Nov 18, 2010 17:30 GMT  ·  By

In addition to letting customers download Microsoft Security Essentials free of charge, the Redmond company has partnered with Symantec in order to offer a new free security offering, this time geared at small businesses. MSE is available not only to home users and home businesses but also to small businesses which can install it on up to 10 PCs in their organization.

In addition, small business customers are now able to also take advantage of a free copy of Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition for each license of Windows 7 Professional they purchase from PC Mall.

“We’re excited to let you know that today we’re also working with Symantec and PC Mall, a major U.S. reseller of technology products, services and solutions to small businesses, to extend free security software to those larger small businesses with up to 50 PCs and at least one server,” revealed Microsoft’s Sandrine Skinner.

Obviously, small businesses with as much as 50 computers need more than the 10 licenses of MSE that the software giant allows them to download and install completely free of charge.

In this sense, the Redmond company itself has advices customers with more than 10 machines in their organization to consider other security solutions beyond MSE.

Small Businesses that want to take advantage of Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition can do so by purchasing Windows 7 Professional from PCMall by the end of the year.

“From Nov 1st until December 31st you can get Symantec EndPoint Protection Small Business Edition for free when you purchase a new copy of Windows 7 Professional from PC Mall,” Skinner added.

“Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition complements Windows 7 Professional security features by providing small businesses with easy to use, enterprise-level protection they need to help protect their critical assets from today’s known and unknown threats.

“We think this is yet another great reason for small businesses to migrate to Windows 7 Professional with confidence.”

Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 is available for download here.