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Vista Makes Forensic PC Exam Easier for Lawyers
Katharine writes "Jason Krause, a legal affairs writer for the American Bar Association's 'ABA Journal' reports in the July issue that Windows Vista will be a boon for those looking for forensic evidence of wrongdoing on defendants' PC's and a nightmare for defendants who hoped their past computer activities would not be revealed. Krause quotes attorney R. Lee Barrett, 'From a [legal] defense perspective, [Vista] scares me to death. One of the things I have a hard time educating my clients on is the volume of data that's now discoverable.' This is primarily attributable to Shadow Copy, TxF and Instant Search."
If one was stuck with Vista, I could see VMWare being quite popular. Just run all of your "other activities" under a VMware computer. If the computer ever falls into enemy hands, just wipe out the virtual computer and you're good to go.
Another reason I'm sticking with XP.
He who laughs last is at 300 baud.
These are all legitimate, useful features. It's the implementation that's wrong.
All potentially damaging (ie, all) data should be written to an encrypted store in such a way that recovering it from a lost/stolen/seized machine is hard to impossible without assistance from the owner. That's just good design practice in an environment where there is more than enough computing power available.
I'm aware that there are places where you have to hand your keys over to law enforcement... with which I have no real problem provided the due process of law is followed. But at least properly managed/segmented encryption can prevent a fishing trip. And in the worst case if you were being falsely accused of something really awful then you might decide that the penalties for not handing over the keys were less severe than the penalties for having the data available. At least you would get the choice.
So now with shadow copy Vista not only saves all versions of goatse and tubgirl that I ever will encounter, I'm most likely unable to remove all traces to those pictures from my machine. And with instant search everybody can find them easily.
Now that's progress.
To make sure my Windows is running at peak efficiency and performance, I got into the habit of completely reinstalling Windows every Thursday at 10am.
This habit was developed during Win95, WinSE, WinXP SP1, and WinVista Beta
What? There was evidence there? Ooops, sorry... my standard operating procedure wipes the disk once a week.
Can you cite source? Specificly in direct relation to XP? And more importantly are they stand alone versions of Vista, or the Microsoft Tax (Bundled with your computer, even if you don't want it)? As far as I'm aware most people aren't choosing Vista when they have the choice.
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
That must be because Vista does nothing more than Ubuntu or OS X these days - except spying on the user and forcing useless eyecandy through the GPU. There's simply nothing exceptionally good on Vista, that's why we must pick on the bad things that other operating systems don't suffer from.
What good points? It has a resource intensive "shiny" interface. It has levels of DRM heretofore unseen in an operating system. It is claimed that it is secure, yet still has gaping security holes. It is claimed that it is safe, yet has to be made un-safe for users to be able to do anything with it. It is expensive, clunky, space consuming, privacy invading, insecure, unsafe, and is more interested in protecting the interests of major Hollywood distributors than its users.
Care to highlight why I'd want to use Vista?
Goten Xiao
Because there aren't any. Seriously. I've been using Vista (Business) all summer; I should know. Yes, it has fancy GPU-accelerated graphics. But they don't do me any good because they suck my battery life (it's the difference between lasting through a lecture worth of note-taking in OneNote, or not). Yes, it has better support for Tablet PCs... but only ever so slightly better. Other than that, the only differences I notice between it and XP are all negative: shitty or missing drivers, annoying bugs, infuriating UAC (if it asked me to confirm an action once, it'd be okay. But it often asks me twice: once by the app, and once by the OS). It's so bad that -- even though Tablet PC users should have the most improved experience in Vista of any group -- I'm switching either back to XP or to Ubuntu once the semester is over.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Hopefully you aren't alluding to the fact that you FORMAT your hard drive every week as a good security practice. Since you didn't specify your procedure, I'm going to assume that you do at least one complete disk overwrite before reinstalling Windows
Hmmm.. A new definition for news anchor?
It brought peace?
oh.. that was the Romans.
I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
As for privacy, to the extent that this sort of thing requires a legal order to hand over the information, I can't really see that it's an issue of privacy. If it is accepted that preserving the rule of law sometimes requires surrendering information that would otherwise be considered private, then that is the end of the matter: the information in such instances has ceased to be private.
If a PC is stolen, that is another matter, but in such cases, encryption can be used to prevent private data falling into the hands of thieves. This arguably makes a PC with appropriate encryption enabled safer than paper records.
Oh. Peace? Shut up!
But if you went back in time to cover your tracks, there would be no tracks to cover in the present, therefore you wouldnt have to go back in time in the first place. But if you didnt go back in time in the first place, your tracks wouldnt be covered so you'd need to go back and cover them! But if you went back in time to cover your tracks, there would be no tracks to cover in the present, therefore you wouldnt have to go back in time in the first place. But if you didnt go back in time in the first place, your tracks wouldnt be covered so you'd need to go back and cover them! But if you went back in time to cover your tracks, there would be no tracks to cover in the present, therefore you wouldnt have to go back in time in the first place. But if you didnt go back in time in the first place, your tracks wouldnt be covered so you'd need to go back and cover them! (etc...)
Then: you are using Linux, what have you got to hide ?
The next step is: Only criminals use Linux
I have just realised: I am typing this at a Linux box. I had better go down and turn myself in at the cop shop.
Yes, we know it's more resource intensive, but it's not just the interface that's doing it. One article is from an Apple fansite which either fails to understand or doesn't want to and the other doesn't claim it's the interface at all. Bad start.
The DRM only applies to (shock) DRM-enabled content that you buy. It was a choice between layering in the DRM or not allowing people to view that content on the PC at all, a choice enforced by the big media companies who own the content. Yes, Microsoft could have stood up and said no, and in doing so crippled Blu-ray and HD-DVD functionality in Vista. Surprisingly, despite Slashdot's wanton hatred of it (I don't particularly care for it either), very few consumers care about DRM, so they went ahead and gave people access to that content.
For security, two of your articles were published before Vista was even released to the public, and the only relevant link just explains that if an installer requests admin mode, you can give it admin mode and it can do what it likes, citing a 'malicious freeware Tetris installer'. The article fails to mention that this happens in the same way for both OS X and Linux, instead of trying to be useful and educate readers on using their common sense when downloading software.
Saying 'security has to be disabled for Vista to be useful' is just plain bullcrap. Turning off UAC merely stops giving you the choice to run programs as admin. UAC doesn't prevent any programs from running unless you say you don't want it to run. You may want to clarify that point.
Expense (as always) is in the eye of the beholder (I paid my £70 and have never regretted it), and considering hard drive costs are down to 30-40 cents a Gigabyte, then the extra space costs are inconsequential. As most people only get a new OS with a new computer they will probably never even concern themselves with this point.
