Microsoft is planning to design a free anti-malware program that should help those who won’t or can’t afford buying an anti-virus program for their PC’s. The program will be extremely basic and it will only focus on anti-virus protection, other features not being included.

McAffe and Symantec, the two largest anti-virus producers, declared that they fear that the upcoming Microsoft software will compete with their products and that more will chose it over theirs. Even so, Microsoft declared that it has no intention in competing with major anti-virus manufacturers and that the upcoming program, codenamed Moro, is strictly a means to help those who cannot afford buying an anti-virus program.

The Microsoft solution for computer viruses will be as stripped down as possible and will not offer encryption, firewalls, password protection, parental controls and data backup programs. This means that for those who want an anti-virus program that is richer in features, they will still need to count on anti-virus manufacturers.

Microsoft has declared that this is focusing on the 50 or 60% of PC users who won’t or cannot buy virus protection. Viruses are becoming extremely annoying lately, as more things are done using the computer, and a well protected machine can actually save your bank account or you personal information.

All in all, this is a good thing Microsoft is doing and some are surprised that they haven’t done this earlier. A free product, approved by Microsoft, guarding PC’s sound great and it is almost certain that the software will be very popular.