde enough and mean enough to comment upon 2 things:
1. Microsoft’s perpetually buggy and easy to hack software – and by hack I mean write nasty programs for; and
2. I have gotten old enough to both use and forget a number of Microsofts grand plans along these lines in the past – which considering the companies they took over, the products they came out with and the ongoing investments in – and the abilites to provide any real security – summarially amounted to generally worthless products that consistently came to almost nothing.
And 3…My enthusiasm about anything much to do with Microsoft is generally the best incentive I have had change from the insanely crazy corporate mindset and it’s products – to Linux and more specifically – Ubuntu.
Brilliant stuff.
Best move ever made.
June 24th, 2009
@ Jahm Mitt
Sure, Microsoft products aren’t the best a lot of the time. Sure they can be easy to hack. But let’s give Morro a chance – for those people who have no idea about internet security, it will at least do something to help them out. To truly protect a system, you need quite a selection of programs, but the truth of the matter is that the average user is not truly aware of the dangers of viruses/spyware/hacking, and won’t trust AVG/Aviva etc., which is a sad truth.
Sure, it is all well and good to say you use Linux. Good for you, well done, congratulations. So do many others. But we aren’t the people who Morro is targeted at. Morro won’t change the world, but it will help a little. Unfortunately, most people don’t know of or understand the world of Linux, they only know Microsoft and their ‘corporate mindset’, and we have to accept that. Its a fact of life – get over it.
Morro won’t be a world beater, but it should make some people’s computers at least a little more secure.