You didn't provide links to prove 'clunky' or 'privacy-invading', which doesn't surprise me.
The article you linked to for 'insecure' says "Microsoft, Kaspersky and Sophos think that you don't need kernel access to keep it safe from viruses, but Symantec and McAfee don't agree. They're bigger than the other two vendors and Microsoft is biased so they must be right".
Your final link takes the cake because it links to a list of blogs and none of them mention Microsoft at all.
So, why would you want to use Vista? You wouldn't. Nothing to do with usability, or features, but because you obviously prefer using Linux to the extent that you're prepared to parrot the FSF line without actually understanding it.
My plus points with Vista include:
- Playing MP3s and DVDs without breaking the law (fair law or not, still a law)
- Being able to play the latest games without needing a degree in Computer Science
- Being able to perform 99% of my system tasks without referring to the CLI
They do mention the good stuff, don't they? Shadow Copies, TxF, Instant Search...
People who need to keep their computing history private will know to encrypt their block devices and disable unnecessary indexing and data safekeeping. People who are too dumb or lazy to do that are going to get bitten by random "marked as deleted" filesystem remnants on any OS. People who accidentally delete their master thesis on the day before it's due will thank Bill Gates for Shadow Copies. People who buy cheap power supplies will thank Bill Gates for TxF when their computer crashes due to a short voltage spike and their data remains consistent (or they will curse him because they think Vista crashed and they don't know what kept them safe).
> Vista is actually selling quite well
g -systems/features/why-nobody-wants-windows-vistav 2006/tc20061129_739121.htm7 721
No, Vista is being pre-installed on new computers.
Vista is not selling well, people do not want it, and
companies are being told to stay away from it*
> and many people I know are using it without any complaints.
Many people I know are switching to Ubuntu. See how that statement works?
> Why are the good points about Vista never mentioned on Slashdot?
Um because most of the people that come here just see history repeating
itself.
[*]
http://www.tech.co.uk/computing/software/operatin
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/no
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=3
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
There are some disadvantages to having MS (my hand writing went to hell) but I now have a script of squiggles that makes sense only to me (its not writing, its nmemonic dabbling which gives me clues as to what was happening to me [and around me!] at the time of the dabble.)
As such its as individualistic and unbreakable as a crypto "one-time-pad."
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Pah-leeze!
To date, I have made two honest attempts to switch from XP to Vista, and both times I ended up wiping the Vista install and going back to XP. First of all, not all hardware from XP is supported (I suspect the new DRM requirements in the OS for my difficulties here), and some of the hardware that is supported suffers from buggy drivers (e.g., nVidia). Then, there's the user interface. Not as ugly as XP's Fischer-Price interface, but nothing to write home about, either. I'd rather not waste the CPU and GPU cycles on it, thank you very much. Then, they *moved* everything around. I waste more time trying to find things I know are there, but which the Boys in Redmond decided in their infinite wisdom to move. The first example that comes to mind is mapping a network drive. Why the heck they moved it off the My Computer (what do they call it now, "Bill's Computer"?) window I'll never know. There are a lot of other examples. Then, there's the fact that Vista is a big fat pig when it comes to resources.
I have too much work to do on a computer to bother with this nonsense. Even if I bought a new computer, which would solve the hardware problems, I'd probably want Vista off it for something (anything) else. When XP came out, I upgraded right away, and was happy with it, even though at the time it, too, was a bloated pig. But not this time. Sorry. I gave it the old college try, but Vista's just a piece of crap.
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
> It has a resource intensive "shiny" interface.
.NET article from TWO THOUSAND FUCKING FIVE, one BY DESIGN article and one article from JULY TWO THOUSAND FUCKING SIX to say that Vista has "gaping" holes. If that's the best you can do, I think Vista has mostly succeeded. :)
# Tasks_that_trigger_a_UAC_prompt This is a perfectly reasonable list. All the points on that list deserve to be there.
s /m/30710428/search=Vista%20Ultimate/qlty=o
s /m/31221707/
FUD. Yes, the interface is "shiny", and does use resources, but the main resource intensiveness comes from the new features (like indexing) and the fact that it is a fully hardware accelerated desktop. If you actually disable these new features, Vista runs the same as or faster than XP.
> It has levels of DRM heretofore unseen in an operating system.
There's ONE new DRM thingie over XP. ONE. YOU WILL NEVER EVER SEE DRM IF YOU DO NOT USE DRM FILES. Vote with your wallet. I don't use DRM'd files either. I rip CD music. Vista WILL NOT ADD DRM TO NON-DRM FILES.
> It is claimed that it is secure, yet still has gaping security holes.
You use one
The fact is that there has been one exploit (ANI) so far, and due to UAC and IE protected mode (sandboxing) that exploit couldn't work in Vista as well as it did in XP.
> It is claimed that it is safe, yet has to be made un-safe for users to be able to do anything with it.
FUD. FUD. FUD. UAC DOES NOT HAVE TO BE DISABLED FOR A VISTA COMPUTER TO BE USABLE. I haven't seen a UAC prompt in weeks now -- of course, it helps that I've updated all my apps for them to not require admin permissions.
Go look at the Wikipedia article to know what triggers UAC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Account_Control
> It is expensive
Not when you factor inflation in. In any case, a deal with Ultimate (this is the full edition) is available for US $165. http://software.pricegrabber.com/windows-family-o
Most will need a Home Premium upgrade, which starts from LESS THAN $100. http://software.pricegrabber.com/windows-family-o
> clunky
WTF?
> space consuming
Not when you factor the new things in. If you remove speech recognition, C/J/K language support, Media Center, and a few other things (eg using vLite) an install of Vista comes to around 3.5 GB. Anyway, hard drives are big enough for it, it isn't too much of a factor now.
> privacy invading
Oh dear, more unsubstantiated FUD. Why am I not surprised?
> insecure
The FUD this time, for a change, is not from you, but from Symantec. The fact is that better companies like Eset have no problems programming for Vista. Symantec uses several KERNEL HOOKS which are disallowed in Vista x64, in favour of Microsoft APIs.
> unsafe, and is more interested in protecting the interests of major Hollywood distributors than its users.
I'm tired of this BS. Look above.
Get your facts straight first before starting your standard FUD.
Following on from the runaway success of this http://ubuntusatanic.org/news/ and this http://tinyurl.com/nq9ut, I'm sure we'll soon have MAFIA, paedophile and Goatse *nix distros...the demand is there, c'mon RedHat, what are you waiting for?
