It's not OUR fault (MS Vista)

[gi7omy]

Just received an interesting article

 

"...Last month a Sophos researcher installed Vista on a PC and tried to introduce the top 10 malware threats for November to it, O'Brien said. First, the researcher introduced the malware through the Windows Mail Client, the new version of Outlook Express. Vista successfully defended against all 10 attacks.

 

But then the researcher tried to penetrate Vista with the malware by introducing it through a Web-based personal email account. Vista resisted seven of them, but Mydoom, Netsky and Stration all succeeded in their attacks.

 

Microsoft said Sophos' findings did not demonstrate a security vulnerability in Vista.

 

"Based on our initial investigation, Microsoft can confirm that these [malware] variants do not take advantage of a security vulnerability," a Microsoft spokesman said. "Rather, they rely on social engineering to infect a user's system. ..."

 

So - three malware got through - but it's NOT down to Vista security?????

 

http://searchsmb.techtarget.com/originalCo...&uid=762329

[Beerman]

Just received an interesting article

 

"...Last month a Sophos researcher installed Vista on a PC and tried to introduce the top 10 malware threats for November to it, O'Brien said. First, the researcher introduced the malware through the Windows Mail Client, the new version of Outlook Express. Vista successfully defended against all 10 attacks.

 

But then the researcher tried to penetrate Vista with the malware by introducing it through a Web-based personal email account. Vista resisted seven of them, but Mydoom, Netsky and Stration all succeeded in their attacks.

 

Microsoft said Sophos' findings did not demonstrate a security vulnerability in Vista.

 

"Based on our initial investigation, Microsoft can confirm that these [malware] variants do not take advantage of a security vulnerability," a Microsoft spokesman said. "Rather, they rely on social engineering to infect a user's system. ..."

 

So - three malware got through - but it's NOT down to Vista security?????

 

http://searchsmb.techtarget.com/originalCo...&uid=762329

I think it's the fault of the person testing the system or the person sending the virus.

[REDWAGON]

Question Paul or Neil, will there be a way to turn off the MS security in Vista and instead run another security program ? You can do this in XP as you well know, so I wondered if MS's Vista would allow this too.

 

Frank...

[gi7omy]

From what I've seen of Vista (RC1) - it doesn't allow you to disable ANYTHING - in fact it even moaned that 'a program is trying to install' when it was just a MS Update.

 

You can't even get rid of those flamin' games - even Minesweeper cos it's locked up that tight

[lynn98109]

Sounds like a great ad for the Penguin

 

Lynn

[REDWAGON]

From what I can see after reading in my new PCWORLD magazine, there was the question:

 

Q: Will my existing antivirus software work on the Windows Vista ?

A: Most likely NOT. Vista is sufficiently different from previous versions of Windows that antivirus software written for the older versions won't work on it. Major antivirus vendors such as Symantec have announced plans for Vista-compatible versions.

 

There were five things listed that the magazine editorial writter (Preston Gralla) hated:

"1--USER ACCOUNT CONTROL: Who needs a virtual nagging nanny ?

2--BACKUP: How could Microsoft have built such a brain dead application ?

3--WINDOWS MEETING SPACE: With worthless chat and no telephony, this isn't a virtual meeting I'd want to attend.

4--HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: Be prepared to spend a bundle for hardware upgrades--or a new computer.

5--PRICE: $399 new, or $299 for the upgrade to Windows Ultimate ? No operating system should cost that much. And the cheapest version, Basic ($199 full, $100 upgrade), isnt worth the trouble."

Over all, this new Vista is just going to cost a bunch it seems like no matter which way you go--

 

Frank...

[Beerman]

From what I've seen of Vista (RC1) - it doesn't allow you to disable ANYTHING - in fact it even moaned that 'a program is trying to install' when it was just a MS Update.

 

You can't even get rid of those flamin' games - even Minesweeper cos it's locked up that tight

The first thing I disabled was UAF and everyone has complained about it but it's still there. I've tried to update my capture card with beta Hauppauge drivers and it won't let me. It's not 'assigned' drivers yet and nothing I do will let me change it. That's what they call protection!

[golinux]

Sounds like a great ad for the Penguin

 

Lynn

Just what I was thinking . . .

[The Highlander]

The first thing I disabled was UAF and everyone has complained about it but it's still there. I've tried to update my capture card with beta Hauppauge drivers and it won't let me. It's not 'assigned' drivers yet and nothing I do will let me change it. That's what they call protection!

 

Hi Frank, here is a bit of info to remember, the reason why most older versions of anti-virus don't work on vista is the same reason there are need for new developed drivers for vista.

 

on an Windows XP computer the drivers sit over what is called the HAL (hardware access layer) this in a rudimentary way is the controller that manages access of software like drivers and Anti-virus to access hardware to run, (IE: to scan a hard drive for virus?, or to access the RAM to remove resident virus?)

any how on vista, this has been removed and drivers don't have native access to this hardware layer, so if there is a crash of a driver ect... you get a message on the computer screen saying there is an issue, but no BSOD as you would on XP (in theory so far it works OK?)

 

As to turning off firewalls and components within Vista, it is a heck of a lot harder for a normal user to gain access and to also change these, but yes they can be done.

Most of the testers used products that are similar to tweak ect but made for Vista.

And as your mag says the user needs to gain ownership of the computer via Administrator access, as EVERYONE on vista runs in a user mode account , you cannot work in admin mode easily without changing a lot of settings ( this is a good thing for most home users)

 

Here are some of the tweaking apps i use:

vLite-0.6.beta.installer.exe

TweakVista_0.85

tweakvi-basic.exe

 

these will let you gain access and remove lots of core and non core apps that you may not want or have your system bogged down with.

[REDWAGON]

Boy Neil, That's a lot of good information. So thanks for sharing, especially the links to some of those "tweaking" apps.

 

As fas as me getting Vista right away, that's sure not in the books. If and when I do, it will most likely be 6 or 8 months after it's been out and being used a lot. My main problem is that I have been building my own computers for such a long time now and from all I have been reading WE are the ones that will probably suffer the most. I'll just wait and pay particular attention to the problems that builders like myself are having and go from there.

 

Frank...