Because they are a huge bureaucracy, they are looking for solutions through control.
This is understandable. That's what bureaucracies do. It won't work, of course.
The problem is that Microsoft's huge security debt (by analogy to technical debt) has historically been paid by its customers. The real reason that your bank is running Windows XP SP4 with IE7 (the new browser, they just got it last month) is because their IT folks are paying down Microsoft's debt. If Microsoft Office file formats didn't contain executable code (historical legacy: debt) and the OS didn't inconsistently confuse file extensions with file formats (historical reasons: debt) and email didn't default to HTML (so you can get a pretty blue underlined Comic Sans signature line) piped through 90% of a full browser (historical reasons: debt), then half of their problems would go away.
The other half are deeper and more systematically rooted in their architecture decisions. Still, it's Microsoft being Microsoft. Their products carry hidden costs, just like light bulbs that become toxic waste. The consumer pays the price, one way or another.
Microsoft has a huge malware problem.
Because they are a huge bureaucracy, they are looking for solutions through control.
This is understandable. That's what bureaucracies do. It won't work, of course.
The problem is that Microsoft's huge security debt (by analogy to technical debt) has historically been paid by its customers. The real reason that your bank is running Windows XP SP4 with IE7 (the new browser, they just got it last month) is because their IT folks are paying down Microsoft's debt. If Microsoft Office file formats didn't contain executable code (historical legacy: debt) and the OS didn't inconsistently confuse file extensions with file formats (historical reasons: debt) and email didn't default to HTML (so you can get a pretty blue underlined Comic Sans signature line) piped through 90% of a full browser (historical reasons: debt), then half of their problems would go away.
The other half are deeper and more systematically rooted in their architecture decisions. Still, it's Microsoft being Microsoft. Their products carry hidden costs, just like light bulbs that become toxic waste. The consumer pays the price, one way or another.