June 11 - 9:35am EDT   Microsoft late Wednesday said it's nearing the release of its first self-made antivirus software. Although mentioned in the past under its Morro codename, the new software is now known to compete directly with software from Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec and other relatively low-cost apps. It will only focus on removing spyware, trojans and viruses as the company already has a built-in firewall for Windows. [full story]

November 19 - 2:20pm EST   Microsoft late Tuesday took a step towards tightening security on Windows by announcing a significant expansion of its anti-malware efforts. The company plans to launch a new, free software suite currently nicknamed "Morro" that will replace the previously pay-only OneCare service and guard against spyware and viruses. The new project shares the same scanning and cleaning engine as OneCare and enterprise-grade apps but is billed as more focused, dropping "non-security" components like PC tuning and consuming less of the CPU and memory. [full story]

July 2 - 4:00pm EDT   Microsoft today has announced it would launch Equipt, a new software package that will let it experiment with subscription services. The suite gives users both a copy of Office Home and Student 2007 as well as the company's OneCare anti-malware and backup service; in exchange for an immediate discount on both services, customers will pay $70 per year to keep the full service active. Office is believed to remain active regardless of when the subscription ends. [full story]