Kaspersky Adds Vista Support To Consumer Antivirus

Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab on Thursday updated its consumer security product line with beta support for Microsoft's Windows Vista, the next-generation operating system that will roll out to retail the end of next month.

Maintenance Pack 2 for both Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 (KAV) and Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 6.0 adds Vista support to the pair of programs, which debuted in May 2006. Current users can download the update free of charge.

"Many of our users have expressed interest in Vista, and we are providing a clear path for them to do so," Steve Orenberg, company president, said in a statement. "Customers can confidently continue to enjoy protection from Kaspersky regardless of which operating system they choose."

Kaspersky is only the latest security vendor to update its consumer line to account for Vista. Symantec, for example, has had betas of Vista versions of its Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security available for several weeks.

The maintenance pack for KAV and KIS can be downloaded from several Kaspersky FTP servers.