Gadgets built into XP

[PC Freak]

With all the new gadgets built into XP such as cd burner, firewall, and many more, it's a wonder they haven't incorperated an anti-virus into the OS. Why not? I'm not ranting or raving. I would even like to see it. They could partner with McAfee, Symantec or any other third party verndor and offer an anti-virus program built in.
The more I think about it, the better it sounds. With Microsoft going for more of an Internet approach with it's products you'd think they'd like to protect it from virus's right out of the box.

Food for thought.

 

[corkyg]

True! However . . . that might have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Microsoft is already treading on thin ice by adding all these features (that most of us would just as soon not have!) to somewhat force new and inexperienced users to use them and not the better, more capable 3rd party ones. The Firewall is a good example, and so is the CD burner. They are "lite" versions and only get in the way for most of us.

Had they included a AV program, they would have had to support it with weekly updates of virus DAT files, and they may not want to have to invest in that. It is a rather specialized, labor intensive field. Also, that would have pushed an angry Symantec and NAI over to the anti-Microsoft camp, and could have resulted in a different court decision.

There was also the matter of time . . . they wanted XP to hit the street before the judge made her decision so that it would be almost impossible to turn around and have M$ remove those "features" not necessary to have in an operating system.

 

[PC Freak]

I didn't think about the weekly update...good point. But if Symantec were contracted in to provide the 'lite' ver they would also do the nav updates...i'd think.