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Photos: Hands-on with Microsoft's free Security Essentials antivirus software

Microsoft on Tuesday released its latest foray into security software as a limited beta. Microsoft Security Essentials, known in development as Morro, was limited to 75,000 downloads in four countries: the US, Israel, Brazil and China. The 75,000 available slots have now been taken, but there's been no word yet as to whether Microsoft will allow more testers to download the public beta in the future. You can expect Security Essentials to eventually make it to the UK in one form or another.

Security Essentials contains all the basic features that users have come to expect from free security software: multiple built-in and customisable scan options, a scheduler, automatic definition-file updates, a real-time defence shield and rootkit protection.

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