An executive of Microsoft in France divulged on Wednesday some of the software maker's plans for its highly anticipated entry into the antivirus software market.

A standalone antivirus product will be built from tools the company inherited through its 2003 acquisitions of GeCad and Pelican Software, according to a report published in CNET News.com's sister publication, ZDNet France, citing the technical head of Microsoft's security project in that country, Nicolas Mirail.

Microsoft representatives in the United States refused to comment on functional elements or a potential production time frame for the antivirus package.

However, Mirail said the Microsoft antivirus software will utilize two different means of detecting destructive files, the first of which will reference a regularly updated list of known viruses to check for potential infections. The second antivirus tool will analyze computer systems to assess whether they have been hit by a virus in the past and attempt to give end users an idea of how at risk their computers might be for future problems.