LiveSide - News blog : Anti-Virus

Microsoft Security Essentials Available For Download Tomorrow, Sept 29

Sunshine — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:57:46 GMT

After reporting that Microsoft Security Essentials will be final in the coming weeks only a week ago, we can now tell you that it will be available tomorrow, September 29.

Microsoft Security Essentials, independently certified by West Coast Labs, is backed by the company’s global security response team and is built on the same award-winning core security technology found in the company’s security solutions for businesses. It requires no registration, trials or renewals and will be available for Windows XP SP2 or SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7 including Windows XP mode on both x32 and x64 PCs.

Microsoft Security Essentials will be available in eight languages and 19 countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

More information about Microsoft Security Essentials and the product download is available at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials.

PressPass

Microsoft Security Essentials Final Edition In Coming Weeks

Sunshine — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:03:54 GMT

Neowin reports that Microsoft's Security Essentials team has confirmed that the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials will be made available in the coming weeks.

Microsoft Security Essentials is Microsoft's free anti-virus and anti-spyware product that replaces Microsoft's paid Windows Live OneCare subscription service which was withdrawn earlier this year. In an email to beta testers the team thanked testers for their participation and encouraged them to upgrade to version 1.0.1500.0 of the beta to ensure a "smooth experience".

Microsoft Security Essentials went into beta on June 23rd this year.

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta Full?

Sunshine — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:02:41 GMT

If you thought let’s download Microsoft Security Essentials today, you are too late! Well, at least for now if you wanted the US-EN version:

We are not sure about the availability in Israel, the People's Republic of China or Brazil but if not full already they surely will be soon. Do you know? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta
Microsoft Security Essentials Forums

Previous articles about Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta Available Now, Capped At 75,000

Sunshine — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:23:23 GMT

Microsoft Security Essentials (Morro) Beta is now available for download, as announced earlier.

However take note of the following:

The beta is only available to those in the US, Israel (English only), People's Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) or Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese)
Downloads will be capped at 75,000 (might still be changed)
Distribution of the beta is through Microsoft Connect, so you will need to be registered there with your Windows Live ID
Before you can download you will have to fill in a nomination survey (7 questions)

The beta is available in 32- and 64 bits for Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3); Windows Vista; Windows 7 (Beta or Release Candidate) and will require WGA validation.

Morro To Be Named Microsoft Security Essentials?

Sunshine — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:20:25 GMT

Where we were wondering about what the release name of “Morro” will be before, it is now clear that “Morro” will be named Microsoft Security Essentials. New screenshots of a pre-beta build revealed this. So unless the people in Redmond change their mind, this is what it will be.

Curious? AddictiveTips already has a review up, complete with screenshots!

Chinese readers, head on over to LiveSino where Picturepan2 has been keeping up with “Morro” too.

Microsoft Security Essentials will be available for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 as standalone install packages, supporting 32 and 64 bit. Sources familiar to Microsoft’s plans revealed to Neowin that a trial version will be made available in September. September? Whatever happened to soon? Unless you call September soon…

Curious What “Morro” Will Look Like?

Sunshine — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:30:36 GMT

Are you curious what “Morro” will look like? Neowin received some screenshots from an anonymous tipster. Note that these are screenshots of an already outdated version, according to Paul Thurrott. So yea, it will give you some indication but then again…lots can still change! It is also not yet known what the final name of the product will be. “Morro” is just a code name, as Microsoft always uses when stuff is being tested internally.

What we do know is that OneCare will stop being sold via retail channels from 30 June 2009. So chances are we are going to see a beta/trial version of “Morro” before or round that date… we’ll keep our eyes open!

As for final release, Microsoft has stated that “Morro” would be available by the end of 2009 at the latest.

Coming Soon: Microsoft’s Free Anti-virus Software

Sunshine — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:03:05 GMT

Back in November Microsoft announced that they will offer free anti virus software, codenamed “Morro”, to replace Windows Live OneCare. As you know Windows Live OneCare will be discontinued. Subscriptions will stop being sold via retail channels from 30 June 2009, though direct sales via Microsoft will stop only when “Morro” is available. Well, it looks like “Morro” is here since Microsoft has been removing OneCare from the channel for the past couple of months.

Reuters got the scoop:

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date.

Morro will only include basic features for fighting viruses, which would likely make it comparable to the least-expensive products sold by Symantec and McAfee. So far officials with Symantec and McAfee have said they do not see Morro as a threat. Let’s see about that eh?

Now we don’t know how soon soon is, though some bloggers apparently got more information. However they are under NDA so they won’t tell…it might even be in the next few days. Guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes open…

Microsoft’s new free anti-malware solution gets closer: a new name for Morro?

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:42:02 GMT

Last year Microsoft announced that it would end support for Windows Live OneCare, and turn instead to develop a new, free security product, code named Morro. We’ve heard that Morro has already been in limited alpha testing, that it’s based on the same security engine as Microsoft’s Forefront technology, and that most of the work for the new product is being handled by Microsoft in India.

Recently, we had a chance to see a survey conducted for Microsoft and sent out to consumers that sheds a little more light on what’s happening with Morro. First, although this isn’t really news, a description of the product:

Microsoft is creating a new PC security product for consumers that will be available at no cost to licensed Windows users. This new product:

Provides high-quality protection against viruses, spyware and other malicious software;

Is fast and functional, providing continuous protection with minimal impact on system performance;

Is easy to download and install directly from Microsoft, with no subscriptions, renewals or credit cards required to keep your protection up-to-date.

After a few questions, the survey asks about possible names:

Microsoft is considering the following names for this product:

"Microsoft Security Essentials"

"Microsoft Antivirus Plus"

"Microsoft Personal Security"

"Microsoft Security Fundamentals"

and then goes on to ask a number of questions about which name is best, etc. We’re not sure we’d vote for any of them, they all sound pretty old school Microsoft naming (that is, boring and bad). No hints in the survey about timing of the availability of “Morro”; the original press release stated that Morro would be “ available in the second half of 2009”

We liked the name OneCare (and liked the product, and were sorry to see it terminated). What do you think of these potential names for “Morro”? What would you call a new no-cost consumer security product?

Apparently a Trojan virus on LiveSide came from our Google Adsense

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:18:39 GMT

I came home from work today to find multiple notifications from readers that LiveSide (and other sites) had been setting off Anti-Virus detectors, and a link to an article on ZDNet: Antivirus firm: Google text ad Trojan detected. According to the article:

The Trojan redirects queries meant to be sent to Google servers to a rogue server, which displays ads from a third party instead of ads from Google, BitDefender said in a statement.

Google said on Wednesday: "We have cancelled customer accounts that display ads redirecting users to malicious sites or that advertise a product violating our software principles."

The issue seems to be resolved, so we will not be making any immediate changes in regards to running Google Adsense ads at this time. However please report any problems immediately to feedback*at*liveside*dot*net, and we will take action if necessary.

We apologize for any ill effects this caused anyone. From what we understand, Windows Live OneCare acted appropriately to catch the virus, which was good news under the circumstances. We strongly recommend that if you are not using an Anti-Virus product, you stop what you are doing and install one now.