Running Windows for 3 weeks no viruses and no anti-virus!

[Aloone_Jonez]

Muzzy was right when he said you don't need anti-virus, recently when I installed Windows I decided to do an experiment and not bother to install an antivirus program.

Upon installing I made the following changes to the default system configuration:

All user acounts are limited.
Disabled ActiveX controls and scripts in Internet Explorer.
Installed Firefox.
Ditched Outlook and used Thunderbird.
Disabled the remote access services.
Disabled Windows update and security alert.

Have I missed anything?

I still use Bittorrent but I don't download any executables.

Today I downloaded AVG anti-virus because Google said it detected malware (probabably just an ad but I panicked anyway) I scanned my PC and not one single virus was found!

I didn't install the memory resident scanner because I knew it would slow the system down be it still loaded some services when my machine booted so I did a regedit and disabled them manualy. Now my system runs as fast as before and I can scan any files right clicking on them clicking scan.

It looks like muzzy was right, you don't need any third party software to run Windows safely if you know what you're doing.

[WMD]

This isn't really news...my dad (who doesn't even know what he's doing all the time) hasn't had anti-virus installed for a few months.  Nothing has happened.

[skyman8081]

Windows is not as bad as what the people here want it to be.

[xyle_one]

Windows is not as bad as what the people here want it to be.

It really isn't.

I still prefer OSX and Linux over Windows though. Years of using all systems has allowed me to appreciate the elegance of OSX and versatility of a Linux System. Using Windows at work is annoying, even though it does offer some tools that I rather enjoy.

As I type this I am formatting a Windows machine and installing Linux...

[Siplus]

I don't know... all of my friends' windows machines blow up (not litterally). After a few times they learned how to re-install it themselves, I showed them how to secure it (all the usual stuff), they stopped using kazaa, they stopped using IE.

Many just use it for gaming exclusively, and you know what? it still fucks up. Windows 2000/xp made me feel hope for the windows platform, but that no longer exists. I'll have to see what happens with vista, but I'm not holding my breath

(working in Staples, I'll probably get a legit lisence of windows vista professional when it is released... I *might* test it out... we'll see)

[worker201]

I have this firewall gui program installed in Linux called Firestarter, which is basically a front-end for iptables.  It logs all the bad things that happen to my computer.  Just going through this log is a sobering exercise.  I get hundreds of hits per day from Windows worms and trojans.  Of course none of them gets in.

Just so you know, there are agents out there that don't like you, and they are banging on your door.  Maybe the threat has gone down some in the past few months, but it is most certainly not gone.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Even if something gets thought it has quite a low chance of causing any damage because it's quite hard to fuck the system up without administrator rights.

[ksym]

Muzzy was right when he said you don't need anti-virus, recently when I installed Windows I decided to do an experiment and not bother to install an antivirus program.

Upon installing I made the following changes to the default system configuration:

All user acounts are limited.
Disabled ActiveX controls and scripts in Internet Explorer.
Installed Firefox.
Ditched Outlook and used Thunderbird.
Disabled the remote access services.
Disabled Windows update and security alert.

Have I missed anything?

I still use Bittorrent but I don't download any executables.

Today I downloaded AVG anti-virus because Google said it detected malware (probabably just an ad but I panicked anyway) I scanned my PC and not one single virus was found!

I didn't install the memory resident scanner because I knew it would slow the system down be it still loaded some services when my machine booted so I did a regedit and disabled them manualy. Now my system runs as fast as before and I can scan any files right clicking on them clicking scan.

It looks like muzzy was right, you don't need any third party software to run Windows safely if you know what you're doing.

Yeah, but this need extra work. And extra work to secure your system is a bitch

But nonetheless, Windows can be quite secure, if the user is not a retard.

