Funny. I run IE, use Outlook (mostly Outlook Express), and am always cruising around as admin. Strange how I never have an issue. Maybe you're doing something wrong.
Seriously though. A few simple thingsw to remember online that will take care of > 95% of problems.
1. Safe browsing habits. 2. Watch what you download, and whom you download it from. 3. Don't open random attachments / emails unless you KNOW what they contain (i.e. something you requested)
Now then, add a decent, up-to-date Virus/Spyware scanner with real time protection and you've just eliminated over 99% of your risk.
Want to hear the real part that's gonna make everyone here cry foul? I don't run ANY kind of VIrus or Spyware protection. I only use the Windows Firewall (when it doesn't 'aggrivate me and get turned off). I've run this way for nearly a year now with no problems. I occasionally check my system just to double check everything, but it's fine.
It's amazing what happens when you don't jump on Limewire all the time while you surf al the free XXX galleries looking for 'free' software (and I don't mean stuff under the GPL either).
My thoughts.
As far as Microsoft users having admin rights on their machines? Well, for the most part, a good deal of them need that. At least the testers. They've gotta have admin rights for half the crap they do. Do they also do tests in non-admin levels? You bet. But consider these people are literally trying to break this software. You attack software from an Admin point always. Can't do anything as user is why. Or at least SHOULDN'T be able to.
When you hack, you don't try and hack user accounts, you want root. Why should MS software be any different?
The problem with IT security, historically, has been a "Default Allow" approach. This is getting better, but still has a LOOOONG ways to go. Things should not be automatically allowed, they hsould have to be turned on.
Consider Windows 98/98SE. File sharing is off. And the OS itself was more or less a fairly secure (for it's time) OS on a DEFAULT install. Compare to Win2k/WinXP. Default admin shares open, often in upgrade cases we have Administrative accounts with NO password, which (with the exception of XP) could log on remotely. XP at least was intelligent enough in it's design so as not to allow remote logins with blank passwords for Administrative accounts (UNLESS ENABLED). THAT, my friends, is the correct approach to security. Default = NO!
Once this has been accomplished, and the general mindset of programmers when considering security (and Admins, etc.) is to assume the user knows NOTHING, and that things just should NOT be permitted without full warning of the consequences (this is where figuring out how to get users to read dialogue boxes comes in handy) security will be much tighter. And lets not forget about vendors and programmers just ignoring security glitches. It's sad to see a Buffer Overflow attack remain a vulnerability in a program beyond a single patch release, once identified. Even sadder, is when further program releases STILL have not addressed the issue (see, Medal of Honor Voting)). The 'solution' is disabling a bonafide FEATURE. This type of nonchalant approach to security will always land the general populaec in the grips of security vulnerabilities, with no clearn end in sight.
It's simpler even than that. Daggerfall, which had a Mature rating, featured nudity throughout the game (Some of the monsters, and hey, you could always just strip your character down if you REALLY wanted too, who needs armor anyway). Tomb Raider. Oh hey yea that one needed a patch (see: Nude Raider). What's this? No New Rating? Oh now I am SO offended by that. Children could spend hours scouring the net to find the nude raider patch, apply it, then play as Lara Croft nekkid. We have to protect our children from this type of leftist attack on good wholesome fully clothed values.
Yes ESRB, flag ANY game which shows a little nudity as MA. Good conservatives will tell you that massive violence, blowing things up, shooting (evildoers) people/things is perrfectly fine. Just as long as everyone is fully clothed and no one's holding hands.
/sarcasm off
Now then. Consider the cost incurred by Bethesda in this. Now consider the damage that this can/likely WILL cause to game developers, and to the caming community. Who remembers NeverWinter Nights? Fantastic game, made more so by the OPENESS of the game, where users/enthusiasts could create their own mods. That game enjoys a fanatical cult following to this day because of that. Now consider if game manufacturers have to be concerned about the types of mods users (or people who hate them) create? It will eventually lead to the annihilation of user created content for games (at least the ability coming from the game devs).
I have an idea. Let's all go to our local Best Buy, grab a copy of "Barbie's Grand Adventure" (or whatever the hell those things are called now), write a nudity patch for them (WOOHOO, go Ken! Go Ken!), and forward all of this to the ESRB. Barbie must be made to understand her immoral relationship with Ken must stop. She shant be poisoning the minds of our children any longer with her unmarried, unclothable, nonsense.
And on that thought, all these Action figures need ratings of MA as well, or least "Toy suitable for ages 17+" because you can strip them nekkid! God save us from ourselves!
/rant off
Ok, come on people. THIS IS NOTHING NEW! Google come on, really, why ar eyou getting mad NOW?!
