Kaspersky joins Vista bandwagon

Stephen Withers
Monday, 05 February 2007 12:40

Business IT - Security

Kaspersky Lab has added Vista support to its Internet Security and Anti-Virus packages via Maintenance Pack 2, a free download.

The pack provides compatibility with 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows, and includes all the features of the recently released Maintenance Pack 1.

Looking at some of the other security vendors, Symantec, Trend Micro and Sophos have already updated their products for Microsoft's latest operating system.

Prior to the release of Vista, Symantec and some other vendors were highly critical of Microsoft's PatchGuard feature that protects the kernel from modification, saying it restricted their ability to provide comprehensive security features. Kaspersky, in contrast, supported Microsoft's position.

However, PatchGuard is only a feature of the 64-bit version of Vista, and Microsoft provided additional APIs allowing security software developers to switch off Windows Defender and replace Windows Security Center alerts with their own.