Ah, Windows Needs an Antivirus?

Every now and then I see people using anti virus programs on XP and Vista boxes.
If someone writes about computer problems, first response often is "you may have a virus, which antivirus are you using?"

This surprises me. My attitude always was that Microsoft has good programmers, not in any way inferior to Symantec or Norton employees. And they are thinking how to make Windows secure too. I came up with an idea "leave that Windows install alone, it will not get a virus. Antiviruses are only system hogs. Antivirus producers learned how to make money from people's natural fear of poorly understood and unknown things, like... computer viruses."

Over the years I've been following this rule on my two XP laptops and now on Vista, that sit connected to the internet all the time. None of them ever had any antivirus installed. None had problems, none had virus infections. Of course there are two things I've been careful about:
1. I simply never click on suspicious links in suspicious emails.
2. Whenever I download a file I don't trust (happens several time a year), I use free online virus scan for that file only.

My Windows machines couldn't be happier with the antivirus-free computing.

I hope my experience will be useful to someone with the dilemma which antivirus program to install

 

I think you don't visit "holy" sites. If you do, you need to have your computer secure. You also don't need to pay for an antivirus program as many of them are available for free.

Microsoft's programmers aren't that great. That's why they took more than 5 yrs to develop vista.

 

Well, that may work for people following the browsing practices and whatnot that you mentioned, but some people download files several times a day, and it's nice to have a virus scanner on that job.

Furthermore, many computer users worldwide are themselves inexperienced, or their children are inexperienced enough to be at risk from viruses of all sorts.

They don't know what emails to open or not, what to do with malware popups, etc. So what I'm saying is that while that may be an acceptable solution for some people, I still recommend that people who don't know enough to live w/o an antivirus refrain from doing so.

 

I recommend you install NOD32 trial, and run some free anti-virus program scans on your machine. I'm sure you'll find a few trojans/viri on your computer. I suggest you do it now before you files get messed up and you ask us what happened.

 

Good marketing for NOD32.

 

lol...don't mess with the Calvin4t0r...if you're not careful he might give you a virus or two.

 

Yes, i really like it. One of my favorite software. Maybe i should work as their campaign manager.

Nah, i won't give you a virus or two, because i run NOD32.

 

You are leading a charmed life, Alekkh.

Here on my college campus the IT administrators (whom I know well enough to trust) inform me that an unprotected Windows XP machine connected to our network will be crashed by viruses in under a half hour--and that's with nobody using it.

Also, while you may not have the worst viruses, I'll bet even your "safe" use of the Internet puts spyware and adware on your machine. Do a sweep with an up-to-date version of SpyBot S&D, you may be surprised by what you uncover already on your system.

 

I have run without A/V on Win 2K with just a router and the weekly ad aware scan. Never had an issue. However I am now using Kaspersky on XP and Vista and find it fairly light, very effective and worth every penny. I am more than capable of knowing what emails are trustworthy and what sites are sketchy but I also like having that extra layer of security. In all honesty my Kaspersky is not even on all the time as I disable it for gaming and forget to launch it afterwards quite often. But nonetheless I feel better having it.

I think the average user should absolutely run a 3rd party a/v & firewall. Most average users I know can hardly find their My Documents folder, never mind browsing securely or being careful - LOL. And if more than one person is using a machine... you'd be a complete imbesol to not run a 3rd party a/v and firewall.

 

I have been spyware-free since 05'. Spyware was a thing of the past IMO. Spybot did an awesome job eliminating any threat that stood on anyones computer. Now we are faced with Adware and Rootkits. :/

 

While I know that the threats have changed, I still turn up a bit of Spyware on a regular basis, and when I first sweep any machine that's seen internet use I usually find quite a few things. My point was not that Spybot offers great protection, but only that it illustrates the lack of security on an unprotected machine.

 

Ah, I see.

The only threats I receive on my PCs are cookies, ActiveX (but I'm pretty good at keeping them away), and sometimes viruses

 

You use Firefox right? How does ActiveX affect you?

