Symantec Support for 64-bit Vista Systems
Late last year David Sykes, Vice President Pacific for Symantec, was reported as saying that Symantec will only offer a 32-bit edition of its suite for Vista (click here for link). That is pretty major as they are among the very biggest vendors in the market. I’ve had several conversations with people very concerned about this and what kind of trend this could set off. I dug a little deeper to see what the other antivirus vendors are doing: McAfee VirusScan will support both 32 and 64-bit. Grisoft AVG AntiVirus will support both 32 and 64-bit. Avast! Antivirus supports both 32 and 64-bit today. Hmm…
From what I can see—Symantec changed its mind: both Antivirus Corporate and Enterprise Editions report in their compatibility information online that “Version 10.2 offers client antivirus/antispyware compatibility with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista” (http://www.symantec.com/vista/index.jsp).
But reading on I found that Symantec is reported in the press as stating that “elements of the security software will still work, but PatchGuard will prevent all of them from functioning.”
McAfee VirusScan will have a couple of features that do not run on 64-bit systems, including Buffer Overflow Protection, Scanning of Lotus Notes databases, and its Alert Manager 4.7.1.
Put simply, both Symantec and McAfee (and all other third party vendors) are limited from implementing features that patch the operating system’s kernel to ensure process monitoring. Currently, this is due 64-bit Windows Vista PatchGuard or Kernel Patch Protection. This was actually introduced in 64-bit Windows Server 2003 and in 64-bit XP SP 2005 and it keeps these behavior-based security technologies from functioning. Symantec and McAfee have been vocal in complaining about Microsoft’s assistance in dealing with the matter, especially Symantec. As of now, many products report support for Vista 64-bit and it is true—it is just some of the technologies that Symantec and McAfee have in their security suites cannot do their jobs.
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Comments
I was told by a sales person at best buy that norton 2007 would run on vista and paid for it and it will not work. I have gone to symantec web site and still haven't found a patch for to be used. I can't take the cd back of course, so beware of what you buy for vista until microsoft works alot of bugs out of the OS system,vista almost is too safe for the average people,people just want a better OS system,web cams want work also printers,tv tuner cards video cards, I think they should of told the people all this before make a big hipe over vista.I build computer and windows xp pro is still the best for all people right now,beware is all I can say
mark kinney
Posted by: mark kinney | February 12, 2007 5:59 PM
Hi Mark, thanks for commenting. Perhaps a sales guy at Best Buy may not be the best source of information on something like this ;)
I agree that the many compatibility issues that you may be experiencing are definitely frustrating—I largely blame vendors for a lack of support. There has been ample time for compatibility issues to be worked out; at the very least, a patch, fix or beta upgrade should be available by this time.
Norton seems to have thing pretty well in hand at this time, visit this link for compatibility updates and patches: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2006103014574413?Open&src=_mi
As for security, it is an ugly fact of life for us all. If Vista were not heavily locked down out of the box it would face far more criticism. Any or all of the problems you face with the security settings can be disabled if you wish, but I sure would not recommend it!
Posted by: Bob | February 13, 2007 10:19 PM
I just upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit and also upgraded the computer hardware to handle the new OS. All my programs run great except the MSN security tools which I think are McAfee and Webroot anti-spyware. I have a three year old Canon printer and they even wrote a driver for 64 bit Vista, and it is on a print server and is working great. Currently I am depending on Avast Antivirus, Windows Firewall as well as the hardware firewall in my router and DSL modem. I have been using 64 bit Windows Server 2003 for several years. I would have thought the security software companies would be up to speed by now.
Posted by: Robert | April 8, 2007 7:43 AM
Excellent to hear a success story here Robert. Thanks!
Posted by: Bob Kelly | April 10, 2007 9:55 PM
I am running MS XP Professional 64-bit version.
I have a HP Laserjet 1100 office printer and have found the 64-bit OS will not accept the 32-bit fonts software supplied by HP, so this makes the printer obsolete for my work, and worse, I cannot now edit any of my existing work which uses the OS Omega typeface because this is not supplied with MS Office 2000.
I cannot find any help from HP, other than new 64-bit printer drivers for the Laserjet 1100.
Posted by: Ted Bentley | June 30, 2007 5:26 AM