Promised changes to security features in Microsoft’s
forthcoming Vista operating system could take years to deliver,
leaving users with incompatibility problems, analysts have
warned.
Microsoft has been forced to promise changes to meet the
European Commission’s antitrust requirements in two areas of
Vista’s security features: the PatchGuard, the protection mechanism
for the kernel in the 64-bit version, and the Windows Security
Centre.
But industry analyst Gartner warned that the changes would not
be complete in time for the initial release of Vista. "The time
frame for PatchGuard changes will span years and cause
incompatibility problems in the interim,” a Gartner research note
said.
Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald warned businesses using or
considering host-based intrusion prevention system (HIPS), or host
based content monitoring and filtering products, that many of these
products would not deliver full functionality using 64-bit
Vista.
“Do not plan for initial use of 64-bit Vista if you are using
incompatible products for which no suitable alternative exists,” he
said.
Businesses that were not planning HIPS systems should still be
aware that most converged desktop security software products would
include behavioral HIPS capabilities, so migration to 64-bit
Windows may be delayed.