microsoft-antivirusMicrosoft's Windows is the most loved OSvirus affected OS in the world. World's largest software producer is all set to rage a war against viruses with the introduction of its long-awaited free anti-virus service. On the market-front the product could be a direct offensive against the anti-virus giants Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc. Microsoft begins charity at home offering the early version of the product to its employees for testing. Microsoft would soon launch a trial or beta version of the anti-virus on its website. However, no specific date has been announced yet.

The announced saw Symantec and McAfee shares plunging by 0.5 percent and 1.3 percent on receptively, while Microsoft gained a 2.1 percent.

Investors were closely monitoring the free service and have code named it Morro after Brazil's Morro de Sao Paolo beach. It could hurl the sales of products from Symantec and McAfee, which generates a billions of dollars of revenue every year protecting Windows PCs from attacks by hackers.

According to Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets, its a long-term competitive threat.

Microsoft has announced that Morro would be equipped with basic features to fight wide range of viruses. This would make it comparable to the lower end consumers products from Symantec and McAfee that are priced at $40 per year. The top sellers of these companies are security suites that include the features of encryption, firewalls, password protection, parental controls and data backup.

Microsoft had made its foray into the anti-virus market with Live OneCare that turned out to be a commercial flop. The free product Morro is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare. The company plans to stop the production of OneCare in November and said it might launch the product by the end of 2009.

Until Morro's beta is released, we can keep our fingers crossed for the products capability to take on its competitors.