"Vista is selling well" - pure spin -- why not check on the huge number of requests to MS to down grade to XP -- actually from a cash flow analysis this was a good plan -- make users pay for two OS's -- I have personally loaded XP on over 24 laptops (lots of friends and relatives) that were recently purchased with Vista installed - I used all their mothballed legitimate XP licenses (everyone has plenty of those lying around) and now the machines fly. I don't care about lawyers and subpoenas -- how about something user-friendly - I'm a hair's breath from Linux Mule
Disclaimer: I use Mac laptops, Linux servers, and Windows desktops (in the main). I am *not* a Microsoft shill.
Right, karma to burn. How the hell is this "Informative"? "+5 Groupthink", or "+5 Telling me what I want to hear", sure. But there is no information here at all - Vista does have some "good features", regardless of what some people think. Answering your points specifically
1) Eye Candy: If you don't like it, turn it off.
2) Missing or shitting drivers: I have not noticed, nor do I know anyone who has noticed, Vista not supporting hardware that XP supported. Shitty drivers, well, this is a more reasonable concern, but it applies in my experience only to graphics, and then only to people for whom a 5-10% drop in performance (until nVidia get their ass in gear) is a "shitty problem". It's *vastly* better than Linux in this regard.
3) UAC: You're doing it wrong. I have not seen a UAC prompt that wasn't because I launched an app that required admin priviledges for weeks. Sure, when you're setting up the system, you get them a lot - much like in Linux, where you prefix half the first weeks commands with "sudo". After that, if you're seeing it more than once or twice a week, you need to seriously look at what kinds of software you're running that constantly need "root" access.
As to a sample of "good points"
1) New graphics and sound stack is vastly superior - I can set sound volume on a per application basis, automatically, using an simple interface built right in. No more stupid Flash in Firefox blaring away at 80db when I'm listening to music via iTunes.
2) Integrated search - Works as well as Spotlight for me, and I thought Spotlight was the best thing since sliced bread.
3) UAC - Yes, in my eyes, this is a good thing (and the biggest step forward in Vista). Windows no longer uses an "Admin for everything" model, something most people have been crying out for it do have for years.
Does it add anything *huge* over OS X, or even XP? No. Since when has a new OS release added anything world changing? They have been, since OS X 10.0, Linux 2 and Windows 2000, incremental. Is the DRM stuff a bad route? Yes. Does Vista use too many resources? Well, the idle footprint over my OS X machine isn't significantly greater - I would say it *does* use a too much, but frankly, as my machine is fairly modern, I don't notice. In many operations, it's faster than XP.
Should we all move to desktop Ubuntu? I don't know - I use Linux on servers, but it's still not ready for desktops, in my eyes. A technically semi-literate friend installed it on his Laptop, as someone had preached too him, and it *mostly* worked - except sound, which was a huge pain in the ass, and even I (with years of Linux experience) couldn't make work. Mostly is not good enough (he bought an OS X laptop to replace it, and is very happy). When Linux sorts out these issues, and gets a decent suite of end user software (no, Openoffice is not good enough to be an Office replacement), I might consider putting friends and familiy onto it.
Is Vista the devil? No. It's no worse than XP, and has several significant features that make it better, much like XP over 2000.
For quite some time, it's become easier to find out anyone's business as they used their computer, even in Windows XP. It just seems that with Window Vista, it's easier to make the discovery. Keep in mind, it's not just the operating system doing the copies, but it's also applications that do so as well.
From the "temporarily copied" documents viewed in Microsoft Outlook, to the cached images stored by Internet Explorer, and still yet to the meta-data stored in Word documents. (There have a been a few times I have read a Word document meant to be anonymous only to find the creator in the document's properties.)
While it might take the career of the computer forensic scientist down a peg and be a boon for any prosecutor, it does nothing more than make it easier to find information that hasn't been deleted by force from its owner.
Don't be surprised if the market now swarms with applications that will allow you to 'view' data while wiping all trace evidence after it's been seen; or still yet allowing you to create documents that are completely wiped of meta-data. Sure, you won't be able to find something unless the search has to delegate to its bits and bytes, but at least they can't find someone's manifesto by name. (Of course, you have to be sure that it wasn't e-mailed.)
It's encroachment on privacy like this that creates entirely new markets for people to leech from the truly paranoid; which seems to be quite a majority of the population since everyone seems to have some skeleton in their closet.
On a funny note, this one co-worker had an embarrassing image pop up every time he went to print; the image itself was attached to an e-mail from a co-worker who loved to send around joke e-mails. He wasn't able to get rid of the image from the preview, until I pointed him to the directory (which is stamped in the registry) where Outlook stores its temporary files (usually most attachments, images, etc.) Apparently this fellow never opens any e-mail from this co-worker anymore.
Spoken like a true totalitarian. What happens when the laws change and the perfectly legal and moral things I do on my computer become immoral and illegal according to the government? Sorry bud, but I'll hang on to my privacy.
No, we need a government that is more honorable that doesn't engage in unconstitutional search and seizure, that respect privacy, that doesn't go on fishing trips in your data storage. Crypto is there to protect you from this, use it.
PS: the "if you don't have anything to hide.. blah blah" argument is a load of horseapples and only a MORON doesn't know that.
If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
... my disks are encrypted
Well, companies have always waited before deploying a new OS -- and for good reason too. Vista is definitely not bug free.
e w_to_Windows_Vista Back-end features simply cannot be appreciated by the average user. I'd expect better from the Slashdot user, of course.
Your first article: December 2006. It makes the point that there are no new 'killer' features in Vista. Are you aware that most of the new Vista features are back-end? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_features_n
Second: November 2006. As I said.
Third: February 2007. Pretty old, and times have changed since then.
> Or scroll down today's submissions to.. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/14/043200 [slashdot.org]
/do under XP.
Do you think that is actually INCLUDED in Vista? STFU.
> don't mind your games running slower than they would
What explains some games already running faster in Vista than in XP, then?
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=37015
Not sure if it helps in this case, though.
Bypass Compulsory Web Registration -- http://bugmenot.com/
If you wish to be secure in your illegal activities, you'd probably be wise to avoid keeping any records at all.
Allow me to edit the above:
If you wish to secure your data from unwanted intrusion, you'd probably be wise to avoid using Vista which records your activities using methods not found in previous Microsoft systems, or other systems in general.
There should be a "-1:Groupthink"
My bigger concern is what happens to the excess (not admitted into evidence) data. IE, almost all of it. That really needs to be kept confidential. I'm not sure how it can be protected? Something like "fruit of the poisoned vine" for criminal cases is probably too extreme.
"Congress make forensic PC Exam Easier"
There, fixed the headline.
I do all my illegal activities on an Abacus.
Red bead attempting to slide right.
Cancel or Allow?
Please stop stalking me, bro.
With Regards to your bad points:
1) Eye Candy: I like to turn it off, it always wastes CPU cycles and most people don't know when you need the extra ones to burn.
