Microsoft is placing a huge emphasis on security on Windows Vista. With

all of the problems that IT professionals have with spyware and

viruses, Microsoft knew that it had to do more to make the next version

of Windows secure.

Having just released the first beta for Vista, CNET News.com reports that there are already viruses

in existence that can affect Vista. Four days. I don’t think that’s a

record for a security problem to appear, but it sure didn’t take too

long.

Microsoft points out that the vulnerability so far only theoretical and

only affects the Monad feature in Vista. Monad is the new command

shell that Microsoft is using to replace the creaky Command Prompt with

its echoes of DOS circa 1985. Along with the WinFS feature, Monad is a

Vista feature that Microsoft tossed over the side in an effort to get

Vista shipping on time.

Microsoft says Monad will probably appear by the time that Exchange 12

ships next year. Microsoft has also talked about creating a version of

Monad that will run on earlier versions of Windows, but it will be hard

to see how they’ll get that to work.

In any case, there’s plenty of time for them to plug the hole before

real viruses appear. Even so, it’s clear that just because Microsoft

says that the next version of Windows is going to emphasize security,

it doesn’t mean that hackers aren’t going to try to poke holes in it.