With a four-month beta test under its belt, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) quietly released the second version of its free Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) antivirus software last week. The increasingly popular MSE is free for home users and small businesses of up to 10 workstations. It has come under criticism from security vendors for encroaching on their turf, in the past.

This new version of MSE comes with improved malware detection capabilities, as well as a revamped heuristic engine to help detect new malware or variants of existing viruses. Moreover, MSE 2.0 also integrates with the Windows Firewall in order to perform network traffic inspection. Actual network traffic is managed via the Windows Filtering Platform found in Windows Vista and Windows 7, allowing the security software to monitor and filter against threats as they passes through the firewall. (Windows XP will not be able to benefit from network traffic inspection.)

According to IT Pro, MSE 2.0 has not been included in the software's upgrade mechanism; as such, users who want it will have to download it direct from the Microsoft Download Center page here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at ITPro
- check out this article at Infosecurity

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