Why is there no anti-virus?

Konstantin Klyagin

If there were Greenpeace for the computer security, which would take care of the rare species in the information technology world, they probably wouldn't let completely extinguish one very interesting creature. Creature, celebrating this winter its 20 years jubilee.

Figure 1. Why is there no anti-virus?

I am speaking of the first PC virus, called Brian. Though it's not the first computer virus ever (which appeared earlier, in the year 1982 for the Apple II platform), the Brian virus is important for the computers world, just like Brian Adams is important to his recording label. As the PC was invented, computers started to play a growing role in the regular people lives, not only in those of smelly scientists with thick glasses. This way, PC viruses became more important phenomena.

Another piece of software for the Intel platform, born in 1985, just a year before Brian, successfully survived till our days. Initially a graphics environment to run solitaire, in the beginning it didn't write any of its code into the boot sector – it ran under the MS-DOS operating system instead. Now, after 21 years of ongoing development and subsequent versions, Windows is an operating system itself. This year a new version called Vista is to be released. Microsoft is not going to ship any anti-virus software in the same box, Vista's main brand new feature being security.

I doubt that's the real reason for not including an anti-virus by default in the distribution package. If allowed, those guys would include a vacuum cleaner into their operating system just to convert you into a Microsoft technology user. And it wouldn't be too bad. The more I think about it, the more attractive I found the idea. No, really, why do I have to look for a third-party vacuum cleaner if my favorite operating system is there? Don't forget it cost some 60 bucks for an OEM version, added to the price of my notebook.

Anyway, the why is there no anti-virus? question is easy to answer, especially if you remember the fights Bill Gates' company fought for the Internet Explorer and then for the Windows Media Player applications. In both cases there were problems with them shipping the stuff with the operating system. No wonder they don't want to repeat that with the anti-virus.

Think of the consumers who actually pay for the Microsoft products. Mostly they are either businesses or OEM users, who buy Windows with their computers. I suppose they don't have trouble connecting their boxes to the Internet. Moreover, they are very likely to be permanently connected.

Roughly speaking, it's enough to add a download the anti-virus button to the control panel to make the software virtually included into the distribution kit. Just one click, and it's there, installed and running. Symantec and McAfee already stated they would accept Microsoft as a new player on the consumer anti-virus market and won't get regulators to do something about it. Not because they want Microsoft there, but this time everything is clean, the software is not included, thus no anti-trust laws apply.

If I were a software architect at Microsoft, I would design the anti-virus thing in Visa the following way. To avoid a long download time, I would put all the anti-virus code into the OS system libraries. What is actually downloaded when you press the button, is an EXE of 5 kilobytes, which simply calls the StartAntivirus() API function. No problem with the API, for it's closed anyway. Clean solution.

Now, what Symantec, McAfee and smaller anti-virus vendors can do about it? There are many options for them. Prospective on another consumer markets are really bright. Vacuum cleaners are not the worst option.