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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."

6 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. I've used XP SP2 without AV for years by patio11 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Never had a problem. Of course, I use Firefox, a NAT, and don't visit porn sites or use P2P, which pretty much cuts my attack vectors to zero. Haven't had any AdWare in, hmm, 4 years or so either. I have AdAware installed on my computer but haven't bothered running it in about 2 years since it never picks up anything.

    Now I'm using IE7 as my main browser (quiet!) and don't anticipate any problems with it, either. Heck, its *more* paranoid than FF is some of the time (it will quibble about http refresh redirects to executables, for example).

    --
    Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
  2. I remember.... by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ....when they announced that Windows 2000 would never have a Service Pack release. One would never be needed.

    (still have no use for XP, btw.)

  3. @LiquidCoooled, about zombies by Toveling · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Windows Vista severly limits access to raw packet sending to non-priviledged apps, meaning that packet forging is much more difficult. Although the zombies that are sending seemingly alright content (at the protocol level) aren't affected, those that are doing the SYN/ACK DDOS floods will be.

  4. Hmm, and where have we heard this before by rimcrazy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yea..........and 640K will be plenty of memory..........
    And the world will only need 4 computers...................
    And no one would ever need a computer at home..............

    Sheesh......where do they come up with this stuff?

    --
    "TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
  5. And XP has no buffer overflows... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here's the same guy's promise about their last operating system:

    Microsoft has said it has stamped out buffer overflows with the upcoming release of Windows XP. Jim Allchin, vice president, claimed the company has done a complete code review of its operating system and removed all buffers which could overflow.

    I'll let somebody else post a list of all the critical updates caused by buffer overflows...

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  6. Antivirus is a cure worse than the disease by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I hate Antivirus products. They consume huge amounts of computing power, slow my computer down, and cause no end of frustration when installing legitimate network applications. In other words, the cost and overhead they impose is far greater than anything I've ever had to endure from viruses that I don't get anyway, because I'm not a complete idiot. I only log in as adminstrator when necessary. I keep up with patches and security updates. I keep my data, the only unique and irreplacable thing on my computer, backed up. I don't click on every idiotic funny ha ha attachment going around. I don't install software utilities from The People's Glorious Republic of Aziberjanistan.

    I suppose if you're dumb enough to think you need an Antivirus program, you probably do.