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Microsoft To Disable Autorun
jchrisos writes "Microsoft is planning to disable autorun in the next Release Candidate of Windows 7 and future updates to Windows XP and Vista. In order to maintain a 'balance between security and usability,' non-writable media will maintain its current behavior however. In any case, if it means no more autorun on flash drives, removable hard drives and network shares, that is definitely a step in the right direction. Will be interesting to see what malware creators do to get around this ..."
suddenoutbreakofswineflu
WTF?
You seem to be implying that there is such a thing as a windows machine without malware ...
In the beginning, there was a User.
This User did not possess the special knowledge of the Priests of the Cult of Computers.
This User was granted divine Manna from heaven in the form of a shining disc with an outer shell of a transparent horn-like material.
"Lo!" said he, "I have found the Sacred Tablet of AOL!"
And he put the Tablet in the Slot of Curious Whirrings, and nothing happened. And this was Good.
But the User was unhappy, and complained to the Disciples of AOL, that the sacred disc of AOL was defective.
And so the Disciples of AOL conferred with the Disciples of Borg.
Now, the Disciples discipled for a while, and determined that the User could never be trusted grok the mysteries of "Drive D". The Disciples agreed, also it was bothersome and unholy, to be summoned each time a Tablet was delivered by divine provenance to another User. And so Autorun was created.
Verily, the User could place the Sacred Tablet of AOL in the Slot of Curious Whirrings, and without any further discipling by the Disciples, could run AOL.
And thus were the Demons of AOL unleashed upon the world together with the Lord of PC Plague and Pestilence, he-who-should-not-be-named-but-nevertheless-I-will, Autorun.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
You're a disciple of AOL.
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
Humans are HORRIBLE at deciding what is safe to run at what isn't. That's the central security problem, and it probably won't be solved until we have intelligence.
there fixed that for you
Autorun does work really well... at installing rootkits on your machine from Sony/BMG CD's.
This made me wonder if Sony will now sue Microsoft for producing software that circumvents their copy protection.