Vista security powwow lined up

Microsoft plans to meet with security companies to discuss part of the changes it has promised to make to Windows Vista in response to competitive concerns.

The software behemoth has planned an online briefing for security companies today, a company representative said in an emailed statement. The meeting is to discuss how third-party protective software can interact with the innards of 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, the representative said.

In response to antitrust concerns from the European Commission, Microsoft last week said third-party security software will be able to access the kernel of 64-bit versions of Vista and disable alerts sent out by the Windows Security Center. Both capabilities had been requested by security companies but previously denied by Microsoft.

McAfee, Symantec and others had charged that Microsoft was hurting competition and creating an unfair advantage for its own products through the kernel protection and Windows Security Center features.

Microsoft on Monday supplied security companies with the technology to suppress Windows Security Center alerts. The company, however, had not yet communicated about the kernel protection features, called PatchGuard.

The Thursday meeting will discuss scheduling for development of the technologies to work with the Vista kernel, Microsoft said. But, according to the representative, these APIs - or application program interfaces - will not be ready until after Microsoft releases Vista to PC makers and CD factories.

That timing means security companies won't be able to ship certain products for 64-bit versions of Vista until later. Also, the kernel access features won't exist in the first release of the new operating system and will have to be added in an update, such as a service pack.

Such a delay is not likely to please Microsoft's security rivals. A McAfee spokesman said: "From McAfee's perspective, it is not at all acceptable for Microsoft to wait until a service pack and not offer us kernel access until after the launch of Vista."

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com