2) Missing or shitting drivers: Well, unless you own a business that relies on 3rd party hardware to automate your company, I suppose it's a *very* reasonable concern, especially to those companies relying on hardware from third-party companies that may have been deep-sixed. You wanna step in and write the drivers for them? (and like your complaint about video, make sure they are just as expediant and bug-free as before?)
3) UAC, i.e. "you're doing it wrong". For that, I give you kudos. Many times people run applications that require too many permissions; however, on the downside, too many applications are written that require those permissions when they really don't need them. From a developer's prospective, that's a good thing.
I'm afraid I cannot comment further on the 'good' points you mention, because I already noted the one good one you brought up.
However, I will say this: *upgrading* to Vista seems *like* the devil incarnate; buying a new machine, however, (which hasn't outright *lied* about its ability to use it *cough* Dell) might be an advantage for any soon to be prison inmate. Heck, the average serial killer will probably be released by the time Service Pack 3 for Vista is due for public consumption, just-in-time for a new lawyer to gather evidence.
Oh, and I don't like Windows XP any more than I do 2000, especially since I made the changes to have the interface look the same. (Smart move on their part.)
What is forgotten here is an OS really should be an OS - designed to run the computer and what not.
Now, when that OS has deliberate code to track and monitor a users 'usage', it really is no more a tool to run a computer, but rather a tool to watch a user. The main job of that code is absolute control of the computer taken away from the user.
MS have been trying to do this for years, and now it looks like they have succeeded ~ and the sheep follow and buy the crap.
It is pretty scary that this succeeds at all. I mean, nobody in their right mind would buy a car that recorded every single journey and 'phoned home' every time you exceeded a speed limit, or the car stopped at changing traffic lights, even though you didn't need to... the world would be in uproar and the car would most definitely not sell at all.
Yet the sheep still but this crap...
Microsoft is reading this article and thinking "Heh, interesting side effect..." when later questioned their response will be "Yes, we meant that."
And M$'s lawyers are saying "Hell with eating our own dog food. Let's ban Vista from all managers' desktops!"
Anyone wanna try to order discovery on M$'s systems regarding settlement compliance?
Save your game... Save often. That's the answer to "dumb or lazy".
Damnit. I fed a troll again, didn't I?
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
Whenever there is an article on Privacy, or the article a few days ago on the humans need for privacy, slashdotters come out in droves to state why privacy isn't important or why privacy is already gone deal with it, or all information should be free,etc.,etc.
:)
Those same people come into these articles and comment about how security choices allows information to be free. Geez, make up your minds
yep, it's very insecure because the unsafe mechanism in Vista is not safe !
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
.... recovering all the spam mail you deleted, when the lawyers want to prove you to be some sort of pervert on perscription drugs.
Seriously, this seems to contridict recent reports that linux is less secure then Vista.
So when is all the MS promotional hype going to be exposed for what it really is, a bunch of contradictory lies.
Is anyone keeping an accounting of all the Bull Shit coming out of Mircosoft promotion?
So it can be added up to find MS OS is ad promoting spyware that takes up resources that can better be used in user productivity.
There was a time when memory, storage space and megahertz were valuable resources.
And now we know why Vista required such resources yet performs from a user perspective, slower.
Because its spying on you and dumping garbage all around your hard-drive.
The reality is that most users like the ability to index and search their data, and to recover previous versions of a file, as well as the better reliability offered by transactional file operations. In the general case of a non-criminal user, these features provide far greater benefits than the potential harm of having their activities more effectively analysed by law enforcement officials, in the highly improbable case of a legal order to hand over their data.
Actually, no. No data mining was going on there. I explained it in the /. topic, the article is full of hot air.
Before you try to pass your FUD as information to the rest of the world you ought to read the links that you are linking to.
.NET? In addition, .NET has mechanisms to protected untrusted code from taking truly damaging actions. However, you can have a look at the latest news out of the java camp regarding the JVM and how wonderful it is. You've also linked to a shill that was just fishing for some PR complaining that the UI for UAC could be spoofed. The only way for the spoof to work however was under a very elaborate set of circumstances. There are three or four actions that a user would have to take (and not in their normal order) before the exploit would work. Finally you have an article about Symantec complaining that Vista is not safe. Right, and you would expect anything different from a company that makes their money from the fact that users don't know how to use and protect their computers properly?
I'll address security as the rest of the "design" arguments and functionality are more subjective.
So Gosling says that C/C++ Interop is a huge security risk? No not really. Overall it's not a security risk this to some extent has been proven over the last 6 years. When is the last time a severe and exploitable vulnerabilty has been published for
I'd prefer that you not use Vista.
How about that "restore previous versions" feature of Vista. You can bet that isn't going to cause some embarrassing moments.
I assume something like wipe would do a unrecoverable delete.
Does anybody know. If a program does fopen("myfile.txt", "w+") is a backup made?
Arthur Dent: Is it safe? Ford Prefect: It's perfectly safe. It's just us who are in danger. -- Douglas Adams (HHGTTG)
I think the issue here is choice.
YOU should be the one to decide if your OS phones home, if it stores every keystroke you ever made, if it keeps copies of all the files you ever had, etc.
Just like a bad doctor who decides for his patient, Microsoft has decided to take choice away from the user. The only choice you are limited to now if you don't want the OS to do this is to choose another OS.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Time for the weekly RIAA, MPAA, BSA, Microsoft, GOP whitewashing is it?
I can see it now, late-night home shopping channel ads
"Protect your computer! Buy our software!"
"Getting divorced? In a lawsuit? About to be? Buy our software!"
"Save thousands in legal fees or worse!"
"How much would you pay for all this?"
"For not $1000, not $5000, $200, not even $100, but for only $99.95* you too can have our amazing software*!"
*Plus $5.95 shipping and handling. Vendor support not included.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Unfortunately, this technology is very likely to be misused by uninformed people in the legal profession. The example of the school teacher accused of spreading porn come to mind. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070214-8850 .html
Some prosecutors are likely to take the evidence from Vista as proving a person did something very bad. The evidence only the computer did something very bad. A rogue third party could have hijacked the computer and planted the data there. With current spyware and adware, the attack may simply be an effort to drive traffic to certain websites. Having a school teacher's career destroyed is just a side-effect of a rogue third party trying to make money.
EVERY time I rob a liquor store I create detailed plans on my laptop running Vista, which I keep in my getaway car.
I hate slashdot
First, let's kill all the lawyers.
Oh, thought you were anti-murder based on the rest of your post. Kind of confused here.
The Republican's sure aren't going to want to upgrade...
Joe consumer absolutely does care a great deal about DRM. Not in the abstract because he isn't paying that much attention, but definitely when it prevents him from using content he's bought.
