14 DAY TRIAL // At the start of the coming week Microsoft plans to release an update to its free security solution designed for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.
According to the Redmond company, a new AntiMalware engine will be offered to Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 users come October 18th.
Customer currently relying on the free Microsoft Security Essentials for the protection of their Windows computers should know that the upcoming refresh is nothing more than the result of the normal update cycle of the security solution.
“As part of regular update of our antimalware technology to address the latest in the threat landscape, MMPC is planning to release a new antimalware engine on 18 October 2010,” revealed a member of the Microsoft Antimalware Engine team.
The new antimalware engine coming next week is an update not only to Microsoft Security Essentials, but also to Forefront Client Security (FCS).
Fact is that Microsoft Security Essentials and Forefront Client Security share the same antimalware engine, and in this regard, it makes perfect sense for the two technologies to be updated in tandem, since they’re virtually joined at the hip.
After the October refresh to Microsoft Security Essentials will be introduced, “Engine Version will be in the range of 1.1.630X.0,” the software giant revealed.
The last update to the antimalware engine in MSE was delivered in mid-September 2010.
“Antimalware Engine 1.1.6201.0 is released to all MSE and FCS customers on 16 September 2010. Signature package 1.91.0.0 is the first that contains this engine,” the Redmond company noted at the time.
As it was the case with the last update for MSE, the upcoming refresh for the antimalware engine will not bring new features or capabilities, just protection against new threats.
Users that want an evolved version of Microsoft Security Essentials should try the Beta of MSE 2.0.
The Redmond company has release Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 Beta for quite some time now, and the release does feature a range of improvements over version 1.0.
Microsoft Security Essentials is available for download here.