Microsoft has officially unveiled its long-awaited consumer antivirus offering. Formerly code-named “Morro,” it’s now been christened Microsoft Security Essentials, and it will enter public beta testing next week. If you have a licensed copy of Windows XP , Windows Vista, or Windows 7, you’ll be able to download and install the software at no additional charge.
It will be available in 32- and 64-bit flavors, downloadable from the Microsoft Connect site. The test version is targeted at users in English-speaking countries, plus Brazil, Israel (and some time later this year), China (in simplified Chinese).
MSE will uninstall Windows Defender if it is present on a user’s PC, as MSE is a “superset” of Defender.
Microsoft plans to offer PC OEMs and system builders the option to bundle MSE on new PCs, but it isn’t expecting any of the big PC makers to jump, since they currently make money by preloading competing, paid offerings from third-party providers.
Read more at ZDNet.
MSE will be available for download starting at 9am PDT on Tuesday June 23rd in the US, Brazil, and Israel from Microsoft.
MSE is a 5MB download and doesn’t take too much resources. However, it will send data back to Microsoft. The Microsoft SpyNet membership is a part of Microsoft Security Essentials which can’t be disabled.
For a short review and current download links, go over to JCXP.
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