Default start page on a Windows Install? MSN.com
What's RIGHT THERE? MSN Search.
Hit the "Search" button in IE and what do you get? MSN Search. THIS IS NOTHING NEW!
All Microsoft has done is change the location of it. NOTHING MORE. Wonderful 'user' attitudes we have here. Most people are on the internet now are smart enough to change their default search engine anyway. (Think something asking you if you'd like to use "X" for future searches.).
Does Microsoft have a monopoly? Nope. And if something that is VIABLY better actually comes out, their OS marketshare will plummett. And by better I mean Sally Joe and her boyfriend Billy Bob can install the OS, install applications, play games, check email, etc. etc. etc. without struggling any more than they do now on a windows machine.
Ubuntu almost comes close to that, at least for the install. Microsoft's OS dominance is simply because of a lack of a viable alternative. Not because of "unfair bundling". Not fair to whom? Linux? Unix? FreeBSD? Mac? Hah! If any of those ever targeted the end user, AND made things easy/compatible (Which Apple has made radical steps towards doing in the last few years, and their sales reflect that), Microsoft's OS Throne would be in danger of being ursurped.
My opinion, take it or leave it. Just think before you just dismiss it.
On a side note, I run Gentoo (4.2.6 Kernel) on my laptop (Wow, that was fun) along with XP Pro. My desktop runs XP Pro. Only reason my desktop isn't running Gentoo x64 (or another flavor, whatever happens to suit my tastes at the moment), No Shockwave/Flash player, and I don't much care for Cedega.
Is it because I believe Windows is inferior? Nope, not at all. I'm just bored with it.
And darn those pesky motherboard manufacturers for using a BIOS that includes the ability to put a boot up password. Thereby preventing us innocent and proud computer users from installing an OS onto our machine! This means war!
Seriously. Since when is this:
A. A new issue (NTFS, translating differences in file structure between OSes, etc)
B. A "REAL" issue. It's not like there is a software bomb that will melt your hard drive if you type in an open source url in your web browser.
C. Anything but another jolly "Hey let's hate on Microsoft because it's cool!"
You are ENCRYPTING THE DISK. What do you expect to happen? I'm reminded of fools that set BIOS passwords, then scream at me beacuse suddenly there is a passworde on their computer and theyt can't access it.
*Pixie tosses two red American pennies on the nearest table, and quietly walks out of the room.*
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Funny. I run IE, use Outlook (mostly Outlook Express), and am always cruising around as admin. Strange how I never have an issue. Maybe you're doing something wrong.
Seriously though. A few simple thingsw to remember online that will take care of > 95% of problems.
1. Safe browsing habits.
2. Watch what you download, and whom you download it from.
3. Don't open random attachments / emails unless you KNOW what they contain (i.e. something you requested)
Now then, add a decent, up-to-date Virus/Spyware scanner with real time protection and you've just eliminated over 99% of your risk.
Want to hear the real part that's gonna make everyone here cry foul? I don't run ANY kind of VIrus or Spyware protection. I only use the Windows Firewall (when it doesn't 'aggrivate me and get turned off). I've run this way for nearly a year now with no problems. I occasionally check my system just to double check everything, but it's fine.
It's amazing what happens when you don't jump on Limewire all the time while you surf al the free XXX galleries looking for 'free' software (and I don't mean stuff under the GPL either).
My thoughts.
As far as Microsoft users having admin rights on their machines? Well, for the most part, a good deal of them need that. At least the testers. They've gotta have admin rights for half the crap they do. Do they also do tests in non-admin levels? You bet. But consider these people are literally trying to break this software. You attack software from an Admin point always. Can't do anything as user is why. Or at least SHOULDN'T be able to.
When you hack, you don't try and hack user accounts, you want root. Why should MS software be any different?
The problem with IT security, historically, has been a "Default Allow" approach. This is getting better, but still has a LOOOONG ways to go. Things should not be automatically allowed, they hsould have to be turned on.
Consider Windows 98/98SE. File sharing is off. And the OS itself was more or less a fairly secure (for it's time) OS on a DEFAULT install. Compare to Win2k/WinXP. Default admin shares open, often in upgrade cases we have Administrative accounts with NO password, which (with the exception of XP) could log on remotely. XP at least was intelligent enough in it's design so as not to allow remote logins with blank passwords for Administrative accounts (UNLESS ENABLED). THAT, my friends, is the correct approach to security. Default = NO!