I've been using Vista (Business) all summer; I should know.
Wow, with all that expertise being used to negatively judge Vista, how on earth could any person ever argue with you...
1) People shouldn't listen to SlashDot for Windows Expertise advice.
2) When you have been using it for only a month, you should keep your mouth shut.
3) Everything you mention is either poorly informed or an opinion. For example:
But they don't do me any good because they suck my battery life
Yet, most experts that have done actual tests agree Vista with Glass/Aero enabled only consumes 1-3% more battery than XP. So explain again how much Aero sucks your battery?
Utilizing the GPU for fairly infrequent operations like Aero demands is LESS DEMANDING on a GPU than continually having to redraw application screens using 2D without a composer. And this doesn't even get into how Vista more efficiently uses a Vector based composer that is lighter on the GPU than the old 2D APIs.
However, if you are telling the truth of your experience, then you have some serious issue and should check with the MFR, as your results are not typical.
Unlikely. Even if people liked Vista -- and many don't -- you'd be hearing some complaints. These users are human, right?
A few folks who don't like Vista
***Why are the good points about Vista never mentioned on Slashdot?***
Probably because -- with the exception of Direct X 10 -- hardly anyone cares about the new features in Vista. A summary of the features is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windo ws_Vista. Read through it an tell us what
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
I don't know why I'm replying to an AC, but this really bothered me.
OK, first, DRM is not the law. It is a scheme that copyright holders have been trying to force on consumers because they imagine that everyone they do business with is a criminal. It is perfectly legal to play an MP3 on any platform you choose, as long as you purchased that MP3 in a legal manner. DVD's are a different matter, but only because the MPAA is a shortsighted organization that thinks they can only make money by locking out their customers.
Second, you shouldn't need a degree in computer science to play the latest games. That is the fault of Microsoft that has felt that games such as Halo3 are the perfect test bed for their DRM technology that they are trying to sell to other content providers. There is absolutely no other reason for them to enforce the use of Vista for this game.
With the right environment (such as KDE) you have the same ability to perform the most common tasks without a CLI. I prefer the power and flexibility that is available on the command line, but I realize that it is not for everyone.
So there you have it. Vista plus points rebutted.
IANAL... But I play one on
I read this fascinating article (probably a /. story) about how anti-computer forensics (the art of manipulating computer records and files and any and all data to hide evidence or forge false evidence) can beat computer forensics every time, because the whole idea of computer forensics is to trust what the computer says as truth. The only problem is, someone with enough knowledge of a computer can easily change any and all data... and leave no evidence of tampering. Date and time stamps can easily be manipulated with free tools or even just by changing the system clock time. Files can be encrypted, or overwritten multiple times with random data to be completely lost. The article writer believed that computer forensic evidence should be deemphasized over the much harder to tamper with physical evidence. I concur with his assessment.
Basically... people who don't know how to do this anti-computer forensic stuff... computer forensics can be a huge evidence gathering tool. But the problem is the people who know how to cover their tracks, or even worse decide to forge evidence to frame someone else. I personally already know how to disable Shadow Volume Copy and Instant Search... the options are just in the Windows GUI somewhere (not sure what Transactional NTFS is, but if I cared enough I could probably figure that out too with a quick Wikipedia trip).
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that this will only change things for the computer users or the computer clueless... not for those who already practice anti-computer forensics, or even just use such techniques to ensure their privacy.
mmm...maybe FCD?
Probably starting with "trusted computing" for many of us, certainty is all too real. (about this specific category of abuses; speaking as a Linux user who doesn't dual boot, I think I've seen plenty of evidence of BSD/Mac bias and a general hesitancy to criticize Linux. FWIW)
I really don't know how you made the connection between Halo 2 and DRM either. I guess maybe you're equating OS restriction with DRM, which is fair, but Microsoft's strategy isn't testing any sort of DRM, imo. Their strategy is "Hey, we have this game that people like, let's make it exclusive to our new OS, so people will want to buy it!" No DRM-testing there, just trying to bolster sales of a new product.
At any rate, my plus point for Vista is simply that there's no real negative. I have had almost no issues with it (KOTOR won't work for some reason, much to my chagrin), but beyond that, it's simply a new version of Windows, neither great nor awful. I use Vista because it's the future of Windows, whether anyone likes it or not, and as I prefer Windows, that makes Vista a big part of my computing future. I know this won't convince any Vista haters, it's simply honesty on my part.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Technically, the first version of Windows that came with a DVD encoder was Vista (and only in the premium and ultimate SKUs). On the other Windows versions, the DVD decoder came with the video card.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
Wow someone else uses the same procedure as me. What's so great about this is it allows me my weekly scheduled evil session for about a half and hour before 10am on Thursday and I trust the authorities(even after having read this post) aren't smart enough to arrive at 9:55am on Thursday.
This is called the grandfather paradox. ...and if you went back into the past, you'd probably step on an ant and destroy the world anyway.
Um, OS X apps don't use the /tmp directory in the way most unix machines do. It's manly there as a compatibility thing for BSD apps...
/tmp, the X11 socket under my user-id directory:
/tmp/ .. .X11-unix /tmp//.X11-unix: .. /tmp//501: ..
/tmp is a link to /private/tmp, and you only get the contents when you append the /] ... and I have darwinports installed, use X rather than Terminal, use X editors etc. I'm far more unix-like than your average Mac user...
My Mac has been up for 21 days, used every day for a variety of things (none of them illegal, but hey...) and there is precisely one "file" in
[mac:~] simon% ls -laR
total 0
drwxrwxrwt 4 root wheel 136 Jul 14 03:24 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 204 Jun 22 17:40
drwxrwxrwt 3 simon wheel 102 Jun 22 20:27
drwxr-xr-x 2 simon wheel 68 Jul 12 18:57 501
total 0
drwxrwxrwt 3 simon wheel 102 Jun 22 20:27 .
drwxrwxrwt 4 root wheel 136 Jul 14 03:24
srwxrwxrwx 1 simon wheel 0 Jun 22 20:27 X0
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 simon wheel 68 Jul 12 18:57 .
drwxrwxrwt 4 root wheel 136 Jul 14 03:24
[mac:~] simon% uptime
10:09 up 21 days, 16:48, 1 user, load averages: 0.20 0.08 0.02
[the extra slashes are there because
Oh yeah, and "all" you have to do is brute-force the DMG encryption ? *ALL* !!!? The NIST seem to think it would take 149 thousand billion years to crack the key, *if* you used specialised hardware...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
OK, first, DRM is not the law.
I suggest you read this carefully:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA
"It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services that are used to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works (commonly known as DRM) and criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, even when there is no infringement of copyright itself."
