Does 7 offer any additional security features over Vist

[netguysc]

Hi,

I'm curious if 7 offers any additional security features that Vista doesn't offer.

I am learning all I can about 7 but haven't heard much about security.

Thanks

 

[Lordbob75]

Hi,

I'm curious if 7 offers any additional security features that Vista doesn't offer.

I am learning all I can about 7 but haven't heard much about security.

Thanks

YES they do! Mostly in the form of a better UAC (less instrusive as well).

I don't know about all that much, but others here will be able to fill you in.

~Lordbob

 

[Antman]

Take a peek at the Windows Security blog.

 

[7echno7im]

Yes it does. Most of the features are from Vista, but they either expanded on them (like Bit Locker on removable drives, expanded firewall policy) or lessened the annoyances (less UAC warnings)

Here is a list of some of the Windows 7 Security Enhancements.

Windows 7 Security Enhancements

Windows 7 Security Enhancements

 

[gurm42]

There's also a substantially reduced set of .exe's that are allowed to run with Admin privs.

Also, if you consider "not sucking" as making the system more secure (and I do) then it's VASTLY more secure. *grin*

 

[DataMan47]

UAC being less annoying also makes UAC usless, because it's easy for any malware author to bypass UAC (there's a working demonstration of this). There's no way to patch this hole without making UAC as annoying as it was in Vista.

Less annoying? Yes. But from a security standpoint, UAC is now ineffective (unless you bump up the setting so that it matches the old Vista behavior), and you might as well just turn it off (even less annoying! ). UAC is still effective as an extra prompt to help prevent the user from accidentally doing something bad, but when it comes to malware, the ease with which they can hook into the loophole and bypass UAC makes the new UAC nothing more than a placebo, and it makes 7 technically less secure than Vista...

(OTOH, UAC is just a part of defense-in-depth, and it's the final defense barrier before Something Bad Happens; if malware manages to get as far as UAC, then you've got other problems on your hands.)

 

[jasjeet]

UAC being less annoying also makes UAC usless, because it's easy for any malware author to bypass UAC (there's a working demonstration of this). There's no way to patch this hole without making UAC as annoying as it was in Vista.

Try Anti Virus/Malware software, with HIPS enabled Firewall. Who relies on Windows protection for anything.

Would you use Microsoft Office anti virus protection? NO its an Office suite like Windows is an OS, its primary job is not to defend against malware.

Personally i use Avira Antivirus with Windows Firewall, and UAC off. With considerate browsing ive yet to be a victim to nasty's.

 

[DataMan47]

Try Anti Virus/Malware software, with HIPS enabled Firewall. Who relies on Windows protection for anything.

Would you use Microsoft Office anti virus protection? NO its an Office suite like Windows is an OS, its primary job is not to defend against malware.

Personally i use Avira Antivirus with Windows Firewall, and UAC off. With considerate browsing ive yet to be a victim to nasty's.

Uh, that completely misses the whole point of UAC. It's called defense-in-depth. Read up on it. UAC is supposed to help hold the line when all the other lines of defense have been bypassed. Talking about AV is useless because if UAC is in a position to matter, then that means that the AV has already failed to do its job.

As for AV, it too is just another line in the defense-in-depth. If you keep your software updated and don't do anything stupid, you don't need AV (actually, AV can't protect you against software exploits; it can only protect against user stupidity). I run with UAC disabled and no AV. I just make sure that my primary lines of defense are good enough that I can risk going without the backup lines; besides, any form of AV is mostly snake oil that makes you feel more secure by wasting CPU and churning your disk but that actually has limited value for advanced users because of their inability to proactively handle most software bug exploits (now, for clueless newbies, they're quite useful because they do help defend against user stupidity).

 

[sjaak327]

Well I support Microsoft's position on UAC, don't disable it, you also disable file and registry virtualisation, not only good for security, but more for application compatiblity.

 

[7echno7im]

There's also a substantially reduced set of .exe's that are allowed to run with Admin privs.

Also, if you consider "not sucking" as making the system more secure (and I do) then it's VASTLY more secure. *grin*

I think UAC was a wake up call to all bad applications out there needing admin privileges to run. Its not so much that UAC was adjusted for applications, software developers were finally forced to make adjustments in the applications and what rights were needed to do what.

UAC pointed out these flaws to developers, and for the first time they had to make corrections.

I believe UAC was a wake up call to developers, more than the end users. I was tired of granting users admin privileges just to launch an app....

 

[mez4junk]

Hi,

I'm curious if 7 offers any additional security features that Vista doesn't offer.