I myself do not secure my Windows installation, eg. run everythin as admin. That is because I use Windows ONLY for playing pirated games and such, and so I need some cracking software and virtual drive emulators etc ... and those only run as a root afaik. If I used multi-user setup, I would need to logout/login as admin every time I need to mount another cd/dvd image with GameJack/daemon tools ... and I am kinda lazy so ah ...

[piratePenguin]

MS should intergrade a sudo-like program into Vista. That could solve any confusion Windows newbies would have about root/nonroot stuff, the same way ubuntu does (popup a dialog box asking for pass when anything-root needs to be done, like installing software).

[MarathoN]

I was using Windows 2000 SP4 for 8 months without any protection software.

It only fucked up because I deleted Windows Installer one day.

[toadlife]

...I would need to logout/login as admin every time I need to mount another cd/dvd image with GameJack/daemon tools ... and I am kinda lazy so ah ...

Bullshit. I mount cd-images in daemon tools as a power user all the time at work.

[toadlife]

I have this firewall gui program installed in Linux called Firestarter, which is basically a front-end for iptables. It logs all the bad things that happen to my computer. Just going through this log is a sobering exercise. I get hundreds of hits per day from Windows worms and trojans. Of course none of them gets in.

I get hundreds of hits per day on my BSD router from rooted linux boxes. My ISP filters ports 135,139,445,and 1025 so I don't get hits from owned Windows boxes, but I'm sure they're out there.

[toadlife]

A sample from my auth.log from today...

     Aug  1 16:46:23 router sshd[1336]: Did not receive identification string from 216.127.74.131 Aug  1 17:06:50 router sshd[1354]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41284 ssh2 Aug  1 17:06:51 router sshd[1356]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41343 ssh2 Aug  1 17:06:52 router sshd[1358]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41394 ssh2 Aug  1 17:06:53 router sshd[1360]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41471 ssh2 Aug  1 17:06:54 router sshd[1362]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41533 ssh2 Aug  1 17:06:55 router sshd[1364]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41600 ssh2 Aug  1 17:06:56 router sshd[1366]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41669 ssh2 Aug  1 17:06:57 router sshd[1368]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41734 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:03 router sshd[1370]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41887 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:04 router sshd[1372]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 41950 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:05 router sshd[1374]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42006 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:06 router sshd[1376]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42084 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:07 router sshd[1378]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42155 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:08 router sshd[1380]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42209 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:09 router sshd[1382]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42279 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:10 router sshd[1384]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42345 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:11 router sshd[1386]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42402 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:12 router sshd[1388]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42467 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:13 router sshd[1390]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42543 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:14 router sshd[1392]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42599 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:15 router sshd[1394]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42662 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:16 router sshd[1396]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42737 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:17 router sshd[1398]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42797 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:18 router sshd[1400]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42856 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:19 router sshd[1402]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42930 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:20 router sshd[1404]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 42992 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:21 router sshd[1406]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43052 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:22 router sshd[1408]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43122 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:23 router sshd[1410]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43186 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:24 router sshd[1412]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43245 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:25 router sshd[1414]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43305 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:26 router sshd[1416]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43376 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:27 router sshd[1418]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43430 ssh2 Aug  1 17:07:28 router sshd[1420]: Failed password for root from 216.127.74.131 port 43492 ssh2

That Ip hosts, http://www.solocamping.com which is a linux/apache 1.3 box.

I see this crap every single day in my logs. Of course they are pissing into the wind, since root logins are not even allowed over ssh on my router, but still the amount of owned linux boxes in the wild is enourmous.

[piratePenguin]

the amount of owned linux boxes in the wild is enourmous.

How do you know the "attacks" are coming from owned GNU/Linux boxes? Couldn't the cracker just be using their own box or some other box they have legit access to? Or even some other operating system?

[toadlife]

To get back on topic, my windows partition doesn't run active AV either. I do have Avast installed, but I don't have the resident protection enabled. I only use my windows for games, so the need for resident protection is jsut not there. I do however save all of the email viruses I get to my FAT partition and collect them in my Avast virus chest when I boot into Windows.