Microsoft Wants To Protect Your Computer For Free With Morro

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/article/167160/is_microsofts_morro_malware_in_disguise.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/article/1671...n_disguise.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Goodbye Windows Defender, hello Windows Security Essentials. The new antivirus and antimalware package that Microsoft's been working on for the past year is ready for its semi-official unveiling today. Eager malware-thwarters from the United States, Brazil, and Israel will get first dibs on the public beta of the free software, available for both 32- and 64-bit installations of Windows XP, Vista, and 7."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1245952923.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>It has been a long time coming, but it looks like Microsoft will finally be entering the anti-bad-stuff market in force.&nbsp; Morro has been released in beta to select markets and eventually it will be offered for free to all Windows users.&nbsp; Morro pretty much replaces Windows Live OneCare, which was a paid service that offered all manner of security tools to keep your computer safe.&nbsp; Like OneCare, Morro will protect your computer against viruses and malware, and tap into a large online database that is contributed to and used by other Morro users.&nbsp; I think it is great to see Microsoft stepping up to help protect their customers for no additional cost.&nbsp; Sure, one can argue that if Microsoft were that friendly, they would not develop software that would need protection, but having worked in the software industry in various ways, I know that just is not practical, if even possible.&nbsp; All operating systems are subject to exploits, and I consider it a very unfortunate reality that as customers, we have to keep our guard up to protect our computers.&nbsp; At least in this case, it will be free.</p>

[Jason Dunn]

Sounds good to me - free anti-virus and anti-spyware is a good thing. It won't make Norton, McAfee, etc. happy, but hey, they just have to make a better product.

[ptyork]

It won't make Norton, McAfee, etc. happy, but hey, they just have to make a better product.

It won't affect them too much, I don't think. Folks in the know either don't use A/V (too smart to do stupid things) or use one of the few free ones already on the market (AVG, Avast, etc.). It won't be marketed as the super, uber-bastion of safety that McAfee and Norton claim, and it won't even come close to offering enterprise-level controls required for most any company. Soooo, I see this biting into Avast and AVG and the like's free share, but not too much into the "big bloats."

[Rob Alexander]

Bummer! The beta is already closed.

[OKCrew]

I have been using the paid version, OneCare, for several years. Always got it for free after rebate anyway. Found it the least obtrusive and comprehensive for my use. I will be using this as well. Just loose a few features of OneCare that I didn't utilize much anyway.

[doogald]

I bought OneCare for my mother-in-law but she lives in a rural area and must use dial-up for internet, and OneCare (stupidly) did not suspend and restart a definition update if the connection was broken in the middle of a download, so she was almost never up to date (which it would keep complaining about, angering her.) Lets hope this new one is better, for the benefit of the few people who still cannot get broadband.

[Hooch Tan]

Sounds good to me - free anti-virus and anti-spyware is a good thing. It won't make Norton, McAfee, etc. happy, but hey, they just have to make a better product.

There are already numerous free products out as we all know, and Norton and McAfee still seem to make a considerable profit from consumer sales. I think part of it is the logic behind average consumers where they feel they need to go to the store to buy it.

Even that put aside, I agree that Norton and McAfee will need to make a better product, but the question is how. I'm figuring they'll just spend more money on marketing!