Microsoft appeases Kaspersky with upcoming antivirus changes

Microsoft plans to introduces changes in the soon-to-be released Windows 10 Fall Creators update that intensifies the cooperation with third-party antivirus and security companies that publish products for Windows.

Russian antivirus and security company Kaspersky criticized Microsoft's handling of third-party antivirus in Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.

Kaspersky's main points of criticism were that Microsoft enabled Windows Defender as soon as installed antivirus solutions expired,  and that upgrades to Windows 10, and Windows 10 feature updates led to the removal of third-party antivirus solutions due to incompatibilities.

Starting with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft plans to introduce changes to improve support for security partners in "delivering security protections to Windows customers".

The company plans to change how users are informed about expiring security solutions. Windows 10 notified users in the Security Center up until now, and enabled Windows Defender in the process as well to enable protection on the system (since the third-party security solution expired).

The reworked flow shows a persistent notification on the Windows desktop that notifies users about the expiration and stays there until users renew the software license that expired, or switch Windows Defender or another installed security solution on instead.

Third-party security software vendors may create custom alerts and notifications on top of that to notify customers before and after their security products have expired to display options to renew the security products.

Another set of changes comes in form of better pre-release cooperation with security companies. Microsoft offers to help companies "with compatibility reviews in advance of each feature update" for instance.

Additionally, Microsoft plans to "better visibility and certainty around release schedules for feature updates".

Basically, what Microsoft hopes these two changes lead to is a reduction in software incompatibilities with Windows 10 Feature updates. Software that is deemed incompatible with Windows 10 will be removed from the system during feature updates.

If security companies get more help resolving these issues, less solutions may be removed due to incompatibilities.

It appears that Microsoft has settled its dispute with Kaspersky thanks to these upcoming changes.

We appreciate the feedback and continued dialogue with our partners and are pleased to have found common ground with Kaspersky Lab on the complaints raised in Russia and Europe.

Closing Words

Windows 10 users will be notified with a persistent notification when their antivirus software expires, and antivirus software companies may display custom notifications about the expiration -- before and after -- as well.

While that is nothing that experienced users may need or like, it is probably a good option for users who are less experienced when it comes to this.

Now You: What's your take on the announced change? (via Deskmodder)