14 DAY TRIAL // Introduced in 2005, Windows Live OneCare is heading for an early grave, with Microsoft planning to discontinue license sales of the all-in-one PC care and security product come June 30, 2009, and to offer support only as long as existing subscriptions will last. In the place of OneCare, the company is cooking what it referred to as a security solution, focused on core anti-malware protection and tailored to Windows 7, Windows Vista (which will have evolved to Service Pack 2 by mid-2009) and Windows XP SP3.
However, the software giant wanted to make it clear that codename Morro was simply a consumer-oriented product, with no impact whatsoever on the company's current enterprise grade security products.
“So, people may ask how does 'Morro' compare to Forefront Client Security? Will enterprise customers use it? The answer is no, 'Morro' is intended for consumers, whereas Forefront products are enterprise solutions, providing the capabilities and features required in sophisticated IT environments, e.g. centralized deployment, management and reporting, security state assessments, scheduled signature distribution, update management, etc,” revealed a member of the Forefront team.
For the enterprise tier, Microsoft is offering Forefront, claiming that it is seeing consistent adoption, by “increasing numbers of,” but failing to offer any statistics. Still, the company has underlined that it will continue to focus on Forefront and Forefront codename "Stirling" for its corporate customers, while Morro will be geared toward end-users. It will be made available for free to all Windows users, including the latest iterations and service packs of the Windows client, starting with mid-2009.
“It is worth noting that 'Morro' will have a positive impact on Forefront, because it will allow Microsoft to capture even more threat intelligence from customers as more people use the free anti-malware solution. We'll be able to use that information in our security research and the development of signatures and protection capabilities in Forefront,” the Forefront team representative added.