Microsoft Gives Vista Data to Security Software Firms

Microsoft Corp. said Monday that it had given Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. some of the information they wanted to make their security products work with Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista.

Microsoft spokesman Tom Brookes said the software interfaces for the Windows Security Center -- Vista’s new “security dashboard” -- were uploaded to a website for software developers.

Both security companies had complained that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft was withholding key data they needed to develop software compatible with Vista before it was handed over to computer manufacturers next month. Consumers should be able to begin buying the new operating system in January.

“We still don’t know if we have everything we need or not,” Symantec spokesman Cris Paden said. McAfee did not immediately comment.

Microsoft also said it planned to talk to Symantec of Cupertino, Calif., and McAfee Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., to discuss changes they wanted made to Microsoft’s anti-hacking tool, Patchguard.

Symantec wanted its software to be excluded from Patchguard’s scope so it would not be wrongly identified as a threat to the system.

On Friday, Microsoft said it had changed key aspects of Vista to soothe European antitrust worries.

But the European Union antitrust office refused to back Microsoft’s contention that European concerns had been met. “The jury is out,” EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said.