I am learning all I can about 7 but haven't heard much about security.

Thanks

No, same crap.

 

[netguysc]

Personally I love Vista and it's ability to make it so much easier to use a standard user account with the advent of UAC. Once I password protected my admin account and then switched to my standard account for everyday activity I am pretty sure I was more well protected than I have ever been with any other OS.

I am aware of other security elements that vista introduced, but I am not able to recall or even fully understand all of them.

I just thought that maybe windows 7 brought something never seen before in a windows os, such as vista did.

Personally I will raise up the UAC in 7 to match vista. I feel like with a password protected admin account and having the UAC enabled really protects my computer by alerting me when suspicious activity takes place. I will agree it aggravated me to have to allow ccleaner to run everytime I wanted to use it, but that was the exception.

I am getting off subject,

I just haven't heard much about the security aspect of 7 in either the advertising or even word of mouth. I am sure refining Vistas security toolbox is great I was just hoping for something else new and unexpected.

 

[7echno7im]

No, same crap.

Not exactly, read my 1st post.

 

[Lordbob75]

I love how someone makes a thread like this, and a bunch of us point out all the security features, post links to security features explained by the developers, and tell about our own experiences with it. We provide tons of proof, and most of us have never even been infected.

Then some random guy with like 5 posts comes in and says, "nope, it still sucks" with bad grammar, misspellings, and no punctuation.
No proof.
Just an opinion, based on nothing.
....
........
Yeah.
It is never even anyone who knows anything about it. Now, if John, or Shawn, or another of the Gurus came in here and said that.... They would have proof first off, and it would not be wrong.
But when some random person says that, who really knows NOTHING about computers (not much more than the average user anyways), it just pisses me off.

If that is your OPINION, then SAY so! Or, if you think it is FACT, then PROVE IT.

Stop wasting our time.

~Lordbob

 

[Zidane24]

I think UAC was a wake up call to all bad applications out there needing admin privileges to run. Its not so much that UAC was adjusted for applications, software developers were finally forced to make adjustments in the applications and what rights were needed to do what.

UAC pointed out these flaws to developers, and for the first time they had to make corrections.

I believe UAC was a wake up call to developers, more than the end users. I was tired of granting users admin privileges just to launch an app....

TBH I couldn't even say...all I know is the last time I got a virus was two years before Windows Vista went into Beta 1 (that was a long time ago) and I don't really bother to use anti-virus...be safe and smart online and you won't get a virus

 

[Frostbite]

UAC got reworked in Windows 7 not toned down. I for one am glad as I found it that annoying in Windows Vista I turned it off. Do i really need 2 UAC prompts to delete a file. It's not some rogue program but the user doing the action.

The default setting, shown in Figure 3, is one of the new levels. Unlike Always Notify, which is the selection at the top of the slider and is identical to the default mode in Windows Vista, the Windows 7 default prompts the user only when a non-Windows executable asks for elevation; the behaviour for non-Windows elevations is the same as it was for Windows Vista.

User Account Control: Inside Windows 7 User Account Control

 

[gurm42]

UAC got reworked in Windows 7 not toned down. I for one am glad as I found it that annoying in Windows Vista I turned it off. Do i really need 2 UAC prompts to delete a file. It's not some rogue program but the user doing the action.


User Account Control: Inside Windows 7 User Account Control

While I understand (having been a programmer) that an exploit could, in fact, hook the mouse... I'd like it to know. I mean, how hard is it to code in "hey, the USER dragged that file, from its window, onto the trash can"? And then... y'know... NOT prompt twice for UAC, and twice for Recycle bin?

Honestly I turn UAC completely off. Why? Because I hook up a lot of different hard drives in the course of a day's work, and I'm sick to DEATH of the way UAC "enhances" the file permissions. Actually I've already converted one of my workstations to Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows 7 Server) because it uses real permissions... the other machine is a laptop that I occasionally game on, so I'm trying to avoid the server OS.

I am just sick of trying to access my OWN files on a different box only to be told I'm not the owner, or I don't have access, or that I DO have access but that somehow halfway through the file operation it "failed" because "access denied".

Really MS needs to fix the ACL enhancement part of UAC before I'll use it. But they aren't really catering to my demographic with the workstation OS, now are they?

 

[damoh]

TBH I couldn't even say...all I know is the last time I got a virus was two years before Windows Vista went into Beta 1 (that was a long time ago) and I don't really bother to use anti-virus...be safe and smart online and you won't get a virus

Very true