Microsoft will soon unveil free anti-virus software

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by rolarocka, Jun 11, 2009.

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  1. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    Agree with Osaban's comments in this thread, about Microsoft making an effort to focus on security, and now about Vista.

    People have to realise that when Vista first came out, systems running it did strain compared to XP, but with today's systems now faster, with more ram etc, the majority of users have no problems with it. Tweak the settings a bit, and it's very stable and smooth.

    I think what MS's venture into the free AV will do, is raise awareness among novice users that there are other capable AVs, and they have a choice with free and paid, instead of paying for the regular Norton, McAfee and Trend Micro subscription.
     
  2. SystemJunkie

    SystemJunkie Resident Conspiracy Theorist

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    Understandable but Vista is a devils pact. Did you see how they messed the columns in Explorer? XP was simple and good three columns: size, type, date. Vista premium is a mess: columns are multimedia related and nearly nobody needs these columns and it takes some time to get the old style back.

    The most appreciated handling improvements in vista are the link favorites, photo gallery grabbing and moving of images and the snipping tool. But I wonder if someone needs 9 svchost´s, this host mania is crazy.

    See my name? I am not so negative about, it was only the shout out of the negative side.
    We have to use what the world has to offer.
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2009
  3. Pedro

    Pedro Registered Member

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    I think it will do the opposite. It will shrink the market for the rest me thinks.
     
  4. SystemJunkie

    SystemJunkie Resident Conspiracy Theorist

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    I think not much will change.
     
  5. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    Yep, I think it will steal sales away from the usual big boys.....
     
  6. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    Pedro, my brain might not have been working. It might very well swamp the other AVs. Then once the others are crushed MS might start charging a high price premium for its use.

    All depends if it is just listed and 'offered' on their site like Windows Defender, then some will use it and some won't, and how heavily it is promoted. If it is promoted heavily (through hotmail, msn.com etc) I can see many people switching to it.
     
  7. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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  8. Eice

    Eice Registered Member

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    What holes?

    Many malware today rely on social engineering instead of software exploits to execute. How does plugging "holes" - if there's any in the first place - help at all?
     
  9. Howard Kaikow

    Howard Kaikow Registered Member

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    Every time you run a Windows update, and, perhaps, an Office Update, and ..., you are installing security updates, each of which attempts to plug holes.
     
  10. Eice

    Eice Registered Member

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    Plugging a hole is useful only if malware tries to exploit that hole - if it's possible at all. As mentioned earlier, the majority of "commercial" malware - rogue AVs, fake codecs, Waledac, etc - do not rely on holes, but on social engineering. That's why an antivirus is needed.

    Even if a system is fully patched, malware can be autorun from sources like USB drives. In the end the OS is designed to interpret code, and if the code is malicious then the OS gets owned, regardless of whether the OS is Windows, Mac or Linux. Patching is an integral part of security practices, but there are also many scenarios where it fails to matter.
     
  11. midway40

    midway40 Registered Member

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    Neowin posted screenshots of Morro a couple of hours ago:

    Morro Screenshots

    It is minimalistic.
     
  12. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    if thats the lastest version interface they may as well have just change title test from "windows defender" to "morro" and changed spyware protection to "antivirus and spyware protection"
     
  13. midway40

    midway40 Registered Member

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    New info: Morro to be called MS Security Essentials and with some new screenshots:

    Neowin story
     
  14. jmc777

    jmc777 Registered Member

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    The installer's floating around the usual places for those brave souls who wish to try this out early.
     
  15. vijayind

    vijayind Registered Member

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    Well it looks promising.
    http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/0...ty-essentials-morro-leaked-here-it-is-in-act/
     
  16. jrmhng

    jrmhng Registered Member

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    Have to look at the 'market' first. We are really talking about home users. They either
    1) Dont have AV (or they do but the 90 day trial has already expired)
    2) Have proactively bought a retail box where shelf space only really allows Norton, Mcafee, Trend and maybe a 1 or 2 others
    3) Have proactively bought an AV of their choice online
    4) Using a free solution from Avira, AVAST or AVG

    Having Morro/Essentials wont affect user group 1 because they just dont give a damn. It affect user group 2 because MS is not going to get retail space for it. Wont affect 3 because they have shun the free solutions already. Wont affect 4 unless there is a compelling reason to switch.

    So unless MS actually agressively markets the download, I dont think it will have a major impact.
     
  17. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    I disagree.... Once it becomes "common knowledge" that MS offers a free AV, I think it'll have major impact on the big boys... It may take a bit of time, but word travels fast, even down to the level of the average joe user in time.
     
  18. midway40

    midway40 Registered Member

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    Yeah, the installer files are quite small for an AV:

    XP-------7.7MB
    Vista32---4.8MB
    Vista64---3.8MB (!)

    I just installed it here at work on our experimental Vista machine and will give it a whirl.
     
  19. Trespasser

    Trespasser Registered Member

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  20. rolarocka

    rolarocka Guest

  21. Pedro

    Pedro Registered Member

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    I'll play along.
    No. 1 aren't actually part of said market.
    No.2 and 3, you're talking about people who look for best perceived value, and they will look at brands and perhaps AV tests - Microsoft vs. "Trend", common.. And have you seen AVC?
    And yes, it will affect the free ones as well, obviously, though i'm not sure about what impact that has for those companies from that.

    I'm not saying they're out of business, i'm saying i think it will have a considerable impact.

    IMO what the AV's have going for them is businesses, not the home market. It's likely already the case (no idea, just guessing), it's just more so now.

    Then they move seriously for that market too. They have been building this AV for some time, bought companies, hired people. As i see it, it's only logical.
    Just as logical as the reaction from AV companies, laughing and dismissing the move in public.

    Anyway, it's just an opinion.
     
  22. Trespasser

    Trespasser Registered Member

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    Two observations about Morro...

    1. The GUI is almost identical to Windows Defender's even though Windows Defender is turned off

    and

    2. It seems to use, at least in my opinion, a lot of resources. The two processes (msseces.exe and MsMpEng.exe) running that are associated with Morro total more than 39K in Task Manager (4K and 35K respectively).

    Also, I've noticed a definite lag in my system.

    I'm sure it will improve with time but as of now Morro is not a keeper.

    Later...
     
  23. softtouch

    softtouch Registered Member

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    For me a big NO at the moment. Maybe once the final is out, I will give it another try.

    I installed it, and the whole system was crawling.
    I opened my Music folder, and it took ages to open, because this scanner was scanning every single mp3 in it. And that happened every time I opened the folder...

    Hope this will be improved. Beside this, it seems to be fine, easy to work with, no difficult settings.
     
  24. Fly

    Fly Registered Member

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    I guess they will get some market share, perhaps a significant size if it is reasonably effective and they will somehow 'push' their product (Windows/Microsoft update?). :D

    Such competition could force the other major players to invest in improving their products, and perhaps cut prices as well.

    I think Microsoft will have no trouble getting malware samples, which may induce other security software vendors to invest in non-signature based approaches.
     
  25. benton4

    benton4 Registered Member

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    Well said, bigc.
     
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