LANDesk Antivirus 9.5 and Windows 8.1

This article applies to LANDesk Antivirus 9.5 and 9.5 SP1

Current Status

LANDesk Antivirus is NOT supported on Windows 8.1 at this time. (Last update: 04 November 2013)

LANDesk is working diligently with our partners to extend support for LANDesk Antivirus on Windows 8.1.  Kaspersky currently expects to have their update ready by December 2013.  LANDesk will work to make the update available as quickly as possible after it has been released.

Please watch this document for updates.

For more information about support for Windows 8.1 in LANDesk Management Suite see: LANDesk Management Suite and Windows 8.1

Issue

LANDesk Antivirus 9.5 does not support Windows 8.1. There are a few different problems that may occur:

• Various error messsage may appear on the client device when the LANDesk Antivirus service attempts to start.
• The client device will not be left without antivirus protection

Microsoft is expected to release an update from Windows 8.0 to Windows 8.1 on October 17, 2013.

Microsoft Windows 8.1 Home

Update to Windows 8.1: FAQ

The Kaspersky AntiVirus engine that LANDesk Software uses is not currently compatible with Windows 8.1.

Here is the official Kaspersky announcement: Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 for Windows (for workstations)

Recommendation

LANDesk recommends that LANDesk Antivirus users not upgrade to Windows 8.1 until a compatible version of LANDesk Antivirus has been released by LANDesk.

To prevent users from upgrading, it is recommended to block the update from appearing in the store. 

Microsoft has provided a way to block the update from being displayed in the Windows 8.1 Store.

The work around is listed under "Deployment" in the following technet article: Windows 8.1 FAQ for IT Professionals

1. Open Regedit
2. Navigate to “HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore”
3. Create a DWORD named "DisableOSUpgrade"
4. Set its value to 1.

LANDesk has added patch definition "Windows81Blocker_INTL" to patch manager that will set the above registry key.

Once Kasperky releases a compatible version LANDesk will strive to release it as soon as possible. Please watch this article for updates.