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Windows Chief Suggests Vista Won't Need Antivirus

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the steadfastly-bulletproof dept.

LadyDarth writes "During a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, outgoing Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, while touting the new security features of Windows Vista, which was released to manufacturing yesterday, told a reporter that the system's new lockdown features are so capable and thorough that he was comfortable with his own seven-year-old son using Vista without antivirus software installed."

3 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. vuja de by KillerBob · · Score: 4, Informative

    wow... haven't heard that one before.... No, really. I haven't.

    No system is immune to viruses. All it takes is a stupid user to allow it, and we all know there's no shortage of that. That's why antivirus products exist for every major OS out there. Even Linux has antivirus apps (though granted, most of them are geared towards Linux boxen running as servers for Windows-based networks).

    Oh wait. Technically, if it requires a stupid user's interaction to get in, it's not a virus. It's a trojan. I guess Vista really could be immune to viruses.... ;)

    --
    If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
  2. Okay... so perhaps it isn't that crazy... by RootWind · · Score: 5, Informative

    From TFA, it sounds like you really might not need an antivirus... if you lock it down with the parental tools so you can't download anything at all except from your own approved sites, that covers up a large malware attack vector that an antivirus is suppose to protect. After all, the role of the antivirus now and in the future will be that of a blacklist of known bad software. Everything else an AV does can be obsoleted.

  3. Re:Jeez.. by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Informative
    Allchin says stupid things. For example, here he says that Windows XP would not be vulnerable to buffer overflow attacks.

    We used new source automation tools that removes any potential buffer overflow attacks.

    News articles detailing Windows XP buffer overflow attacks are abundant.