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UPDATE 12-16-2010:

RTM’ed today: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff182914.aspx

Read more here.

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Many of you know that Microsoft’s file-level antivirus product is changing. For those who don’t, here are some high-level points you all should be aware of:

· Forefront Client Security is now Forefront Endpoint Protection (beta)

· Its delivered as a software package via SCCM and SCCM only.

· The management of it is done via SCCM. (Need 2007 R2/SP2 or later)

· It’s free* (provided you own SCCM).

*Last I heard. This isn’t official until it RTMs *It’s free for eCAL users

· You don’t need more servers beyond what you already have for SCCM (Functionally speaking; performance may dictate)

· The client is nearly identical to Microsoft Security Essentials

· The client installer will seek and destroy uninstall Symantec, MacAfee, Trend Micro and old Forefront (FCS) versions if found.

· It will (soon) have pre-canned lists of exclusions for products like Exchange and SharePoint.

For more info you may consider watching this webcast (skip to 13 minutes in to get to the technical stuff):

TechNet Webcast: Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010: Features and Protection Technologies (Level 300)