Sadly, at least here in the Unfree States of America, DRM **is** most assuredly the law.
C//
I think you missed the point. He said something along the lines of A is easier than B but less secure than B. B is easier than C, but less secure than C. C is easier than D ....
Maybe you get the point. The sentence you "corrected" comes right after the sequence in which he says a computer is easier to search than a box of papers, and a box of papers is easier to search than nothing at all. The idea is that if you want true security, you don't keep records.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Err... DRM prevents him using content which he hasn't bought but copied from somewhere without a valid license. DRM enables him to use content which he has bought which is under DRM. But of course Joe Sixpack gets his content from P2P for free without any DRM so that's not a concern either.
You don't know what you don't know.
If you commit any illegal activity involving your computer, the authorities will eventually decrypt whatever illegal stuff you have eventually. That and if you don't give up your encryption keys they'll hold you in contempt of court for impeding an investigation anyway. I don't know why you all are complaining about something which will only apply to you if you do something illegal. That's like complaining that the government will search my house if I murder somebody.
Except if the way he intends to use the content in any way diverges from the narrow path the benevolent DRM masters have chosen for him. Want to view a Blu-ray film on a first-generation HDTV? Oops! Want to play your music without converting it away from open formats? Oops!
Ballmer? Is that you?
Most of the stuff on
I'm afraid you're mistaken in suggesting that other systems do not use similar methods. Mac OS X, for example, includes Spotlight ...
Well, yeah, but Spotlight by itself isn't Vista. Nor is my weekly 'locate' cron job, for example. Previous offerings from Microsoft similarly offered nothing on that scale either, so I think my "in general" characterisation was fair, even more so when you take into account the tortured mess of what's kept in the Windows registry and the general inaccessibility of that data, along with an ad-hoc file system hierarchy which may or not contain anything of interest.
As for features that may or not be added in the future to other operating systems, that's an open and possibly interesting discussion. The article was about forensic issues with regards to Vista. Again, I think it's fair to say that Vista is unique.
I agree that the "feature rich" approach (indexing, transactional file systems, etc.) do benefit most. However, I do take issue with the general case of a non-criminal user. Perfectly ordinary features like maintaining browser history, to a limited and pedestrian example, can be problematic for anyone.
If they do, they didn't bother letting other parts of the OS team know about it, or the law enforcement agencies that would be looking into was around it; probably at the request of the DOD and other government agencies that wanted to be able to use it without worrying about something as obvious to exploit as a back door.
And nothing (except system speed) stops you from installing truecrypt on top of bitlocker if you
really want to be paranoid.
The idea is that if you want true security, you don't keep records.
But are we talking about keeping records, or about computers which keep records on our behalf? If it's the former, then, yes, everyone who's watched an episode of the Sopranos gets the point. I only sought to emphasize that anyone using a computer (just about everyone) is going to have certain data maintained for them and about them by the operating system. In Vista's case, and elsewhere (as another poster pointed out) to a greater extent in the future, there is more of that data, and more ways for it to be stored.
Maybe it's obvious. All I know is in my case, I prefer to keep my house clean and my life simple. When I throw out the household trash, or delete a voice mail, I'd prefer knowing that duplicate copies of that garbage (or an itemised list of its contents) doesn't exist, or, if it did, was permanently deleted, and that everything to do with that voicemail is similarly gone. The approach doesn't necessarily apply to computers, but to the extent it does, I don't think it's too much to expect.
If only my ancestors had truly understood the horrible dangers of "pads of paper", whose insidious nature permitted forensic recovery of exact handwritten correspondence. The prosecution needed only a #2 pencil to reveal damaging evidence by merely wiping the edge of the pencil "lead" across the page whose surface had been silently altered to store the impressions of the writer's penmanship.
Besides, I much prefer to use an operating system that not only doesn't keep shadow copies of my work, but rather, in a heroic effort to safeguard my privacy, quickly loses the originals ("file not found", "seek error at track nnnnn", etc.).
I say "boo" to Windows Vista. We don't need no stinkin' backups of our data.
The reason the job is made easier is that Vista's file copy moves at the speed of the court systems.
Bah-dum-ching!
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
But I do like it, and I do want to use it! The problem is that I can't use it because it sucks too damn much battery power! It doesn't count as a "feature" when you can't fucking use it, now does it?!
First of all, the computer in question is a Lenovo Thinkpad X60. It worked perfectly in Windows XP. It even works perfectly in Kubuntu Feisty (although I never tried the fingerprint reader)! But in Vista the (Intel, not nVidia!) video driver has a bug where the resolution switches from 1400x1050 to 1024x768 and back every time I log in after waking the computer from sleep (which makes the system unusable for about 10 seconds while it switches), the hardware volume buttons don't work (which means I can't avoid blaring a loud sound when I wake up my computer in class, if I forgot to mute it during the previous session), and the tablet screen rotation sensor doesn't work (so I have to manually change the screen orientation every time I switch to tablet mode).
That's not what I said! What I'm complaining about is that I tend to get two (slightly different) pop-ups per action! For example, I try to run an installer. First, I get a pop up saying "The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?" So I click "Run." Then I get another pop up from UAC telling me it can't identify the software, and to cancel or allow. This is what's stupid -- I already answered exactly the same damn question!
And so what if I might need to do things that require root access more often than most people? You do realize that even simple things like changing the display resolution (see the bug I mentioned above) require it, right? Needing root access often is a valid usage pattern, and I wouldn't be complaining if it would only ask me once per task (like OS X does, by the way) instead of multiple times. Of course, something like sudo with its time-out would be even better, but you can't really expect Microsoft to be that clever.
So, in summary: I installed Vista on here for exactly two reasons: the fancy graphics and better handwriting recognition. I can't actually use the fancy graphics unless I want to lug my AC adapter around all the time, so that's moot. The handwriting recongition is better, but not better enough to compensate for the frustration of not having my hardware work properly. UAC and DRM make the whole thing a net negative. Period. And that's not FUD, that's my real experience!
Ideally, I'd run Kubuntu on here. Unfortunately, Linux doesn't have any workable equivalent to the Tablet Input Panel, Windows Journal, or OneNote, so I can't. Therefore, XP's getting reloaded as soon as I have a chance.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
You idea of using your hourly snapshots in lieu of anti virus may not be the smartest idea. In the event of an infection, how would you know which snapshots are virus free? It is quite possible that without any AV software that it would be some time, possibly a matter of weeks, certainly more than a few hours, between infection and you noticing that your machine has an infection, at that point you will spend a hell of a long time restoring snapshots, and the end result would be data-loss in any event, especially if you find that your documents have been either damaged or infected. Even if you scan your machine periodically you are going to see problems, and may miss an infection, after all if your machine is already infected how can you trust whatever it is you are using for your periodic scans to be correct?
