Microsoft today announced the release of a beta for the next version of Microsoft Security Essentials. The beta is available to everyone for free and has a few added features, but mostly new protection and inspection engines. The interface has been tweaked just slightly, but it looks generally the same.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the new beta (version 2.0.375.0) has a different background image for the interface. Now it's a gray "twisted web" image that extends from right to left. The same tabs are present along the top of the interface and the status bar also is still the same at the top as well. All of the contents of each tab are the exact same as the current, non-beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials.

What has changed, however, is during installation it will prompt you to turn on Windows Firewall if you do not use another piece of firewall software. There is also Internet Explorer integration to provide more comprehensive protection against Internet-based threats.

A new network inspection system also protects against network-based threats and a new protection engine provides more enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities. Microsoft also says this version of Microsoft Security Essentials as improved performance, but in our eyes, it already has the best performance out of any security software out there, freeware or paid.

Microsoft Security Essentials works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 and is Microsoft's free program to protect users against viruses and spyware. Windows 7 users can choose between 32- and 64-bit editions of the software, with the download sizes being 8 and 10MB, respectively.

Users can download the beta of Microsoft Security Essentials starting today from Microsoft Connect.