Those who have are largely copying the Vista distribution model, making software available for download by enterprise customers but holding back on releasing packaged versions until the commercial release of Vista in January.

In a typical example, Symantec this week announced that it is slogging away at Vista-enabled versions of its antivirus products. Enterprise customers can already access the new versions, but the consumer-branded Norton products remain in beta. McAfee has similar options for its enterprise customers,

CA has adopted a similar but slower approach, with a beta for its enterprise and consumer products running since June, but no final release prior to Vista's own retail availability. The company can boast, however, that its product is being used by Microsoft itself on its own extensive in-house Vista installation.

Some of the industry's other players have proved more nimble. AVG has made its free version of its anti-virus software available for download to users of the Vista beta program, and says a commercial version of both the free and paid product will be available.

An analysis by Sophos suggests that three of the ten most prevalent current software threats, so the problem isn't an academic one. Sophos, which only offers business version and has already upgraded its client software to run on Vista, says that the three account for 39.9% of current circulating malware.

The entire security industry could be under threat from the Redmond giant itself. Microsoft has launched its own antivirus service, OneCare, but hasn't yet outlined plans for offering it outside the US. And despite enjoying an obvious advantage in terms of code access, it hasn't made any plans public for a Vista release, offering support only for Windows XP to date.

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