By now you've heard that the Security Center in the Windows Vista October Community Technical Preview (CTP) is sporting a status bar titled Spyware Protection.

Although the status bar is merely a placeholder and the operating system doesn't actually contain antispyware software at this point in time, the presence of the Spyware Protection status bar is a good indication of what Microsoft has planned for Windows Vista's Security Center.

In this article, I'll take a closer look at the Spyware Protection status bar and explore the implications of its presence. As I do so, I'll expound on the potential for expansion of Microsoft's Security initiative in Windows Vista.

Spyware protection
It's no real secret that Microsoft has been working on its standalone Windows AntiSpyware software for some time now independent of Windows Vista. In fact, shortly after Microsoft's December 2004 acquisition of the antispyware technology created by Giant Company Software, a beta of Windows AntiSpyware (renamed to Windows Defender) became freely available on Microsoft's Security At Home site. It makes sense that Microsoft would include the AntiSpyware technology in its next operating system.

As you might expect, the idea that Microsoft would bundle its own AntiSpyware technology in Windows Vista has many folks up in arms and shouting antitrust law violation. However, when you actually click the Recommendations button in the Spyware Protection status panel, the resulting dialog box contains a check box that reads "I have an antispyware program that I will monitor myself", which indicates that Microsoft will leave the door open for users to easily install a third-party antispyware program if they so desire.

We've seen a similar check box before. In Windows XP SP2, the Security Center contains a Virus Protection status panel that indicates users can install any third-party antivirus program they want.

Antivirus
It's not hard to imagine that we could possibly see a native Microsoft antivirus program in Windows Vista in the near future. After all, Microsoft did acquire antivirus technology in 2003 when it bought Romanian antivirus software developer GeCad Software and Israeli security software developer Pelican Security.

As you can imagine, having a native antivirus program would be a real benefit in that the operating system would be able to defend itself from potential harm right out of the box. And as I've already stated, the Virus Protection status panel in Windows XP SP2, as well as in Windows Vista, indicates that users can install any third-party antivirus program they want.

The OneCare connection
Further backing up the speculation of native antispyware/antivirus software in Windows Vista is the fact that over the summer (in the US), Microsoft began a limited beta test program for a new standalone security package called OneCare. This package combines antispyware software with antivirus and firewall software along with several tune-up tools for Windows PCs.

The malicious software removal tool connection
While OneCare, Windows AntiSpyware and the antivirus software are all in various stages of development at this point in time, Microsoft is already using the technology gained from its security software acquisitions in its Malicious Software Removal Tool. As you may know, when you connect to the Windows Update site and run a scan for updates, one of the things that the site does is run the Malicious Software Removal Tool which is designed to detect and remove the most common malicious software from your system before updates are downloaded and installed.

There are also two ways that you can manually run the scan anytime you want. You can visit the Malicious Software Removal Tool page on the Microsoft site to run the scan. You can even download a version of the Malicious Software Removal Tool to run locally. (Two things to keep in mind here: This tool is not a replacement for an antivirus product. Microsoft updates this tool on the second Tuesday of each month.)

A bit of history
If you're wondering, the antivirus software arena is not uncharted territory for Microsoft. Back in the olden days Microsoft did indeed bundle stripped down versions of Central Point Anti-Virus with its operating systems. MS-DOS 6 came with Microsoft Anti-Virus for MS-DOS and Windows 3.x came with Microsoft Anti-Virus for Windows.

Now, as I close, it's important that I point out that Windows Vista's release date is over a year away.

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