Avira 'fesses up: Our software isn't compatible with Windows 8 Freebie anti-virus firm Avira has admitted its security software is not compatible with either Windows 8 or Windows 12 Server. The German firm issued an advisory on Friday admitting its products would not be compatible with Windows 8 until the first quarter of 2013 after users complained that attempting to run Avira's software …
It's not like Windows 8 has just taken the world by surprise (there's been 3 preview/beta builds since September 2011). Are the underlying AV hooks in Windows 8 really that different from Windows 7? I can't imagine they are.
Or is this a case of another company bypassing/abusing undocumented API features rather than doing the right thing?
Hardware drivers I can understand.
But a software-only antivirus package should NEVER BSOD a machine. It shouldn't be possible at all.
Impressive that they can do it, in fact.
I have BSOD'd Windows 8 but that was just playing about with explorer (nothing tricksy, just file management) on a perfectly clean VM image - which shows that MS are maintaining their usual quality.
Would you have liked to spend half-a-million updating some huge piece of antivirus software that ties into everything from file-access hooks to memory-scanning for, say, Windows ME.
Because nobody was actually ever sure that 8 would be a success of out. To be honest, I think the jury's still out at the moment. Sure, there's no reason why you shouldn't *look* at the possibility, but to just suggest that every software manufacturer should be automatically ready on Windows 8 launch would only be Microsoft's dream.
In reality, if their software BSOD's on Windows 8 when using the same code as they had on Windows 7, that's quite a serious problem that might take forever to determine the cause of. For a start, the two OS are basically the same under the hood so something, somewhere changed and will require new code (not just patching of old), testing, deployment, etc. and then be checked to work with Windows 7, Vista, XP, etc. If the software had had some small tiny problems or "worked except for feature X because of Windows 8 feature Y", then I don't see why they couldn't have patched-and-shipped.
But a BSOD is pretty serious and probably means they are running driver-level hooks into the OS to capture file accesses etc. in a way nobody else does (or we'd all be BSOD'ing!). That's a deep level bit of programming that might even require MS certification if you want your program to install without horrendous security dialogs etc.
And all for something that might still be a total flop.
I can't blame them for holding out. And I know of nobody with any significant amount of machines that would be deploying or even testing Windows 8 for at least another year or so. And there are alternates available so people are quite welcome to vote with their wallet which might prompt more of a development spur than anything else.
I don't get the fuss, to be honest.
Something which the home market would use, like AV should be tested on something which OEMs are going to provide.
Whatever your views on Windows 8 are, there will be a lot of Windows 8 machines on the field from new hardware purchases.
If I were making a game (not the Big Game of Twenty Thirteen (TM), but Simulator-game Simulator) or a niche app, I might consider holding off.
If I were making a potentially widespread app (AV/Backup/PowerLink/etc) then I would want to try and maximise the coverage.
An AV causing BSOD is more likely than another app doing a BSOD, since it pokes around more than Notepad, for example.
It is though another non story: Developer didn't prepare for next Windows launch, Developer gets bitten by incompatibility.
...I'll consider recommending something other than MSSE / SCEP.
I really, really hoped that MS' entry into the AV market would cause AV vendors to wake up and migrate from the Addictive Update Model.
There's more to security than anti-virus, but there are finally favourable things being said about Microsoft Security Essentials, which to me seems to be simply renamed as Windows Defender for Windows 8. Evidently, third-party competing products do need to justify themselves. Having said that, disabling the competitor's product is another familiar Microsoft trick just as renaming parts of the system to confuse users is.
Avira are only promising to have a compatible product for Q1 2013, but there's a {easonable chance of them getting their stuff fixed before then - even with the holiday season to get through.
And, probably, a security product monoculture would be a bad thing. Better if evil programmers have multiple systems in existence to challenge them.
Agree. It's easy to criticize Avira for not being ready for a change that's had a long preview cycle, especially when their software just crashes instead of warning of the incompatibility. But those who don't have the joy of managing software development projects may not appreciate that it's often slightly more difficult than waving one's magic wand. At least they straightforwardly acknowledged the problem, didn't make any excuses, and gave a time frame for fixing it. Would that all software companies did the same!
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
