Posted on 01/09/2005 2:42:53 PM PST by Andy from Beaverton
See if you can find the last free version. That's what I've got.
# LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Explore Linux as an alternative OS, without installing it on your hard drive, via a free bootable CD-ROM! Download Knoppix (or one of these other Linux distributions), burn the ISO file onto a CD-ROM, and reboot with the CD-ROM in its drive. If you later want to install Knoppix on your hard drive, here are some tips.
Should be first.
Maybe they could just withdraw Office XP from the market!
The one plus that hasn't been mentioned much is the new MS spyware tool provides realtime protection, which Adaware and Spybot do not (the free versions anyway)
From the tests I've done so far, its been pretty effective, plus it autoupdates, which Adaware and Spybot do not. Even if you get grandma to run Adaware regularly , getting them to manually update it is a bigger trick.
Assuming the tool remains free (?) , it would be a great tool for the unskilled computer user.
And, it only works on "registered" software...
So, why would they bring out software for only ten people?
If Windows were as secure as OS X, it wouldn't have viruses and spyware even with a 95% market share. If the underlying base of the OS is an insecure joke, 1% or 99% market share doesn't matter - it will still be riddled with security holes. Conversely, the underlying foundation of OS X is so secure that virus writers cant penetrate it.
Windows fanboys cant get a grip on the fact that their OS is full of holes and backdoors for malicious coders.
If most of the civilized world ran with OS X perhaps we'd know more about the flaws of the system.
"the underlying foundation of OS X is so secure that virus writers cant penetrate it."
Ha!
MailWasher is now 30-day trialware.
That is why I never delete previous versions of install programs for "freeware."
I'm still running the last free version.
NA NA NA NA NA!
:-)
I have been pretty much spyware free until I downloaded a game fron CNET, then all hell broke loose. I can't say on the basis of one day's use the the Microsoft product is great, but I have detected no bad side effects.
How does one start the MS AntiSpyware, or does the run constantly in the background?
I just installed it from Windows Update and I can't find an icon anywhere to run a scan.
I downloaded the installation file and ran it. It asked a bunch of questions during installationm, then it ran a complete system scan.
Now it scans every night after downloading updates.
bump for later
When I did my regular Windows Update it had 3 fixes for IE problems and 1 update for the AntiSpyware, so I thought that it was installing it, but as I said earlier, I couldn't find anything.
After your note I went to the beta site and downloaded it and installed it. It went just as you said.
I wonder what it installed during the regular Windows Update?
While I am a Mac user I would have to agree that the small market share does protect us quite a bit. When I download any programs for my Macintosh hoever, I am challenged for the Administrator signon before any program will load, (root access to the file system is turned off by default). Even though my own signon is an Administrator signon it still challenges me before it will allow an install. Working with Windows at my job I know that if you have a restricted account on the machine you can stop downloads and installation of software, most home users however will never do this. They just want it to start up so they can browse the web or check their mail. Meanwhile Active X is allowing spyware to install itself and regular users are happily clicking on anything to just make popup windows go away. On my PC at home and at work I have started loading Spyware Blaster which blocks the Active X installers of many spyware programs and seems to work well.
At work we were unable to give our users restricted accounts on their XP machines. We had to make everyone an Administrator because of legacy Windows 95 coded software that will not run under a restricted account. A problem which has still not been addressed by our software development group after almost a year and a half of XP deployment to our users. We have managed the machines to a point and have disabled downloads but that did not stop spyware that installs itself from the web without a download being necessary. The install just kicks off and runs. They are also blocking at the firewall level but that doesn't catch all of it either.
Unfortunately, our IT group is for the most part forced to deal with rather ridiculous decisions from on high by in-duh-viduals who know nothing about the things we tell them. The technicians (myself included) bring these concerns up but are basically shot down because development costs money and they don't want to spend it. Most of us are waiting for something bad enough to happen that they wake up and realize we were right. Until then we constantly clean spyware and malware and reload clean Windows images until our view is proven correct. It is hard to fight this at the desktop level, it should be stopped before it even enters our network environment. At one time access to the internet was heavily restricted through our network requiring logins to get out. That stopped once the ISP we were using went belly up, they then routed it through one of our other business groups and since then access has been wide open. Again we said this was not a good idea, but again money ruled out common sense and we lost. All things are ruled by committee and most of these people have no clue, they look at money and whatever solution is the cheapest is what we get regardless of whether it is what is best. Enough ranting.
I have my uses for both OS's and can see valid points on both sides of the OS debate. I use a Windows machine because I have to. I use my Macintosh because I want to. Both are tools and both have their good and bad points. Mac being as proprietary as it is, is both good and bad. Tight integration between hardware and software is good and makes a solid machine. Not being able to use certain pieces of hardware because they are not supported not so good, but you have to look at the stability trade off. I have several PC's at home and two Macintoshes, I am running Mac OS X 10.2 on my old 1997 vintage G4 tower, and 10.3 on my Powerbook. I would be hard pressed to be able to run Windows XP on a PC that I have from the same time period as that old G4 tower.
In the end use whatever it is that you like best, I do. It never hurts to be well versed on more than one system.
That's a bad situation. I would not want to be in your shoes.
"I would be hard pressed to be able to run Windows XP on a PC that I have from the same time period as that old G4 tower."
That is true. Windows had used DOS for their OS until XP. You need to use a different file system called (IIRC) NTSB now.
I have a tax return coming to me this year and I'm getting a new machine.
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