Microsoft to release free security software soon

[Night Hawk]

September 21, 2009 7:07 AM PDT
Microsoft to release free security software soon



by Ina Fried



Microsoft plans to release the final version of its free antivirus software soon, according to a note sent to testers late Sunday.
"The final version of Microsoft Security Essentials will be released to the public in the coming weeks," Microsoft said in the note.

Microsoft first announced its plans for the product, then code-named Morro, last November, at the same time the company said it was scrapping its paid Windows Live OneCare product.
Public beta testing of Security Essentials started in June, with Microsoft reaching its goal of 75,000 testers just one day after it issued a call for them.

On a personal note, I've been using the product on several machines since June, and I like the way--unlike other antivirus programs--it doesn't make a spectacle of itself, just quietly doing its thing. I often forget it is running on a machine, yet it did save my bacon a couple weeks back when I almost caught Koobface from a friend on Facebook.
Originally posted at Beyond Binary

Microsoft to release free security software soon | Security - CNET News

 

[Lordbob75]

W00t.

Btw, your quote is messed up.

~Lordbob

 

[jfar]

Thanks for the read. Interesting.

 

[Adamd]

Cool. I am using it now!!!

 

[swarfega]

Has also been mentioned here.

 

[DeaconFrost]

MSE is definitely one of the better, if not best, free AV products I've ever used. It's been so good, that I doubt I'm renewing my NOD32 3-pack in January.

 

[Night Hawk]

W00t.

Btw, your quote is messed up.

~Lordbob

It takes practice! I forgot to put that in upper case. My bad! Cleaned that up!

Has also been mentioned here.

The title of the thread is different there as well as only mentioning receipt of a notification of the Microsoft Security Essentials without any mention of that being a new antivirus protection there. Just how effective it will be compared to other protections we have to wait to see how that goes there however.

 

[KazeNoKoe23]

Good news. Would be using it if I didn't have 8 months left on my NOD32 subscription, but I showed MSE to my roommate who's using Vista x64 and he loves it.

 

[Night Hawk]

I would keep your subscription for the time being there at least until the reviews are out where you can look over the comparisons. By then any updates will also be available.

 

[ThaiAm]

MSE is good software but not adequate on it's own. I was so impressed with it after loading it and doing a deep scan that caught a virus missed by Avast that I unloaded Avast and planned to only run MSE. I have been running that way since the first release of the Beta and just got a notification that Avast was now able to display the Windows 7 logo. So I decided to down load and install it. That part went smoothly and much to my surprise Avast found two trojans on my system. I now feel that I must run both Avast and MSE.

So much for blind faith.

 

[Lordbob75]

I have been using it for months now, and have not had ONE virus problem.

It is also very quiet, and gently reminds you when its time to scan/update and allows you to minimize it to the tray. I love it.

~Lordbob

 

[Night Hawk]

I wondering how that will turn out in the long run since the latest two builds of the AVG free editions include an IE security that automatically flags any site trying to put something like a trojan on the system! I simply no longer get any bugs when happening across any of those sites as well as the increased security seen in IE 8 itself.

Some time back before Vista came XP and IE 6 was nothing but a trojan circus where anything could get through that and you had to allow other protections to take up the slack there!

Sadly for you it seems Avast let you down quite a bit where the new MSE picked up that slack! That would be expected to see some updated malware code detection from the start there.