It's going to be free and it will be available by the end of the year. The public beta should be out by June 23rd. Check out Paul Thurrott's article about it here to get the details.

Another thing I won't worry about http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

Available on Softpedia http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Mic...ssentials.shtml

@ Exile

Oh how awesome It's about time I would say Thanks for posting this! I'll share it with family and friends

@mountaintree: You're welcome

@YoKenny1: Thanks for posting the additional info

@ Exile

too bad it won't fully be out until the end of the year.

In your opinion, are betas generally buggy and have issues, or would they be fine to install? I want to tell all my friends and family about this, but I don't want to advise them to get something that might be buggy and then have them ask me what the heck they should do and of course I'd probably have no idea... heh.

Microsoft Security Essentials replaced Windows Defender on my systems and I set it to update and do a Quick scan Daily at 10:00am like I had Windows Defender do.

It is one of my Layered Protection tools.

@mountaintree: Since it's still in beta I wouldn't advise normal users install this yet. It's most likely fairly stable, but you never know and it's not worth the risk of someone having issues with their PC that they aren't prepared to deal with. As far as free AV's, I'd still recommend Avast or Avira over MS's Security Essentials anyway.

@YoKenny1: I hope MS doesn't discontinue Windows Defender after MSE goes final (I doubt it but you never know), because I wouldn't be comfortable with installing another kernel level AV engine on my system when I've already got Kaspersky on here.

@ Exile

Ah, thanks for your honest opinion on this

Oh definitely, I wouldn't think that this should be used in place of or instead of an AV. Do you know if it works with AV or is it supposed to just be by itself? I wouldn't want just this for protection, on my computer, I know that for sure!

It's designed to be a free alternative for those users who generally refuse to use an active AV because they don't want to pay for one or can't afford it (especially in what MS refers to as emerging markets). They're doing it not only to try to protect previously unprotected PC's, but also to help curb the spread of malware over the web because the fewer infected computers there are online, the less likely it is that others will be infected. This is especially true with regards to users of P2P software such as LimeWire and BitTorrent clients.

In my opinion there are better free alternatives available, but at least MS is doing something to help fight back against malware. Windows Defender was a big step in the right direction and originally (before Vista released) they wanted to make OneCare free (OneCare being MS's paid AV that Morro will replace) and have it preinstalled as part of the OS, which would be disabled if a different AV were installed but McAfee and Symantec (Norton) threatened lawsuit for violation of anti-trust regulations claiming it would harm their income (which I'm sure it would since they spend big bucks to have OEM's bundle trials of their AV's and they pay companies like Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and most other big name retailers to promote and sell their products).

@ Exile

It is quite a good idea then! I know what you mean about people refusing or being unable to buy AV. My friends mom basically refuses to buy AV... she bought it for me on that old laptop I told you about but after that she really hasn't. She's just had free AVG for the longest time on that computer, and only has McAfee because her ISP provides it. I honestly am not sure if my parents have ANYTHING, I think they have Norton but it may have run out. They are online A LOT, as I think I told you before, so I really need to get something on there for them, either paid or free, maybe Avira I was also thinking about purchasing MBAM for them

Blech, p2p. Evil word to me now I think, ha. I know what LimeWire is, but what is BitTorrent? Similar to LW?

I agree, I think that there are better free alts too, but I am glad too that MS is trying to fight back against malware and help its customers do so.

aw gee @ McAfee and Norton, lol I don't know much about OneCare, but it looks pretty awesome

Yeah, OneCare is what is being replaced by MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials). Bittorrent is a file sharing program but it works a bit differently.

@ Exile

Ah, okay.

I assume Bittorrent is illegal (or used for illegally sharing files, that is) and therefore is more often than not responsible for the spread of maliciously injected files?

You got it. Bittorrent itself is perfectly legal, but often the files downloaded are not, and are often modified by the bad guys to include malicious code like trojans and worms.

@ Exile

Oh, okay. So like LW, Bittorrent itself is legal, but mostly the files are not, and therefore are modified. Yech.

Isn't it ironic, people don't want to pay for things, so they turn to illegal copies, and then they get infected/infested with nasty stuff. Really really not worth it. Just buy the stuff legally, and there isn't any risk of malicious code. Of course, people will pirate stuff and download stuff illegally anyway. I wonder why the illegal stuff is full of this malicious stuff, just coz its illegal? I haven't heard anything yet of legal file downloads from these programs being injected with malicious codes, but I'm sure it happens.

I don't even wanna know what a certain friend of mines computer probably has on it. He's always downloading pirated movies, songs, etc.... I've told him so many times he shouldn't, because its illegal (didn't know at the time that they were infected more likely than not) but he doesn't listen.

The problem is that it's a popular way that unsuspecting users let unmanaged executable files onto their PC's from unknown sources. Most legit sites use checksums to determin if a file they're hosting has been modified.

@ Exile

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for explaining that to me. Makes sense now