This does not appear to bode well for Microsoft's unrelenting security sales pitch:

"After a week of extensive testing, the CRN Test Center found that users of Windows Vista and Windows XP are equally at risk to viruses and exploits and that overall Vista brings only marginal security advantages over XP."

CRN took Vista and XP "into the wild, wild Web" with only the default security settings of both operating systems enabled. Here are some highlights from the report:

During testing, some 20 viruses were encountered. Neither OS blocked any of them.

"Vista's Windows Defender, which is designed to detect various malware, gives the new OS a slight edge over XP when detecting spyware and adware sites," CRN reported.

Vista blocked one trojan, but allowed another that was identified in September 2006, before Vista launched. XP let both trojans through.

In all, CRN performed six tests.