Windows 8's antivirus only active if no other AV program detected
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 4th Jun 2012 19:28 UTC
Windows "Microsoft's Windows 8 will activate its built-in antivirus software only if it senses that the PC is not protected by another security program, according to AV vendor McAfee." That's one way to appease antivirus companies, I suppose.
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RE: Hm?
by DrillSgt on Tue 5th Jun 2012 14:13 UTC in reply to "Hm?"
DrillSgt
Member since:
2005-12-02

The article is quite light on details, leaving me wondering if these 3rd party AVs must be somehow signed by Microsoft for Windows to 'detect' their presence or will they just use some built-in functionality to alert Windows to their presence?

This is important because if it's the latter then what's stopping malware from doing that same thing? If it's the first then that would obviously be the safer choice, though it creates some extra steps for 3rd-party AV-makers to take.


If it works like it does now, they do not have to be signed by Microsoft, though they are detected. As it works currently, the Windows Security Center will warn you if you have no AV installed, and if you do have an AV installed, it will warn you if it is out of date.

There already is malware that detects certain AV and even disables them so the malware goes undetected. When that happens the AV companies are normally extremely quick to send an update, so most people don't even notice or get infected.

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