Last fall, I wrote an article about the impending demise of Microsoft’s OneCare and a new *free* replacement, codenamed Morro.
The reports have been coming in from several sources:
and others that Microsoft is putting the final touches on their new product, now called Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), and will be releasing a Beta this Tuesday.
These reports come on the heals of reports the previous day regarding a “leaked” pre-beta of this new security product from Microsoft. A couple of our users at WGS have even discussed their experiences with the leaked beta.
If you want in on the “official” Beta, these sources indicate that the software will be available from Microsoft at this URL. Remember, not until Tuesday and it will supposedly be limited to the first 75,000 takers.
There are several options that the consumer has for free anti-virus and/or anti-spyware solutions. The downside to free solutions is that the companies who exist off the income produced from this type of software seems to put more and more “junk” in their not-free suite offerings. Quite often to the point of it not being usable. I guess if a security suite won’t let you connect to the Internet, you will not be able to receive any malware of any kind. 100% effective!
But, I digress.
I used OneCare for several years, as it came free from my ISP. Never had a problem with OneCare. I hope MSE does as well or better than OneCare. I also hope that this gives consumers another choice that they might actually use, as it is my understanding that the number of “unprotected” computers (without an AV solution) is huge.
And finally, it would be really nice to have a free alternative for our Windows Home Server’s. Let’s hope that MSE will actually work on these machines, also.
21. June 2009 at 11:06 pm
I think it would be great if MSE included a WHS Add-in much like Avast has. That way we could have a free solution that would still allow us to monitor the rest of the PC's on our networks. One thing is for sure i will be waiting on Tuesday to try this beta out!
22. June 2009 at 1:48 am
Beta is available on RapidShare. Do a search.
Will not install on WHS.
22. June 2009 at 11:56 am
What AV is recommended today on WHS? Is there any 'low consumption' AV like NOD32 that works?
22. June 2009 at 12:07 pm
You technically answered your own question
AV doesn't have to have WHS in its name to be WHS friendly – NOD32 does really good job on my Win Home Server!
22. June 2009 at 1:03 pm
NOD32 is what I currently use on my WHS, and I do have a review of it here somewhere. Altho if MS ever does extend MSE to WHS, I would consider it.
From MS's POV, however, I think WHS is allied with their other server products, hence consumer support (MSE) does not extend to WHS. But I can always hope they "see" the light, lol!
22. June 2009 at 5:18 pm
Great!!
A guide on installing an AV would be nice
22. June 2009 at 8:50 pm
Here you go: http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/04/26/software-re...
22. June 2009 at 9:28 pm
23. June 2009 at 3:58 pm
It's now available for download
23. June 2009 at 4:09 pm
Just grabbed it myself about 10 minutes ago.
23. June 2009 at 6:21 pm
US, Israel, brazil only? not available in the UK
23. June 2009 at 8:31 pm
You guys in Europe/UK just don't get much love from MS, do ya?
23. June 2009 at 10:10 pm
If you go via the connect site, it says it's available for the UK. I downloaded it that way. Must be a mistake of some kind.
"This beta is available only to customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel (English only), People’s Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only)."