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How to put Microsoft Software behind bars on your PC?

T

thestain

Senior member
Just a thought, but since Microsoft wants to limit our freedoms, is there any good software programs out there, to limit Microsoft, short of not having it on your rig?

I heard VMWARE workstation might work, but it cost about $250..

What are the best ways to keep Microsoft OS, purely to run business apps and games.. but to keep it locked up.. and while you use a different OS to run your computer.

and.. is there any Linux program that would be best for an OS, in this situation where MS is on board, and a program like VMWARE keeps it in its cell, but allows programs that need XP to run, to still go on-line and get updates, authorizations, etc..

All ideas and insights or pointing in the right direction on this appreciated!
 
Yes, that's covered in the fourth paragraph of the company mission statement:
"limit the freedoms of all customers" just before "torture will be allow to extract data used by WGA".

Instead of VMWare workstation you could try Virtual Server since it is free. haha.


Do you typically find people have trouble taking you seriously?

 
😕

What do you mean "keep it locked up"? Deny it Internet access?

You could certain run your apps in a virtual machine and deny that machine access to your internet gateway. But that would prevent your apps from accessing online resources as well.
 
That's the problem with the Windows OS, one needs to take so many steps and has to suffer through numerous headaches in order to keep it secure.
 
Originally posted by: amac4me
That's the problem with the Windows OS, one needs to take so many steps and has to suffer through numerous headaches in order to keep it secure.
Click to expand...

Really?

What steps and headaches are you talking about specifically or are you just spouting FUD?
 
Originally posted by: Smilin
Originally posted by: amac4me
That's the problem with the Windows OS, one needs to take so many steps and has to suffer through numerous headaches in order to keep it secure.
Click to expand...

Really?

What steps and headaches are you talking about specifically or are you just spouting FUD?
Click to expand...

I think he's just promoting his website 😉
 
I think the main question this guys is asking is somewhat being missed here. WindowsXP isn't going to be any more secure if you run it in a VM. Only said VM will likely be compromised if you download some crap and install it, but it's not going to prevent you from doing so. I also think you'll most likely be disappointed if you try to run games in VM, depending on what kind of rig you're using it on and what kinds of games you play.

On a related topic, how the heck do people's Windows machines get so mssed up? Everybody acts like it's completely impossible to run Windows and connect to the internet without being some kind of security genius or something. I run no active anti-spyware, AV, or firewall on my XP machine. It is simply behind a NAT router and I don't download free screen savers or open joke.com email attachments, and manually scan any files downloaded from questionable sources before running them. Have never once been infected with any form of virus or spyware. It's really not that difficult and is certainly easier than telling people who just want to run their off the shelf software to learn a new OS. The point is, if you are simply behind a simple cheap-o router from Best Buy, you have to actively DO something to infect your machine, it doesn't simply happen magically through no fault of your own.
 
jfunk, I think the problem is people are more and more looking at Windows as "Spyware".. After the news the other day from MS that the new GA crap phones home daily for a while scared peolple. If they would've been more up front about it things might be different but they weren't.
I personaly don't beleive all the Big Brother crap. I don't use MS that often though and would never purchase Windows for anything, I would buy Office though.
 
Originally posted by: jfunk...I run no active anti-spyware, AV, or firewall on my XP machine. <SNIP> Have never once been infected with any form of virus or spyware.
Click to expand...

And you would know that how exactly? 😕 I'm careful about what I click on and what I open and I still get an occasional spyware infection, usually from downloading a driver or some other such innocuous item. IMHO, anyone not running some kind of A/V protection at a minimum is playing Russian Roulette with their operating system. Your system is going to get infected, more than likely, it already has and you just haven't noticed it yet. Denying it won't happen to you won't improve your odds.



 
Because I actually use my machine consistently, am aware of what processes are running, and as I said, I run no ACTIVE scanners, I didn't say I never scan my machine.

You have NEVER gotten a virus from a driver download, assuming you download your drivers from the manufacturer. If you get spyware, you are either NOT careful about what you click on, or you think clicking on random advertisements from shady websites or installing free "shopping assistant" programs is in the realm of careful. This stuff is not magical, users install it on their own computers (or get infected with a downloader virus, which they got from some equally stupid source).




