In a press conference on October 16th, Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Microsoft Corporation confirmed that the corporation is addressing certain EU concerns pertaining to Vista's security functions in connection with the products of competing security vendors.

Firstly, Microsoft has created a new API allowing third party software developers to prevent the new Windows Security Centre, one of the most directly visible new Vista security features, from displaying pop-up alerts in case an alternative security console is installed on the computer. This ensures that users will always be alerted in case of security problems but prevents dual alerts from stumbling over each other.

Secondly, Microsoft has announced new kernel level APIs allowing third-party protective software, mostly malware filters, access to kernel level functions without crippling the new PatchGuard kernel protection system present in 64-bit versions of the operating system, one of the most important security innovations in Vista. The new APIs allow kernel extensions while preserving basic kernel integrity. No time-scale was announced but a good guess might be in connection with SP1 for 64-bit Vista - after all comparatively few users will probably initially be using the 64-bit version.

This seems to be exactly the type of solution ISB advocated some time ago (undoubtedly by coincidence). Link below.

--Ed

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