Does Windows 7 OS Have Less Viruses Associated With It Compared To Windows XP OS?

Hi!

I am going to install windows seven professional on my notebook and would appreciate any feedback as to whether or not there are less viruses associated with using the windows seven os as compared to using the windows xp professional os.

Thanks in advance for your help and assistance!

 

Hello there, virus' depend on your sensibility and anti virus software rather than your OS. If you don't go on any dodgy websites and are careful with what you download then you should be virus free.

So the answer to your question is, NO windows 7 is not more or less vulnerable to atack than any other OS.

As long as you apply your Windows firewall and run something like Avast, AVG, MAlwarebytes or MSS then you should be in good hands.

Perrin.

 

Less viruses - I wouldn't say so. A virus is in many cases just windows based software - runs on XP, Vista or Win7 just the same.

What does help a lot on Win7 (or Vista!!) is to use UAC and on Win7 to turn it to its max. settings - that should protect your system files from unauthorized changes and is a first step.

Else - have a look at Microsoft Security Essentials as anti-virus software - free and effective.
http://www.microsoft.com/Security_essentials/

On that note though - in the end, whether you catch malware depends on your browsing habits. I don't believe I ever had any for example - or at least, none was ever detected on my OSes. XP & Vista.

 

Yes, but mostly because it is a far more secure OS than Windows XP. Most older viruses won't run on Windows 7 or at least have the same effects as they would on Win XP due to compatibility issues.

Overall, W7 is more secure than Win XP. It will be easier to accidently acquire a virus on Win XP than W7.

 

Microsoft has wisely not included 5.25 inch floppy disk support natively in Windows 7.

 

Yeh. But in a sense it's just as vulnerable. It all depends on the operator.
If you just use your computer blindly (which some people do) then your in trouble, regardless of OS.

 

actually 50 years ago cars were significantly sturdier due to higher quality metal and a lack of cheap plastic parts

 

The analogy did not talk about "sturdiness", it was about the safety of the cars. There is no doubt that cars today are a lot safer than they used to be. Same goes for operating systems, including Windows.

 

So, what your saying is; if I had two computers with one running XP and one running Win7, and both using NO anti virus software, and I went on a website with known virus' (say), only the win XP computer would get infected. Thats complete rubbish!

 

First of all, that is nothing like what he said. Second, yes, if you go to an infected website with a properly updated and configured Windows 7 system (so, no idiocies like having UAC disabled, and running with an unprotected admin account), but no anti-virus protection at all, chances are that nothing will happen to your computer, at all. Unless you decide to install a virus, of course.

Statistics show that 99% of all virus infections happen due to user stupidity. Alright, I just made those statistics up, but I am probably very close to the truth here...

 

Well that goes with what I was originaly saying, if the user is careful, chances are you will be virus free regardless of operating system.

 

Nope, that's not true, either. If you go online with, say, Windows 2000, or [cough] Win9X, your PC will be turned into a zombie in the blink of an eye, no matter how careful you are, and even if you never go to any website...

 

oh? I have machines running W2KP and win 98SE still and have no problems having them becoming zombies before I load up all the thousands of updates, update drivers and then finally install a securtiy suite.

my W2KP based router unit ran 9 years with no issues. and it even ran the occasional dumb game from flash sites etc.

All operating systems can be hit with malware since traditional self replicating viruses are now the minority of malware.
I do agree most times infections are caused by the user.

 

The analogy is is the security of the hardware in question, not the end user. A computer virus isn't going to physically harm you, it's going to harm your computer.

Likewise a car accident damages your car independent of how it affects your person. Modern cars, for the most part, disintigrate upon impact. Good luck even finding quality welding.

 

Well, depending on your environment, you do have a finite time window for securing your installation. The point is with these old systems having unprotected and vulnerable services running, it is only a matter of time until someone will find them, and convert them to their purposes. Of course, sitting behind a decent router helps a lot, too.

That's mostly nostalgic nonsense. There were plenty of lousy cars built in the past, and modern welding robots are, by and large, a lot better than (some of) the dolts that used to do these things by hand. This is wildly off-topic here anyway, so I won't comment anymore on this.