Originally posted by: networkman
Originally posted by: jfunk...I run no active anti-spyware, AV, or firewall on my XP machine. <SNIP> Have never once been infected with any form of virus or spyware.
Click to expand...

And you would know that how exactly? 😕 I'm careful about what I click on and what I open and I still get an occasional spyware infection, usually from downloading a driver or some other such innocuous item. IMHO, anyone not running some kind of A/V protection at a minimum is playing Russian Roulette with their operating system. Your system is going to get infected, more than likely, it already has and you just haven't noticed it yet. Denying it won't happen to you won't improve your odds.
Click to expand...

 
This thread is waaaaaaaaaay overdue for someone getting flamed for being stupid.

We should lock this crap before I hurt someone.





To answer the original post:
You can put your OS in a VM but that doesn't really buy you anything. You could dual boot maybe. Better yet, you could ....

Nevermind. Why am I answering this stupid ******?
 
Because I actually use my machine consistently, am aware of what processes are running, and as I said, I run no ACTIVE scanners, I didn't say I never scan my machine.
Click to expand...
If you scan your machine after getting a rootkit while your guard was down, the rootkit is going to make an effort to present a spanking-clean system to your antivirus scanner. They seem to be increasing in popularity fast, to delay the detection of all sorts of stuff. Read all the malware descriptions published at Symantec.com for a couple months and I think you'll see that trend made pretty clear.

Hopefully your system is as clean as a whistle. But clean results from an antivirus scanner don't necessarily mean it's really clean. I'm planning to keep a layered defense, and one layer is real-time antivirus scanning.

This stuff is not magical, users install it on their own computers (or get infected with a downloader virus, which they got from some equally stupid source).
Click to expand...
There are other ways, including 0-day exploits and hacking of sites you visit. Here's a high-profile example: The Register's advertising partner gets hacked, begins serving Bofra worms to The Reg's visitors That's a reputable, safe site that anyone here could visit daily.
 
Excellent point, Tom! 🙂

And to address jfunk's point, I'm not the only one using my machine, so there is still cause for concern regardless of how careful I am. On top of that, I have gotten a couple spyware infections from ads that were running on both a local banking site and a local news site - I never actually clicked on them, but merely did a mouse-over. Apparently some programmer thought that a mouse-over constituted acceptance of their agreement. :roll:
 
If jfunk's point was: "keep your crap patched and keep your head out of your @ss" then it is quite valid. That is generally all it takes to keep your home Windows box safe. If you are talking about a Windows server you'll want to take some extra steps but it's not a big deal if you know what you are doing.

mechBgon provided an excellent example of this while trying to make the opposite point:
The bofra worm that Falk and the Register were distributing utilized an exploit that doesn't exist if you have put sp2 on your XP box.

Perhaps amac4me believes applying a service pack constitutes "so many steps" and "numerous headaches".

 
Originally posted by: SmilinmechBgon provided an excellent example of this while trying to make the opposite point:
The bofra worm that Falk and the Register were distributing utilized an exploit that doesn't exist if you have put sp2 on your XP box.
Click to expand...
You have a point, but not every Windows user has WinXP, either. Most of my fleet is still 2000 (licensing donated to our non-profit by Microsoft, thanks guys 🙂). In our case, McAfee had Bofra covered well in advance, however, both with buffer-overflow protections in VS Enterprise 8.0i and also with signature-based detection several days prior to that incident. Our users are all Restricted Users too, another layer in the defense.

Here's another one to ponder: the Mystery Hardware-DEP Shutdowns I was getting at the main AnandTech.com page. It was never explained, but it coincided with a period when there were very un-AnandTech-like advertisements on AnandTech.com, including for MySpywareCleaner.com (later sued by Microsoft for fraud).
 
One more example to toss out there: Firefox exploit --> whee, rootkit 4 U! Granted, from the screenshots, you'd sure know something was wrong there 😀 but if the exploit is used for something that doesn't draw attention to itself...? Then you end up with a rootkit and no apparent symptoms, perhaps. I'd rather stop that stuff before it puts down roots (haha).
 
Unless you are happy with playing Solitare, you won't be doing much gaming inside of a virtual PC. There's no hardware 3D acceleration, so few modern games will run properly.
 
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