That was a complete non-starter for me. But it turned out to be false rumors. This is "just" a anti-virus/malare like the competition. Only that it's free.
Anything which can help curb the infections, I guess. On that not it may actually have helped if they would be offering it regardless of whether the host is pirated or not.
All About Microsoft
Mary-Jo FoleyMicrosoft Security Essentials: What wannabe testers need to know
Summary
Microsoft finally broke its silence about its Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) — a k a “Morro” — June 18, after refusing for months to provide any real details on its planned free consumer security replacement to Windows Live OneCare. Here’s what wannabe MSE testers and customers need to know.
Topics
Blogger Info
Mary-Jo Foley
Biography
Mary-Jo Foley
Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 20 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.
Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.
Microsoft finally broke its silence about its Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) — a k a “Morro” — June 18, after refusing for months to provide any real details on its planned free consumer security replacement to Windows Live OneCare.
Alan Packer, General Manager of Microsoft’s Anti-Malware team chatted with me today about MSE. Based on our conversation, here’s what wannabe MSE testers and customers need to know:
- MSE provides antivirus and anti-malware protection for Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (including Beta or Release Candidate) systems. It makes use of the same core engine as the Forefront Client product Microsoft offers to businesses, but it doesn’t provide the management capabilities that the paid Forefront Client — or the former Windows Live OneCare subscription offering do.
- Microsoft is making MSE available for public beta testing starting some time on June 23. It will be available in 32- and 64-bit flavors, downloadable from the Microsoft Connect site. The test version is targeted at users in English-speaking countries, plus Brazil, Israel (and some time later this year), China (in simplified Chinese).
- The beta will remain open until the final version of the MSE product is released before the end of calendar 2009. (Microsoft officials won’t provide any more specific of a date target than that.) The final product will be a free download available directly from Microsoft.com.
- Microsoft will be updating and refreshing the beta code regularly in the coming months by pushing updates over Windows Update and other Web mechanisms. MSE isn’t Microsoft-hosted, but it does include a Dynamic Signature updating service that Microsoft is touting as “cloud-based.”
- Microsoft plans to offer PC OEMs and system builders the option to bundle MSE on new PCs, but it isn’t expecting any of the big PC makers to jump, since they currently make money by preloading competing, paid offerings from third-party providers.
- Speaking of third-party products, MSE will uninstall Windows Defender if it is present on a user’s PC, as MSE is a “superset” of Defender. Upon setup, MSE also will advise users to uninstall other third-party offerings, as running multiple antivirus/anti-malware offerings degrades PC performance.
- MSE is aimed first and foremost at users who either can’t or won’t pay for antivirus/anti-malware software. There will be no registration required, no trials with an expiration date or required renewals. But Microsoft is restricting the MSE download (both the beta and final) to PCs running Genuine Windows (which has been authenticated as non-pirated).
Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, wondered whether the Windows Genuine stipulation might prove problematic.
MSE “looks like an adequate protection product, similar to Defender but for more types of malware. However, from early screenshots, it looks like they’re going to require Windows Genuine validation for use,” Rosoff noted. “That seems to undercut their stated goal with the product: to broaden the base of Windows PCs protected against malware, especially in developing countries.”
For more in-depth coverage (and screen shots galore) of what MSE is and how it works, check out my ZDNet blogging colleague Ed Bott’s gallery and coverage.
So now that we finally know more (official) specifics about MSE/Morro, what do you think? Is Microsoft doing users a service or disservice in trying to secure the perimeters of the Windows ecosystem via a free antivirus/antimalware product like this?
Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).
Disclosure
Mary-Jo Foley
Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors. I have not accepted any consulting funds from Microsoft, any of its partners or its competitors for any studies/projects.
Biography
Mary-Jo Foley
Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 20 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.
Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.
More from “All About Microsoft”
Related Discussions on TechRepublic
Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?Talkback Most Recent of 30 Talkback(s)
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honeymonster06/18/2009 01:34 PM -
It wasn't rumors, it was pure FUD.
It is odd to me that some people complain about how "evil" MS is, but then turn around and be completely fine with spreading lies, knowing full well that it is pure misinformation.
Like Zack Whittaker, and his lapdog nizuse. I wonder if nizuse will have enough of a spine to admit he was wrong, like Zack did.
Qbt06/19/2009 06:03 PM -
RE: Microsoft Security Essentials: What wannabe testers need to know
I think a light weight anti-malware product updating through Windows Update will be great. Forefront is well regarded and I don't see any reason this won't be as well.
I know the tin foil hat wearing crowd doesn't trust MU, and that's no problem at all - there are many other products out there that don't requre it.
DaveN_MVP06/18/2009 01:42 PM -
Can't Wait!
I can't wait for this release. I've always been a big fan of OneCare, and the one piece of OneCare that isn't already built-in to Windows 7 is the antivirus portion, but here we are.
Microsoft is playing it smart too... offering the opportunity for OEM's to include it, but not forcibly tying it to Windows, and the price is right.
I can see the "Welcome" screen of Windows advertising it right along with Live Essentials as quick and easy downloads.
