Microsoft gives into the EU

[___]

"Bowing to pressure from European antitrust regulators and rival security vendors, Microsoft has agreed to modify Windows Vista to better accommodate third-party security software makers. In a press conference Friday, Microsoft said it would configure Vista to let third-party anti-virus and other security software makers bypass 'PatchGuard,' a feature in 64-bit versions of Windows Vista designed to bar access to the Windows kernel.

Microsoft said it would create an API to let third-party vendors access the kernel and to disable the Windows Security Center so that users would not be prompted by multiple alerts about operating system security. In addition, Redmond said it would modify the welcome screen presented to Vista users to include links to other security software other than Microsoft's own OneCare suite. From the article: '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.'"

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/14/0832202

[moonlit]

Right... so basically they took a great security feature and ripped a gaping great hole in it just because the AV companies said they'd lose money?

I've been hearing about this for a while, It's bloody ridiculous...

[Andy]

IMO Microsoft should be able to do what they like. Its their software, they don't have to make it compatable with everything.

[casablanca]

Let the companies whine. MS can do whatever they want, and Symantec would probably just patch the kkernel so bad that there could've been less security hole than before their bloat was installed <_<