64-Bit Windows Anti-Virus Not Yet Mainstream

2 Aug, 2005 at 7:39pm ET Article published in Tech

In some less than shocking news, companies looking to become early adopters of Microsoft’s recently released 64-Bit version of Windows XP, may have good reason to wait a bit longer till they upgrade.

Windows XP x64’s adoption rate is sadly being effected for the worse because of wide spread lack of peripheral driver and essential software support. Many mainstream anti-virus products still don’t work under the new operating system with essential devices such as printers and modems still unable to function under the new 64-bit kernel.

“Every time that we do a major shift in the kernel, …any software that runs in kernel mode needs to be rewritten,” said Brian Marr, senior product manager in the Windows client group at Microsoft.
…
“We do expect 64-bit computing to become more mainstream,” Marr said. “I think that time is probably more in the [Windows Vista] time frame. … That’s really the time that I would expect more anti-virus vendors to come online.”

I own a copy of Windows XP x64 but I don’t use it because if I did my Webcam, Modem, Printer and Antivirus software would cease to function.

Source: Infoworld

Comments

2 Aug 2005 ~ 10:59pm drasnor McAffee VirusScan Enterprise 8 supports AMD x64. It isn't cheap either.

Not like there's a whole lot of viruses that will work under x64 either.

-drasnor
3 Aug 2005 ~ 12:15am DanG F-Prot makes a 64bit AV program, but do you really need protection from both 64bit viruses out there?

I totally agree about 64bit not catching on yet due to the pitiful driver support from many manufacturers. What happens if I want to print? Saving the file on a shared drive and then logging into a 32bit computer is going to get really old really quickly.
3 Aug 2005 ~ 1:09am Shorty 64-bit support will come though

Who here remembers when Windows 2000 hit the racks..?? Finding a driver was a voyage of discovery and program support was just hideous.

It'l come in time
3 Aug 2005 ~ 3:38am Nosferatu I have my 64-bit machine running x64 working great now. The only things I'm waiting on are CD/DVD Emulation apps (Alcohol 52%/120%, Daemon Tools, etc.). For AV I'm using the free Avast! Anti-Virus. Not sure how good it is, but better than nothing (I only use it as a scanner, no resident scanning/protection). My device drivers are all working great, though there is no mouseware for my keyboard.. but i didn't use that anyway.