After Natalya Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab, has downplayed the Microsoft's relevance in the security field in the context of Windows Vista and OneCare, the Moscow based company has made available anti-virus solutions with support for the Redmond Company's latest operating system.

Released on December 28, the Maintenance Pack 2 Beta for Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 and Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 adds compatibility for Windows Vista. Although the maintenance pack includes additional features, Kaspersky revealed that it considers Vista support the core aspect for both beta versions.

"Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 combines reactive antivirus detection with the latest proactive technologies to provide your computer with solid and dependable protection against malicious programs. Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 is a fully integrated solution that protects your computer from all of the most common Internet threats, including viruses, hacker attacks, adware, spam and spyware," explained Kaspersky.

According to Kaspersky, Maintenance Pack 2 Beta will make Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 and Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 fully compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista. Unlike Symantec and McAfee, Kaspersky's security solutions do not need Microsoft's APIs for the Kernel Patch Protection technology introduced in Vista, and therefore, can deliver complete support for 32-bit and 64-bit platforms before the operating system will be generally available on January 29, 2007.

"Maintenance Pack 2 includes all the features and additions that were included in the first Maintenance pack, including full-scale support for Windows XP 64-bit Edition, extended on-demand scanning functionality, a number of improvements to the proactive defense module and protection of Windows Task Manager against injection of malicious dynamic-link libraries (dll)," added Kaspersky.