Windows Vista by itself is immune to existing Windows malware, but third
party email applications could compromise the operating system's security,
Microsoft's co-president for the platform and services division charged in a
blog posting.
The Windows chief responded to a
study that security vendor
Sophos published late November. The firm
tried to infect a system running Vista with the ten most prevalent viruses of
November 2006, and found that three of those were able to penetrate the
operating system's defenses.
The study raised eyebrows because Microsoft typically touts Windows Vista
security features as one of the software's top benefits.