 

Thanks for the replies. Just how I wrote, people believe in antiviruses

Well, if I already have viruses all over my system, God bless them.
These are the kind that don't slow down performance, don't run unregistered threads, don't consume memory, don't leak out my personal information, don't interfere with system stability for many years and have been kind enough not to force me to ask Calvin "what happened to my files" for a good number of years.


P.S.

I tried SpyBot, but stopped using it rather quickly.

If someone seriously wanted to get into my machine, running an antivirus would be the last thing to stop him - period.

 

We believe in anti-virus because for Windows, you need to have anti-virus in Windows. It's not a disputed fact, but even if i didn't need it, and it's a waste of $80, I'd rather have NOD32 running in my tray to give me piece of mind that someone isn't going to be able to steal my sensitive information no matter how hard they try.

 

My views, in italics;

Antivirus softwares are system hogs

Maybe on older machines, but on newer ones with 1GB + RAM they are nothing

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Safe Browsing Habits

This just means your not free to surf the web, always scared you might catch a virus

Im pretty sure people dont intentionally visit sites with intentions of screwing up their systems. Sometimes stuff just happens, people are curios, sometimes you have to visit dogdy sites...and for those times its best to have an antivirus

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With an antivirus people feel more secure and free. The benefits of one make loosing a few mb of resources worth it.

 

That's true. I only prefer to run only what's needed.

 

For people who are wondering what SandBoxie is, look here. Also kind of off-topic but Baserk, do you think i should get SandBoxie for all the software i test so i don't mess up my machine, and another question, how does Sandboxie protect you?

 

Yeah, he endorses them a lot and for good reason. I like the other "big dawg" Kaspersky. They've so far been good to me. I don't think you can go wrong with either NOD32 or Kaspersky.

Ditto. I find it to be very light and I can use it even while it's scanning for viruses. I still choose to leave it alone when it's doing a full system scan though.

 

Hey Calvin, I totally agree with you about the whole piece-of-mind thing, but I always go with the belief that with enough determination and effort, someone can get another person's sensitive information. Of course, it would take A LOT of both to beat NOD32, but I think anything is possible.

 

It would take a lot for sure, there's only a .0000001% chance that something would get past NOD32's on access scanner, and if it did, it'd get caught with the on demand scanner. They don't charge $60 for nothing.

 

That's $60 for a 2 year subscription. I last paid $40 for a 2 year renewal, although next time I think it's going to be $50. With firewall is more of course

 

Thank you very much for the insight Baserk, i really like SandBoxie, I'll try it out.

 

I use Windows Firewall only. Nothing in the startup menu; "non MS" services are disabled.
(same on XP and Vista machines)

I wonder if anyone here ever got hit with a Virus using XP or Vista, when infection happened on its own and not due to user actions?

E.g. you did not install infected SF, open infected files, click "Yes" or "No" on prompts from suspicious sites etc. But simply got an infection, just by being in the internet?

 

This is only true for XP pre SP2. Pre SP2 XP had no built-in firewall. Connecting it directly to the internet, unprotected by a hardware router, was paramount to opening a window into the ocean. Think endless torrents (heh) of salt water, impossible to stop.

After SP2 was released, the built-in firewall was instituted and much of the 30 minute infection problems went away. Vista is even harder to get into.

Honestly, if you don't ever go to hostile sites and don't download files you don't trust you can function well without an antivirus (at least in Vista, for sure). Your only possible weak spot would be Outlook (or Windows Mail or whatever), which has always seemed in need of a virus app that scans mail. That said, average (non-NBR forumites) users should probably use a virus scanner just in case. Modern (decent) antivirus apps take up very few resources to get their job done. Kapersky, Nod32 (I use), even the free AVG and Avast! all get the job done without backhanding your processor cycles. I had no idea AV could be so light till the day I finally stopped buying Norton and downloaded AVG (later Nod32).