64-bit Windows anti-virus not yet mainstream

Companies looking to become early adopters of Microsoft’s Windows x64 Edition OSes encountered a reason to postpone the decision: They may find their favorite anti-virus software no longer works on their new desktops.

Microsoft maintains that most software written for older, 32-bit versions of Windows is compatible with the 64-bit version of the operating system, released in April. Due to changes to the kernel component of Windows, however, certain types of software must be rewritten for the company’s 64-bit versions of Windows.

“Every time that we do a major shift in the kernel, …any software that runs in kernel mode needs to be rewritten,” said Brian Marr, senior product manager in the Windows client group at Microsoft.

For the x64 Edition of Windows, that means device drivers and anti-virus software, in particular, will need to be rewritten. “Beyond that, there aren’t too many types of applications that hook into the Windows kernel that deeply,” Marr said.

Thus, companies that use products such as McAfee’s Internet Security Suite or Trend Micro’s PC-cillin Internet Security will have to wait until 2006, when the first x64 Edition products from these companies are expected to ship. Enterprise customers can purchase Symantec’s AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.0 product, which supports x64 Windows. Symantec officials did not say whether Symantec planned to make a 64-bit version of its anti-virus software for small business or home users.

Hoping to capitalize on the gap in anti-virus products, Eset released a version of its NOD32 software for 64-bit systems last month. Eset’s software is capable of determining whether it is being used in 32-bit or 64-bit mode, and both types of systems can be managed by a single piece of management software, called the NOD32 Remote Administrator. “The 64-bit support that we provide is pretty much seamless to the user,” said Andi Lee, CTO of Eset.

Lee said early adopters will want anti-virus software.  “One of the biggest pains is going to be the fact that a lot of the big players don’t have an [anti-virus] solution,” he said.

Still, that pain will be limited to a small group of desktop users, Microsoft’s Marr said. Microsoft expects that until the full release of Windows Vista, expected in late 2006, 64-bit computing on Windows will be confined to the “ultrahigh-end user in the business space,” he said.

“We do expect 64-bit computing to become more mainstream,” Marr said. “I think that time is probably more in the [Windows Vista] time frame. … That’s really the time that I would expect more anti-virus vendors to come online.”

Although it concedes there may be user pain in the interim, Microsoft expects users will see security-related performance improvements when 64-bit anti-virus products hit the mainstream. Encryption, for example, should be noticeably faster, Marr said.

“Sixty-four-bit Windows is an entirely new opportunity to bring in an entirely new wave of things,” Marr said. “It should be able to scan a system faster than a 32-bit system.”