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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."

5 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. If users can... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Run a program which sends out mass mails, or communicates with a server or does other actions then malicious people will write malicious code.
    Just because a virus cannot harm the operating system does not mean it is harmless.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Jeez.. by FunWithKnives · · Score: 5, Insightful
    After summarizing that past statement, Allchin continued, "Please don't misunderstand me: This is an escalating situation. The hackers are getting smarter, there's more at stake, and so there's just no way for us to say that some perfection has been achieved. But I can say, knowing what I know now, I feel very confident."
    If you RTFA, and then go back and read the title of this post, it's quite apparent that it's sensationalist and stupid. Of course Allchin thinks that this version of Windows will be the "Most Secure Evar". He works at Microsoft. Taking what he said out of context is just childish. But really, I suppose I shouldn't expect any less.
    --
    "We may face a scorched and lifeless earth, but they're accountable to their shareholders first."
  3. My first thought was... by Brad1138 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To laugh. It always surprises me when someone says "we'll never need this" or "computers will never..." I remember a computer magazine editorial saying we would never store music on Hard Drives, it would take up to much space. These people never seem to think more that a few months or maybe a year into the future.

    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
  4. Duh by ewl1217 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course a seven-year-old on a locked down computer wont be able to do any harm. Kids that age aren't into the sites (porn, illegal downloads, etc.) that are notorious for viruses and spyware. Not to mention that the kid's using a machine secured by parental controls and is most likely on a limited account. Wake me up when the average teenager can safely use Windows with an administrator account and no extra security software installed.

  5. It's not the viruses you need to worry about... by NeumannCons · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Viruses, these days, are not what you need to worry about.

    The main attack vectors these days seem to center on "drive by downloads" or pop ups that trick you into downloading executables ("WARNING! Your PC is infested with SPYWARE - CLICK HERE to remove"). Most Antivirus software is unbelievably pathetic when it comes to identifying/dealing with spyware. I've seen dozens of clients who have so much spyware, it can take 30 minutes or more to boot up and then spend more time closing all the popped-up windows. FF and it appears IE7 as well will hopefully go a long way to closing this attack. Now we just need to wait for everyone with win95,98,ME, NT, etc. to upgrade.