A few days ago we reported that Microsoft is going to release another antivirus software which was codenamed Morro. Like Bing replaced Live Search, Morro was designed to replace Live OneCare. The difference between former Live OneCare and Morro is that the latter will be free and much better than the former. Now that everything is official, Morro got itself an official name: Microsoft Security Essentials.

It appears to me that Microsoft is going through a rebranding as they are dumping the “Live” out of their services. The Microsoft Security Essentials features real-time protection which means that it will track viruses before they become an issue, Dynamic Signature Service which will scan each new action from an unknown source like unexpected network connections or downloading known malicious content, and rootkit protection which will protect your computer against rootkits and other “aggressive” attacks.

Microsoft Security Essentials has a lightweight design as it’s “anti-malware only,” CPU throttling which means that your CPU won’t crash under the weight of the antivirus, idle-time scanning which will allow you to schedule a scan when your computer is idle, and smart caching which means that new antivirus signatures won’t require too much additional storage.

The former Morro will be available for limited public testing as of June 23, and you can download it from Microsoft. I remind you that Microsoft Security Essentials is free, and don’t worry as the anti-malware software is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.