Security companies tell Vole to open up

At the heart of the matter will be the new Security Centre in the Vista operating system. The EU has warned Vole that this centre could be used to knock out a thriving software security market.

According to News.com, Symantec, McAfee, Check Point Software Technologies and other companies have written to Vole demanding that it change Vista's security centre.

They want Vole to make it easier to replace the operating system's built-in Windows Security Center on the desktop with their products.

Just like it did with Media Player, Microsoft is telling those that complain to go forth and multiply. A spokesSymantec said that by imposing the Windows Security Center on all Windows users, Vole was defining a template through which everybody looks at security.

Windows Security Center has been around since Service Pack 2, but Vista adds new categories and management tools. Microsoft said that it is possible to run third-party security consoles in Vista, but punters will have to manually disable the Windows Security Center.

That would be OK, said the security companies, if Vole gave it the power to switch off the Security Centre as part of the download of their software. Microsoft thinks that giving third party's control to switch off Vista's security centre would be a breach of security.

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