Your statement and implied confidence is similar to that of those system administrators who use live fail-over in lieu of periodic backups for (for example) database servers. It is a fine solution for hardware or some software issues, but its useless if your live fail-overs have been replicating corrupt data for an unknown amount of time.
The extra effort of maintaining AV software on your machine (or the effort and infrastructure required to backup a database server in my example) is justifiable because with BOTH systems in place the chances of data loss and outages are reduced significantly when compared to using neither OR one or the other.
Sorry, that should have been "all summer semester," so it's more like three months.
Who the fuck do you think you are, to tell me my own actual experience is poorly informed or an opinion?!
It's the summer semester, so I have lectures 70 minutes long. If my computer is fully-charged when class starts, and Aero Glass is turned off, but with WiFi enabled and the display at 100% brightness, I can get through the lecture without getting any power warnings. If, on the other hand, Aero Glass is turned on (and the other settings are the same), Windows tends to hibernate due to lack of battery life just before class ends. So, it may only be a 5% difference (I do think it's more than 3%), but it's the difference between getting through a lecture or not, which is really fucking significant!
Yeah, that's what I thought before too. But it doesn't seem to be the case with my GMA950.
Well, I would do that, except it worked significantly better in XP and Kubuntu...
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
Interesting, must have a look at EnCase, just out of curiosity (I banned anything with copyright problems years ago so I'm not worried - I don't even use Office anymore, but OO).
However, I am not sure you could consider the artifacts evidence as they point into space if you load up the 'regular' Truecrypt drive. All that you can prove is that the data may have been present at some time, but the hard evidence is missing, it's as if you erased it. Forensics could never get further than a reasonable suspicion, but there would be no proof unless you're so dumb to admit to a hidden volume.
A decent interrogator will probably trip you up on that (yes, even without Guantanamo Bay) but as long as they don't have a password they have zip, I think. Of course, IMHO, IANAL.
I personally think you're dumb if you're doing something illegal. Hide data for privacy reasons, yes. But there's little reason to be on the wrong side of the law these days, IMHO.
Just my two cents..
Insert
Sorry, I couldn't even read the whole article without freaking. I work in Electronic Discovery and am an expert in this field, large collections focus on data and data-ownership. Operating system files are removed from this process as irrelevant only user data is of interest, machines seized in this process are shipped to facilities that catalog relevant files in a much larger review system. Anybody who desires to 'fire the machine up' also desires to deal with OS security and trusts that technology to not mask anything of value. Terabytes of data are filtered through in sets that span many fileservers and clients alike. Mac, Win, *nix it doesn't matter. Suggesting Vista will help with this is a complete joke, all OS's are equally irrelevant. And regardless of what people might think Lawyers are not valued for their technical competence by anybody but other Lawyers. Anybody who wants to deal with systems on a host by host basis will never finish reviewing all their material and will loose their case.
Not that dumb ideas don't get passed off as brilliance.
Ah, I feel better now. Well its back to crawling 12 million Tiff files of OCR paper documents for me, and no I'm not using freakin' Vista.
No, circumventing DRM is against the law. But DRM itself is not the law. Legal MP3's can be obtained without breaking ANY laws whatsoever, and that was my point. There is no law saying that you can't use any OS you chose to play MP3's, as long as they are legally obtained. The parent was using playing MP3's as one of his "Vista plus points." I can play MP3's on Linux, Mac, or Windows, as long as I have obtained them legally. DRM is a scheme that the RIAA has put in to play to limit that. If we as consumers continue to allow them to lock up their content via DRM, eventually we will see even further restrictions that enforce how many times you may play their content, or at what time of day.
Believe me, I'm well aware of the DMCA, and I speak out against it whenever I can. IMHO, it is a piece of legislation that should never have seen the light of day. Violating copyright was already a crime, and that is where it should have ended. Reverse engineering and the like have been a big part of computer history, and making that type of thing illegal, while at the same time benefiting from that activity is hypocritical at best.
IANAL... But I play one on
OK, I should have spelled out the DRM restriction on Halo 2. Microsoft, when they announced that Halo 2 would only run on Vista, also stated that the reason for this restriction is that they would be using the DRM scheme that came with Vista. That is why the game will not work on XP. So, in essence, Halo 2 became the poster child for Vista DRM.
IANAL... But I play one on
from what I understand, sound went BACKWARDS in vista compared to xp.
in xp, it was a little bit hard to get kernel audio streaming (bypassing that MORONIC 'mixer' that can do real damage to your bit-perfect spdif playable music).
in vista, its a total rewrite. the HTPC guys don't seem super happy with vista audio. and again, we have the copy/read protection stuff getting in the way, more so than ever before.
we all know vista is the most invasive 'os' (its NOT an os, its more cop/police than os in many places). but if you want bit-perfect audio, I still recommend linux or xp.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
So, I'm glad Vista's working out for you. I personally don't want Microsoft to control my life to that degree. So, for me, XP is as far as I'm going until Microsoft officially EOL's it. At that point, I MAY switch, but it's far more likely I'll look for Linux based alternatives to the software that my wife uses and go full Linux. Whenever I read another security article about how much data Vista is collecting and sending to Microsoft, I feel better about that decision. I know it will likely end my gaming hobby, but I'm not sure that I want to risk my privacy by moving to Vista.
IANAL... But I play one on
I guess you are not quite informed about what your privacy challenged M$ crap does. Look at what WGA does. Every time it boots up it touches base with M$. What's to prevent sometime in the near future, M$ disabling your OS? All it has to do is to change a little flag in the database, and the next time WGA phones home, you no longer have a working computer.
p lorer\UserAssist
Or how about this little ditty. Look at registry entry
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ex
Look this one up in Google sometime. Winblows collects information about every executable you run, and time stamps this. This information is sometimes sent encrypted to M$ during the WGA phone home sessions. Why does M$ need this?
To see where M$ is going with this, just look at their recent patents. How about the patent that guarantees that ads will be displayed, viewed and accounted for inside the OS? Just more spying.
Let's face it, M$ has become Big Brother. None of the new features in Vista are to the benefit of their customers, instead its to allow an ever increasing ability to control, dictate and bow down to the big Hollywood interests.
Quit playing Monopoly with Bill.
Linux - of the people, by the people, and for the people.
