Microsoft Security Essentials to Come Out of Beta in Coming Weeks

According to an email sent to Microsoft Connect users today. myself included, the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials will be released to the public in the coming weeks. Here is the email that was sent out:

Dear Beta User,

Thank you for participating in the Microsoft® Security Essentials Beta. Your participation has been instrumental to ensuring the best possible product release quality.
The final version of Microsoft Security Essentials will be released to the public in the coming weeks. If you are running the older version of the beta (1.0.1407.0), we encourage you to upgrade to a newer version of the beta (1.0.1500.0). To ensure a smoothest possible experience, please follow one of these options:

• Click on the ‘Upgrade Now’ button on the Microsoft Security Essentials Home tab. OR
• Select ‘Upgrade Microsoft Security Essentials’ under the Help drop-down menu

Thank you again for your participation in the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta!

Best regards,

Microsoft Security Essentials Team

It seems that Microsoft has really put forth an effort to release a quality and free, yet effective anti-virus, for those who’s computers might not be protected with any kind of anti-virus. The great thing about Microsoft Security Essentials is that it is low on memory resources and doesn’t seem to slow things down like other anti-virus programs are known for.

Microsoft Security Essentials

The above is a screen shot of Microsoft Security Essentials, courtesy of softsailor.com. It’s simple to use interface and lack of “extra” features make it one of the best and lightest (in terms of memory footprint) anti-virus software available combined with Windows Vista/7 and Windows Defender. It’ll be interesting to see how both Windows 7 and Microsoft Security Essentials do once Windows 7 hits store shelves.