Beta release of Microsoft Security Essentials free antivirus

Within the next couple of hours, Microsoft will release the first beta version of their Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE, codename Morro) to selected regions.

MSE is an anti-malware software aimed to provide protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans for certain Windows operating systems.

Here are some of the fact findings:

• The core developer team of MSE is in Israel.
  
• This beta release will be made available on 23 June 2009 to the first 75,000 downloads from Brazil, Israel and the United States.
• It is treated as the successor of Windows Live OneCare, which is a subscription based security solution from Microsoft which has been phased out since end of 2008. Retail sales of Windows Live OneCare will be discontinued by end of June 2009.
  
• Its antivirus framework is the same with Windows Live OneCare.
• Subsequent beta release(s) will include China. Its final release to the whole world will be by end of 2009.
• It will be made available free of charge and downloadable from Microsoft website.
• It can be installed in 32-bits and 64-bits version of Windows XP (SP2 and above), Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
• Its installation will need to pass through the Microsoft's anti-piracy Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation process.
• It is designed to be lightweight and use little system resources.
• It is reported to take up about 50MB of RAM when running.
  
• It is able to provide real-time protection with heuristic feature.
• It has a user interface similar like Windows Defender. If Windows Defender is found when installing MSE, MSE will replace itself to Windows Defender.
  
• It relies on Windows Automatic Update feature to update its malware signature database.

And here is a comparison table to compare the features among various security solutions produced by Microsoft.