The recent news is that the software giant is on its way to give away free antivirus which is currently in its alpha testing stage. Microsoft has revealed that it is going to release a free antivirus, codenamed ‘Morro’ by the end of 2009.

However, this is not the first step of Microsoft in the antivirus arena. It has developed an antivirus suite, which was of course a paid product, called ‘OneCare’. But it failed to make its mark. This time Microsoft is releasing its very own free antivirus product and a handful of Microsoft employees are currently testing it. “Again, this is just a striped down version of the Microsoft OneCare suite which provides basic protection. But a complete antivirus suite is recommended for full security” said Janice Shaffin, the president of Symantec’s Consumer Division. One of the Microsoft employee has given out the following three screenshots of what we can expect it to be. The UI does look quite appealing but this is an internal build so the final product may vary.