The controversy around the "Danom" MSH/Monad virus family and whether it is the first virus for Windows Vista or not is clearing up.

Last night Microsoft Security Response Center's Blog wrote - and I quote: "Monad will not be included in the final version of Windows Vista".

This is the first time Microsoft in any official way announced that Monad will not be in the release version of Windows Vista (until this there were just various rumors). So I mailed Stephen Toulouse who wrote the blog entry. And he confirmed: "The current plan of record is that it won't be in Windows Vista".

So that's it. The Danom viruses will not run in the default Windows Vista. They are not Windows Vista viruses. They are just MSH viruses.

While talking about MSH: many people have asked us how to get the beta version.

Get it by following these instructions (thanks to Adam Barr):

1. Go to beta.microsoft.com
2. Sign in using your Passport account
3. Enter guest ID "mshPDC"
4. Click on "Microsoft Command Shell Preview" link
5. Follow directions
- OR -
1. Download and install the WinFX SDK Beta 1
2. From the Start menu, choose "All Programs", then "Microsoft Windows SDK", then "Install Windows Command Shell"

Latest beta of MSH works fine under Windows XP - and it is a very nice and very powerful shell!