Microsoft has capped the number of downloads for the beta of Windows Security Essentials (MSE) to just 75,000, said a Microsoft spokeswoman on Monday. As we reported earlier [1], MSE is the replacement for Windows Live OneCare, and will focus on key security tasks such as fighting viruses, rootkits and other malware. It does not provide any firewall or spam protection

Within the span of 24 hours after MSE was launched on Tuesday, it appears that the download cap for the free antivirus product was reached. Users who try to download MSE will now get the following alert: "Thank you for your interest in joining the Microsft Security Essentials Beta. We are not accepting additional participants at this time. Please check back at a later date for possible additional availability."

So far, MSE has been getting the thumbs up. Independent testing done by AV-Test.org found that MSE was able to accurately detect 3,194 common virus, bot and worm samples from a set of WildList malware released a week ago. In addition, attempts to elicit a false positive by running MSE across a large set of benign samples did not result in any false alarms.

At the moment, MSE seems to be working exclusively with locally installed anti-virus and anti-spyware definitions and not cloud-based scanning methods. This is beta software after all, and certainly look to be promising.

For more on this story:
- check out this article [2] at Network World
- check out this article [3] at The Channel Wire
- check out this article [4] at The Register

Related Articles:
Microsoft Security Essentials Pack freeware available today [5]
McAfee touts its 'cloud-based' defenses against malware [6]
Microsoft to roll out beta of free antivirus software for PCs soon [7]
Microsoft to give away free antivirus software [8]