Thursday 11 June 2009

Microsoft to unveil free anti-virus by year end

Microsoft Corporation is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc. A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that, Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, but declined to provide a specific date. The free service is code-named Morro after Brazil's Morro de Sao Paolo beach

Microsoft has said Morro, will offer basic features for fighting a wide range of viruses, which would likely make it comparable to low-end consumer products from Symantec and McAfee that cost about $40 per year. Their top-selling products are security suites that come up with features including encryption, password protection, firewalls, parental controls and data backup. Microsoft entered that market three years ago with Live OneCare, which turned out to be a commercial flop. It announced plans in November to kill that product suite, saying it would launch the free Morro service by the end of 2009. Microsoft has said it will provide protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

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