That's fair. I can't pretend that it's not. Different people, different priorities I guess. I'm not of the "nothing to hide" school of thought, but I don't put that high a value on my privacy either. Others', sure. Mine, no. But my point wasn't really to convince anyone, just to try to present a rational statement of "Hey, works just fine for me", which is awfully hard to come by in the Vista debate, er, flame war.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Since things like computers didn't exist back when the Constitution was written. You can't just say "no" to anything that might convict you. For example you can't refuse to hand over a key to your house (not that they can't break the lock anyhow) or refuse to give a blood sample. So an encryption key is a real grey area. On the one hand, it isn't really testimony per se, it is more akin to a physical key and thus you should have to hand it over. On the other hand it is something that is stored solely in your head, and the intent of the 5th is that you could keep your mouth closed if you wanted to.
Something like this would probably have to be argued in court if it came up. There is probably some precedent both ways, and I don't think there's any rulings on this specific topic.
Erm, I think you just made my point for me, I said that replication on its own is no substitute for other backup methodologies, like snapshots and long term backups... Only a combination, based on a risk assesment is going to be any use, any of these technologies on their own present their own problems.
On the AV front, my previous scepticism stands, how can you be sure that whatever application you use to scan your machine is doing its job correctly if you don't know that they system being scanned is clean? What is to say that the infection isn't hiding from known AV scanning methodologies? something that would not be possible if the infection is detected at the point of entry.
The only way you are going to be sure that you machine does not have an infection is to boot from a separate device (live CD etc..) with current scanning engine and definitions, to do that you need to take your machine off-line, acceptable for a home machine but not the way I would want to do it.
If you haven't tried it yet do the following: corrupt the networking part in VPC (or disable networking in VMWare), then load Windows Vista or XP SP2 and use it on a regular basis (you don't even have to load anything, no updates or so), never allowing networking and since it's a corporate version you don't need to activate.
I think after about 90 days (more or less, I don't use it that much) I have noticed the Windows installation corrupts itself everytime with the same error (blue screen on startup saying it can't find a specific file in the \system folder), call Microsoft and all they know is that you should apply the latest patches (but I'm not on the Internet, I'm in a controlled environment)
I have had it with different systems (Mac, PC, Linux) and there was no special software running on the virtual machines and all networking and file transferring was blocked.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Who the fuck do you think you are, to tell me my own actual experience is poorly informed or an opinion?!
;)
Actually you would be surprised.
Well, I would do that, except it worked significantly better in XP and Kubuntu...
Either way, your system is having an issue. It could be something as simple as having the power management setting messed up to a video driver that doesn't properly scale back when you are on battery. Which our techs have seen on a couple of laptops, and replacing the driver fixed.
Try this, leave Aero on, but turn off the transparency in the personalization settings. See if that doesn't fully restore your battery time. On some Intel based GPUs the transparency effects have to be processed over PS 2.0 and this is done through software emulation because of the inherent lack of features in the intel GPU. By turning off the main source of use of PS 2.0 features it will pull less resources from the CPU if your video is one of these models and should give you better than XP or *nix battery times do to the internal scale down powering of the system when.
Even a few months of experience on Vista on ONE computer is NOT going to represent MOST of the experience users are having, even though your experience has not been the best.
If you look at a new laptop from Dell that Vista designed BIOS/Audio/etc you would be shocked how much better Vista operates and controls the system compared to even an XP Shipped laptop from last year. In these circumstances, Vista tramples XP in terms of performance, battery, and features and is more of the norm for users that are buying new systems with Vista pre-installed.
I hope you find the root of the missing battery time problem you are seeing.
Take Care, and good luck to you.
Then there's the P2P option ;)
You don't know what you don't know.
> > Why are the good points about Vista never mentioned on Slashdot? >Um because most of the people that come here just see history repeating >itself. Try as I might, I can't think of any good points about Vista. Given that few except the Marketing Spinmeisters at Microsoft seems to be able to do so, perhaps that's the reason you don't see sais (alleged) "good points about Vista" mentioned around here. Besides, Vista has so many bad points we can barely keep up with them! Vista is the best advertising Ubuntu linux could ever hope for!
"You're young, you're drunk, you're in bed, you have knives; shit happens." -- Angelina Jolie
You pay money for systems that track changes to certain files in specific places.
You do not pay good money to monitor every move a user makes. That puts way too much burden on computer resources, and even the decisions it requires of management is way too much of a burden, even if management makes the right decisions (the decision to turn it off).
This is in the same category as the privacy debate.
In another world, where everyone is perfect, we won't mind having no privacy. (We can stand upon the mountain with our flags unfurled, to quote Paul.) There will be two reasons for that: One, no perfect person will need room to recover from calculating blind alleys. The other, no perfect {parent | manager | police | neighbor} is going to look at data that is local to someone else's stewardship unless invited to do so.
This world ain't that, and if you think you're ready to live in that world, I hope you have the chance to get a good enough glimpse of that world before being committed to it. (We do all go there eventually, of course, in spite of John and Ono's insistance to the contrary.)
joudanzuki
Sorry, I may not be a lawyer, but I sure as hell know that any half-way competent defence attorney would have the case laughed out of court. "So where's the chain of custody? What's that, you mean non-technical lawyers pulled out evidence and tinkered with it to see if they could find anything incriminating? BWAAAAAAAAAHahahahahahhahahaaha!!! Get out of my court and mind you don't get your big red floppy feet stuck in the door on the way out."
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
Vista is storing copies to provide desirable and useful features. Point-in-time recovery. Fast search.
Boneheads will still think dragging to the trash makes their porn go away. Real boneheads will still think emptying it makes it go away. And the ones stupid enough to get caught will seize on any lame-ass excuse to blame someone else.
If you're doing something you think the hierarchy-worshipers will eventually decide is in the top 10 on the who-do-we-rile-the-sheeple-with-next list, you spend time thinking about real security and spotting agents provocateurs and how to stop the bastards sucking every part of the economy they don't own completely dry.
Vista (or Google, or Spotlight or whatever Apple's version is called) indexing your hard drive is probably more helpful than dangerous even in that scenario.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
from what I understand, sound went BACKWARDS in vista compared to xp.
Oh thats just a recording of Steve Balmer saying "I am satan". He got the idea from all the cool rock bands who did that sort of shit on their albums (back in the days of vinyl).
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Don't do drugs, but I think theonly margin call would be the therapeutic use of something that is known to help but has been declared illegal.
Why only theraputic? What goes on in the privacy of my own home (let alone my own body) is my business and mine alone.
You mean, being called George Michael
Well sure that's one. I was thinking about prostitution though. Or pornography, or sodomy laws, or really any sort of puritanical garbage.
Just replace "CD" with "Ferrari" and see if it still seems a sensible argument.
If I could make a perfect copy of a Ferrari at no cost to anyone, then that argument would be perfectly sensible.
Strangely enough, that may have to do something with where you live. If all you see is examples of people getting ahead with breaking the law, that becomes your personal profile too.
Reminds me of this bit from Confucius: When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of.
And even more of this from Thoreau: Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!