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By George Norman - Software News Editor

Added on 12 Jun 2009(545 Views)

We knew since November last year that Microsoft plans to kill off its Windows Live OneCare service as of June, 2009 and replace it with a free offering called Morro . The new software, which is supposed to protect users from all the regular nasties that they can expect to find while surfing the web (spyware, adware, Trojans, viruses, and other malware), is currently being tested internally by Microsoft and a public Beta will be released soon.

The Redmond-based software giant has officially confirmed that it is testing the software and will release it as a public Beta in the near future. The catch is that Microsoft did not provide any specifics; it did not say precisely when it will roll out Morro Beta, its consumer-centric security offering.


The release of Morro, is meant to address the needs of the users who purchase a PC and are not security oriented enough to install a security solution on their machine, or they just do not want to spend more money to purchase one. Instead of browsing the internet unprotected, they can take advantage of Microsoft’s no-cost offering. And since these users do not want to spend money of security software (or are put-off by the high prices), it stands to reason that the PC they purchased is not extremely powerful. It also stands to reason that they do not have an exceptionally good internet connection either. That is why Microsoft is developing Morro to work well not only on less powerful machines, but do a proper job with a poor Internet connection as well.

Symantec Consumer Division President, Janice Chaffin, described Microsoft’s Morro as a “stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from the shelves.” It is true that it is a good offering price-wise (it doesn’t get any cheaper than free, I might say), but Chaffin said that Symantec and other security software developers do not feel threatened by Microsoft’s Morro. This is due to the fact that in order to stay fully protected, the user needs a full internet security suite, not a watered down version of Live OneCare.

Speaking of Live OneCare, it must be said that Microsoft will discontinue retail sales of Windows Live OneCare as of June 30th, just as it stated back in November 2008. You will not be able to purchase it from brick and mortar locations when the month comes to an end, but you will be able to purchase it online even after June 30th.

“It’s true that Microsoft will discontinue retail sales of OneCare on 30 June, 2009 so you won’t find it in stores after that date, but consumers will still be able to purchase the product after 30 June directly from Microsoft at Live OneCare,” explained a Microsoft spokesperson.





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Tags: Microsoft, Live OneCare, Morro

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