 

Modern welding robots don't matter much when your bumpers are glued on.

 

I think your arguing with yourself here slightly.So this could probably apply to win 7 eventually.
It will only be a matter of time before they become vulnerable.

 

just for giggles I did a scan on my Asterisk server which has no AV and runs W2KP, 491 days of uptime and no bug to be found. yes it resides behind and old Linksys wrt54GL router ..... but nowadays who in their right mind doesnt have a router?

 

+1.
Discarding the term 'viruses', which often implies ' install this pr0n/crack/codec.exe/dll/...' willingly or clicking on a sudden ' Rogue Security Suite 2011 has found 500 infections'-popup, Win7 simply is much more hardened against a slew of exploits.
DEP, ASLR, PatchGuard, like already mentioned above, are serious improvements.
The fact that certain companies don't implement some of these MS security options in their software, is their prerogative<->mistake.

OT;
Add an MS tool like EMET to enforce DEP and ASLR on (all) internet facing apps (browser, PDF reader,etc) yourself and you can limit possible exploits even more, preventing 0-day nasties. (Good ol' XP doesn't do mandatory ASLR).
Why would you spend time on this security tool that is free, small and doesn't eat RAM nor CPU cycles away?
Just some examples; EMET prevents 0-day for IE and for Adobe Reader.
MS blog on using/forcing DEP and/or ASLR.
EMET download page link.

I guess most people got one.
But you know it's more than just ' for the internet', I mean, does that wrt54GL have original/stock firmware?

 

No, not at all. For Win9X systems, these do not have any concept of OS security at all, so these are different animals entirely compared to newer, WinNT-based systems. Win2K does not have a firewall, which is one of the main reasons for its vulnerability. That, and the fact that in those days, OS security wasn't, shall we say, a priority yet for Microsoft.

 

Well, many machines inside corporate or university networks are not on firewall-protected subnets. Sure, they are not in the wild, but things can be pretty wild inside a university network, too. Some of those CS students are quite curious, and inventive...

 

that they are, but a small hardware firewall or NAT router slows them down an awful lot or stops them too. BTW 2KP was based on NT 4.0 and pretty darn secure even today. 95 agreed not as much but itss still easy enough to button it up. ( I have to as I give the local CS students here access to parts of my network, but its the bloody mechanical engineers that are harder to keep out for some reason )

got me there, I run DD-WRT on verything I can

 

2000 is not rated as secure at all the way it's setup. it's considered a system that has the capability to be configured quite secure. but it was not, out of the box, configured for it. it fully exposed itself to the user, the network, all it's services, the ui allowed for tons of ways to fraud the user, trick him into anything. everything was admin by default, including the browser which could install stuff without the user noticing, etc..

xp got a bit better with the firewall and such, but out-of-the-box security only came since vista (nothing is 100% secure, of course, but out-of-the-box security just means that's the main focus of the os). we had much fights in these forums about UAC and such. but annoying as vista was to some, secure by default, it was, too. and so is win7.

 

You are kidding right? Cars are MUCH safer now. So called sturdiness has nothing to do with it.

Gary

 

No one said any such thing. But depending on the particular exploit the Win 7 might very well go unscathed due to its added layer of protection.

Gary

 

Now THAT is abolute rubbish.

Gary

 

OT, but agreed. That inherent sturdiness does more harm than good, as the energy transfer upon impact was directed more to the passengers inside than the structure around them. Also, newer designs are made with even more high strength steels, allowing cars to become lighter. This, in turn, can make them more nimble than the giant boats that roamed American streets ages ago and acts as both a valuable active safety feature (you'll be more likely to go around an obstacle, rather than run into it) and as a valuable passive safety feature as the high strength steel can allow other parts of the car to collapse in a controlled manner more easily.

Then there's today's computerized safety systems like ESC, ABS W/ Brake Assist, EBD, and more that can help you avoid an accident in the first place.

Back on topic, OP, Windows 7 is generally regarded as being a more secure operating system than Windows XP due to it's advanced security features. However, proper safe computing practices (using up to date Antivirus software, keeping Windows up to date, browsing to safe, trusted sites online, safe downloading, etc.) are essential to ensure that your system stays as clean as possible.