GoodThings2Life06/18/2009 02:51 PM -
RE: Microsoft Security Essentials: What wannabe testers need to know
the link that you had to the announcement when MS would make the test beta public isn't working. At least for me...
toms@...06/18/2009 05:31 PM -
Aww, Poor Pirates
To Matt Rosoff,
Now Microsoft is supposed to not only provide people who steal copies of Windows free updates but are expected to give them additional free products?
mikegalos@...06/18/2009 06:39 PM -
In balance, I agree with you
It may seem strange after reading my other post in this thread, but in balance, I agree with you.
The contrary position is that of the big picture, i.e. that active malware on some systems affects the rest of us as well. Most email is spam, most spam is sent through infected PCs, and these can be sending out malware as well - therefore, so the argument goes, it's important to protect all PCs, not just those running properly licensed software.
Even corporates get this, in an age of consumer broadband. Infected consumer PCs can be used as hackers' cat's paws, or be ganged up to mount DDoS attacks.
However, I agree with you that it's not unreasonable to limit access to onging expenditure to those who have paid for that support. Maintaining an antivirus is an ongoing committment, both in development and bandwidth terms, and the latter load scales up with the number of systems consuming the service.
Unless you're prepared to accept the vendor bumping some of that hosting load onto everyone else's systems - as some vendors already do, via stealthed torrent clients - Microsoft is going to be spending money on that hosting. It could be seen as unreasonable to expect them to cater for those who have already broken trust by breaking license terms.
I think we need to know more about how the "cloud" features in all this - in case that's a euphamism for exactly that kind of customer-resourced load balancing.
cquirke06/19/2009 02:44 AM -
Has Potential
I will try it. It will no doubt be dumbed down from a configuration standpoint, but will be worth a look. I have long since stopped using the top tier AV products like Norton and McAfee. Too expensive, buggy and are total resource hogs.
jpr75_z06/18/2009 07:48 PM -
WGA makes sense
I don't know why so many people make so much fuss about WGA/Validation. If you're online and complaining about such an issue, there's no reason for your bickering. It's a one-time deal, get over it.
Alber169006/19/2009 01:06 AM -
Yep, you don't know why.
It's not a "one-time deal". It's not even just every time you download something hidden behind validation, such as XP's "not a security patch" that is needed before your setting to not Autorun USB storage devices is respected.
It's the presence of deliberately hostile code within a product, kept from "going off" by the same quality code that has to be fixed so often that we're obliged to swallow updates every month.
What MS does today, evey vendor will do tomorrow, and that's why activation was so significant. The slippery slope of vendor-user relations dropped a level once it became standard practice to embed user-hostile code in products.
Clealy there are trust issues with vendors who are prepared to do this, and the trust surface becomes larger and harder to patrol.
Once it was; I get the use of a particular product for life, you get your one-off payment, and we need never deal with or trust each other again.
Now I have to trust you to squirt new code into my systems automatically, unless I'm prepared to devote substantial attention to what each patch does, and run the risk of pre-patch exploits. I also have to watch what you do and compare that to what you promised you'd do, and respond to tidal changes in vendor trustworthiness.
Open Source doesn't fix this by giving me acres of source code to read, by the way. If it addresses the problem, it's by removing the financial incentive for vendors to hold back on value.
Do you remember when activation appeared in XP, and we were assured that when Microsoft lose financial interest in old products, they will be left to work without activation?
Well, watch what happens with discontinued products like MS Money, when Microsoft announces activation will no longer be possible after a certain date. Will these products then install without activation, or will they die as soon as they need to be "just" re-installed?
Do a Google( activation Kafka cquirke ) for a take on the absurdity of activation politics.
cquirke06/19/2009 02:24 AM -
oh please
I'm yet to ever have a problem with WGA on my VALID copy of Windows.
trance2tec06/19/2009 05:27 AM -
Which of course means...
That anyone else's (negative) experience with WGA cannot possibly be for real. It must be nice to be paddling up the river denial.
zkiwi06/19/2009 07:26 AM -
Wow!!! Talk about an easy hack...
All I have to do is write a virus that first makes windows look like it's pirated (extremely easy to do) and windows will disable it's own defense leaving it open and vulnerable to anything I want to throw at it.... WooHoo!!!
Great time to be a MS user... Who wouldn't want to be a fish swimmin in a barrel?
i8thecat06/19/2009 08:11 AM -
Have at it then
let us know when you've got the code ready, shouldn't take you more than a couple hours? Days? Apparently it's "extrememly easy to do".
Look forward to seeing your skillz!
rtk06/19/2009 09:09 AM -
uh huh..
Conceptually you're right, but if you want to get
into the computer in the first place, you'll have
to jump through some hoops. Once you're in the
computer all bets are off-- it doesn't matter if
they've got virus scanners or not. (It's not like
McAfee or Norton or Symantec ever stood a chance
against a virus that was already in the computer,
disabling the scanner)
In the end, I think that this won't change the set
of people falling victim to viruses: silly
uninformed IE users, and stupid kids who think
that they're smarter than they really are.
tiliv07/28/2009 11:57 AM
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