Microsoft Now Decides to Accept Outside Security for Vista
Microsoft did an about-face yesterday, agreeing to make it easier for customers of its forthcoming Vista operating system to use outside security vendors, such as those who make popular antivirus and anti-spyware programs.
Until now, Microsoft had planned to block those companies from installing their products in the deepest levels of the new operating system, which is scheduled for release early next year.
The company said it was doing so to address the concerns of security and performance in Windows XP and apply them to Windows Vista.
The European Commission, which has fined Microsoft nearly $1 billion for antitrust violations, told the company that it was concerned that Vista's system for alerting users about security weaknesses might confuse customers who were using a similar alert system with other security programs.
Stephen Northcutt, president of the SANS Technology Institute of Bethesda, a computer-security training group, said the changes that Microsoft agreed to make with Vista would help ensure that consumers continue to have a choice in security software.
"It looks like Microsoft was really testing the waters here, sort of pushing the limits of antitrust and decided they probably couldn't cross that line just yet," Northcutt said. "That's a good thing, because it's just too easy for mistakes to happen when you are only left with a single security provider."
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