New
#150
Hi LordBob,
You're on the right track.
MS would like to include everything they possibly can with the o/s - and be the default for everything.
They can't get away with that - but they still want to cover every base - silverlight , xps, skydrive - you name it - all apparently free.
Why?
They want to be "chosen" automatically in the future - if they can get most people using most of their stuff - they become the automatic for the real big money deal - not too far away.
Google are the competitior - thay have lots of "free" stuff too - what a coincidence.
I have given various AV software a try now and then, mainly to "double check" on my own strategies. Usualy they so VERY quickly get int he way of normal computer use they are as bad as a virus themselves.
Been on the computer and the net since the 2400 baud dial up days, used windows and IE (Well not till IE 4) since then. Never got a single virus ever. Not one on dozens of client machines and even a few servers run from home.
The human brain is the best anti virus. It just that an /awful/ lot of people don't use theirs
1) make the internet zone highest saftey and use a white list for sites you MUST use scripting or flash on.
2) Turn off preview in your mail client and use Properties/Details/Message source to look at any emil yo may be tempted to open that is not obviously recognizable. (One way that OE/Live mail is superior to outlook)
3) Don't download every program on the planet. and stay away from warez.
4) black list "friends" that pass around "jokes". a) they are not funny at all, b) well...
5) Turn on firewall before connecting to net, better yet use a firewall appliance.
6) Stay updated.
My Linux friends have had thier machines and servers hacked, I have never had a single windows machine or server hacked in 15 years.
Still, I DO occasionally check... And of course I came up with 0 threats detected when I installed and ran MSE :)
Apologies if this has been already posted but it is a preliminary analysis from an authoritative source - Computerworld reports on AV-Test GmbH - the grab is:AV-Test GmbH tested Microsoft Security Essentials, the free software Microsoft launched yesterday in beta, on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, putting it up against nearly 3,200 common viruses, bot Trojans and worms, said Andreas Marx, one of the firm's two managers. The malware was culled from the most recent WildList, a list of threats actually actively attacking computers.Reassuring, if not definitive to those using the beta (as I am).
"All files were properly detected and treated by the product," said Marx in an e-mail. "That's good, as several other [antivirus] scanners are still not able to detect and kill all of these critters yet."
AV-Test also measured Security Essentials against a set of in-house false positives to see whether the software mistakenly fingers legitimate files, a nightmare for users, who can be left with a crippled computer, and a disaster to the reputation of a security company.
"None of the clean files were flagged as being malicious," noted Marx. "Very good."
AV-Test also examined the program's anti-rootkit skills and its ability to scrub a system of malware it finds with a limited number of samples and "found no reasons to complain," Marx said. "[Security Essentials] is able to remove found malware very well, but further tests against larger sets of samples are required before we can come to a final conclusion."
I think the current review of 30+ AVs from AV-Test is also pretty revealing and should provide hours of fun and horror for everyone touting their favorite AV solution. Find it here.
What it tells me is:
- Most AV solutions are pretty good
- No AV solutions are perfect
- Some AV Solutions are below par and there are better choices
- Free or Paid is no indicator of how well an AV solution will find a virus/Malware/Trojan etc
- Some AV solutions work flawlessly in Windows 7 (MSE, Eset, Avast and, I think, Avira are amongst those)
- Some AV solutions don't work in 7
- We should worry about this issue less!
Could someone post the file hash for the official download for both the 32 and 64 bit versions?
Thanks