14 DAY TRIAL // A new Microsoft Security Essentials AntiMalware Engine release is now available to customers leveraging version 2.0 of the free security solution. The software giant announced as early as the past week that it was going to kick up a notch the antimalware technologies under the hood of Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0.
The company delivers MSE refreshes on a regular basis, monthly almost, and the May 2011 update is no exception to this rule.
And since the antimalware engine is shared by many of the company’s solutions, it’s not only MSE 2.0 users that will get the update.
According to Microsoft, in addition to Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0, Forefront Client Security (FCS) and Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) will also receive the new version of the antimalware engine.
“Antimalware Engine 1.1.6903.0 is released to all MSE, FCS, FEP customers on 18 May 2011. Signature package 1.105.32.0 is the first that contains this engine,” the Redmond company confirmed.
With the advent of the Security Intelligence Report volume 10 the past week, the company also noted that MSE continues to be successful, although the company did not release any new adoption figures beyond those offered in 2010.
Last year, the software giant revealed that MSE had been downloaded in excess of 30 million times.
But there’s another clue pointing to the real-world success of Microsoft Security Essentials. Win32/FakePAV, a rogue antivirus masquerading as MSE was right on track to becoming the second most prevalent piece of scareware in the second half of 2010, according to SIRv10.
However, it would be extremely interesting to see just how much Microsoft Security Essentials has evolved, especially after the launch of version 2.0 in December 2010.
Microsoft released MSE 2.0 with little fanfare, although it also modified the licensing terms so that small business users were also granted the right to leverage the security solution free of charge on as many as 10 PCs.
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) 2.0 RTM is available for download here.