Once this has been accomplished, and the general mindset of programmers when considering security (and Admins, etc.) is to assume the user knows NOTHING, and that things just should NOT be permitted without full warning of the consequences (this is where figuring out how to get users to read dialogue boxes comes in handy) security will be much tighter. And lets not forget about vendors and programmers just ignoring security glitches. It's sad to see a Buffer Overflow attack remain a vulnerability in a program beyond a single patch release, once identified. Even sadder, is when further program releases STILL have not addressed the issue (see, Medal of Honor Voting)). The 'solution' is disabling a bonafide FEATURE. This type of nonchalant approach to security will always land the general populaec in the grips of security vulnerabilities, with no clearn end in sight.
My thoughts.
It's simpler even than that. Daggerfall, which had a Mature rating, featured nudity throughout the game (Some of the monsters, and hey, you could always just strip your character down if you REALLY wanted too, who needs armor anyway). Tomb Raider. Oh hey yea that one needed a patch (see: Nude Raider). What's this? No New Rating? Oh now I am SO offended by that. Children could spend hours scouring the net to find the nude raider patch, apply it, then play as Lara Croft nekkid. We have to protect our children from this type of leftist attack on good wholesome fully clothed values.
/sarcasm off
/rant off
Yes ESRB, flag ANY game which shows a little nudity as MA. Good conservatives will tell you that massive violence, blowing things up, shooting (evildoers) people/things is perrfectly fine. Just as long as everyone is fully clothed and no one's holding hands.
Now then. Consider the cost incurred by Bethesda in this. Now consider the damage that this can/likely WILL cause to game developers, and to the caming community. Who remembers NeverWinter Nights? Fantastic game, made more so by the OPENESS of the game, where users/enthusiasts could create their own mods. That game enjoys a fanatical cult following to this day because of that. Now consider if game manufacturers have to be concerned about the types of mods users (or people who hate them) create? It will eventually lead to the annihilation of user created content for games (at least the ability coming from the game devs).
I have an idea. Let's all go to our local Best Buy, grab a copy of "Barbie's Grand Adventure" (or whatever the hell those things are called now), write a nudity patch for them (WOOHOO, go Ken! Go Ken!), and forward all of this to the ESRB. Barbie must be made to understand her immoral relationship with Ken must stop. She shant be poisoning the minds of our children any longer with her unmarried, unclothable, nonsense.
And on that thought, all these Action figures need ratings of MA as well, or least "Toy suitable for ages 17+" because you can strip them nekkid! God save us from ourselves!
Ok, come on people. THIS IS NOTHING NEW! Google come on, really, why ar eyou getting mad NOW?! Default start page on a Windows Install? MSN.com What's RIGHT THERE? MSN Search. Hit the "Search" button in IE and what do you get? MSN Search. THIS IS NOTHING NEW! All Microsoft has done is change the location of it. NOTHING MORE. Wonderful 'user' attitudes we have here. Most people are on the internet now are smart enough to change their default search engine anyway. (Think something asking you if you'd like to use "X" for future searches.). Does Microsoft have a monopoly? Nope. And if something that is VIABLY better actually comes out, their OS marketshare will plummett. And by better I mean Sally Joe and her boyfriend Billy Bob can install the OS, install applications, play games, check email, etc. etc. etc. without struggling any more than they do now on a windows machine. Ubuntu almost comes close to that, at least for the install. Microsoft's OS dominance is simply because of a lack of a viable alternative. Not because of "unfair bundling". Not fair to whom? Linux? Unix? FreeBSD? Mac? Hah! If any of those ever targeted the end user, AND made things easy/compatible (Which Apple has made radical steps towards doing in the last few years, and their sales reflect that), Microsoft's OS Throne would be in danger of being ursurped. My opinion, take it or leave it. Just think before you just dismiss it. On a side note, I run Gentoo (4.2.6 Kernel) on my laptop (Wow, that was fun) along with XP Pro. My desktop runs XP Pro. Only reason my desktop isn't running Gentoo x64 (or another flavor, whatever happens to suit my tastes at the moment), No Shockwave/Flash player, and I don't much care for Cedega. Is it because I believe Windows is inferior? Nope, not at all. I'm just bored with it.
And darn those pesky motherboard manufacturers for using a BIOS that includes the ability to put a boot up password. Thereby preventing us innocent and proud computer users from installing an OS onto our machine! This means war! Seriously. Since when is this: A. A new issue (NTFS, translating differences in file structure between OSes, etc) B. A "REAL" issue. It's not like there is a software bomb that will melt your hard drive if you type in an open source url in your web browser. C. Anything but another jolly "Hey let's hate on Microsoft because it's cool!" You are ENCRYPTING THE DISK. What do you expect to happen? I'm reminded of fools that set BIOS passwords, then scream at me beacuse suddenly there is a passworde on their computer and theyt can't access it. *Pixie tosses two red American pennies on the nearest table, and quietly walks out of the room.*