Frank Ohlhorst

Just a few short years ago, all a PC needed for protection was a basic antivirus program to guard against any malware that arrived via an e-mail attachment, embedded in a shareware application or piggy-backed on a floppy disk.

These days, however, the threat landscape has changed drastically. Now PC users have to cope not only with viruses, but also with spyware, spam, infected Web sites, adware, key loggers, phishing schemes and much, much more. It's enough to make your head spin.

Although much of the hype around Office 2010 has focused on how the product integrates with other Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint 2010 and Windows 7, most users won't care about those capabilities until after making the leap to Office 2010 itself. Their main concern comes down to what Office 2010 can do for a user right out of the box.

And it will take more than a new paint job and a tune-up to get budget-conscious buyers to take the bait. Only real improvements that enhance productivity and simplify support will prompt users and their IT administrators to take notice and give Office 2010 a home in their enterprises. Lucky for Microsoft, those enticing enhancements are present throughout the Office 2010 suite. Let's take a closer look at the features and improvements that will matter most to business users and perhaps set the upgrade wheels in motion.

Although much of the hype around Office 2010 has focused on how the product integrates with other Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint 2010 and Windows 7, most users won't care about those capabilities until after making the leap to Office 2010 itself. Their main concern comes down to what Office 2010 can do for a user right out of the box.

And it will take more than a new paint job and a tune-up to get budget-conscious buyers to take the bait. Only real improvements that enhance productivity and simplify support will prompt users and their IT administrators to take notice and give Office 2010 a home in their enterprises. Lucky for Microsoft, those enticing enhancements are present throughout the Office 2010 suite. Let's take a closer look at the features and improvements that will matter most to business users and perhaps set the upgrade wheels in motion.

Microsoft is getting ready to offer Windows users a free antivirus product (code name Morro), something it should have built into one of its operating systems a long time ago. But, of course, Microsoft never makes things simple. So the big question is will Morro be worth the price?

Microsoft's goal is to offer the antivirus product as a hosted service, which is very different from what users have come to expect, especially when the word "free" is attached to the term "antivirus." After all, Grisoft and Avast have offered free versions of their antivirus products to PC users, and those free products are of the traditional download and install nature.