Wednesday, November 19th 2008
Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software for Free From Next Year
Software giant Microsoft might offer a free anti-virus software next year, the company said on Tuesday. Code-named "Morro," this streamlined solution will be available in the second half of 2009 and will provide comprehensive protection from malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. This new solution, to be offered at no charge to consumers, will be architected for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs.
"Customers around the world have told us that they need comprehensive, ongoing protection from new and existing threats, and we take that concern seriously," said Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management for the Online Services and Windows Division at Microsoft. "This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware."
When released, "Morro" will be available as a stand-alone download and offer malware protection for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.
With the arrival of "Morro", Microsoft will also discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription service.
Source:
Microsoft
"Customers around the world have told us that they need comprehensive, ongoing protection from new and existing threats, and we take that concern seriously," said Amy Barzdukas, senior director of product management for the Online Services and Windows Division at Microsoft. "This new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware."
When released, "Morro" will be available as a stand-alone download and offer malware protection for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.
With the arrival of "Morro", Microsoft will also discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription service.
19 Comments on Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software for Free From Next Year
BUT, guess what, the EU commission will be all over them. Just like with internet explorer coming free with windows. EU said it was unfair competition. Let's hope the EU can be silenced.
ONE MORE THING PLEASE MICROSOFT. Why oh why dont you improve defragmentation tools, esp. smart placement, and also REGISTRY DEFRAGMENTATION. That's what we would all love to have; optimised systems. :pimp:
Personally, I think it is long over due. No one is in a better position to counter a virus than the operating system manufacturer. Microsoft should have made their own back when Symantec and McAfee exploited the growing market. Why they waited so long to fix their botched product is beyond me but, I guess it did create a new industry.
if anyones gonna complain its the guys from Trend Micro (Pc-Cillin) who are a SMALL company just like McAfee but have a bigger market share as well as being adopted by many corporate consumers.
the dudes from Kaspersky & the guys at ESET (NoD32)
On Reg defragging, that actually does help but as was said the gains are nominal. Memory defragging is a sham if you ask me. I dont see how your memory can get fragged :p
Under NTFS, any modification of a registry key will cause registry fragmentation. Leave that for months and the registry hives can be in literally thousands of fragments. That hinders performance and boot times.
Don't confuse registry CLEANERS (removing redundant keys) with defraggers.
Back to this subject...
Jedi master senses spyware in microsofts antivirus, along with it being programmed in .NET mixed with a program that ends up being worse than Windows Live 1 Care.
The XP defrag engine is used by many defrag programs, plus it isn't MS's job toi determine how out of order loading is supposed to be handled by other poorly written software, but you can get a decent performance boost by running all the background tasks and using things like Steams defrag tool for game files.
www.av-comparatives.org/