Microsoft Corporation is set to unveil free anti-virus software for personal computers. This will compete with the products sold by McAfee Inc and Symantec Corp.

A Microsoft spokesman said that the company is testing a version with its employees. A trial version or product beta would be soon available on the company’s website. The free service has a code name Morro after Brazil’s Morro de Sao Paulo beach and there is concern that the sales of products from McAfee and Symantec would be hit.

Morro would have basic features for fighting a range of viruses. These features are comparable to the ones of lower-end products from McAfee and Symantec. Their higher-end products come with features like encryption, firewalls, password protection, data backup, etc. Microsoft did come up with such a product called Live OneCare, three years ago. It was a commercial failure.

The analysts are keen to review Morro’s beta to gauge its features and compare them with those of competitors’ products. Microsoft has said the software would protect against malicious software like viruses, Trojans, and spyware. But, people at McAfee and Symantec say they are not worried by Morro.

Janice Chaffin, president of Symantec Consumer Division, said that Morro is a version of Live OneCare and people need a full-fledged protection suite to guard the PCs from malicious content.

Joris Evers, spokesman for McAfee, said that the company has been having good growth despite competition from free anti-virus products.