McAfee advertises its Windows woes

An unholy row has broken out between Microsoft and software security companies.

Last week security companies McAfee and Symantec accused Microsoft of endangering the online safety of consumers who will use the forthcoming Vista operating system.

The companies have for the first time been denied access to key computer code they would use to make security software such as anti-virus and anti-spyware effective.

McAfee said: "Microsoft's plan leaves millions of users extremely vulnerable to new threats and locks out the good guys along with the bad.

"It is completely unrealistic to think that hackers and perpetrators won’t figure out a way to crack Vista’s kernel. In fact, they already have."

The row centres on third-party security developers being denied access to the core, or kernel, of Vista.

McAfee said the end result could be that Vista users would have to rely on Microsoft's own security products, such as the company's One Care, which is a combined anti-virus and PC care package.

McAfee was so incensed that it took out a full page advert in last Tuesday's edition of the Financial Times. It said it believes that computer users around the globe "recognise that many of the most serious threats to security today exist because of inherent weaknesses in the Microsoft operating system.

"These users will therefore want to look beyond Microsoft for security".

Microsoft countered the allegations and said: "Partners are at the core of Microsoft's business model. We have worked closely with our security partners throughout the development of Windows Vista, and we continue to do so."