Is it my imagination or does WinXP seem more vulnerable to malware than Win9x?

[Salvador]

I haven't changed my OS on my work system since it was new. I have been running Win98SE and haven't seen any reason to change it. I have been running Windows XP Pro on other systems and it seems like my Windows XP systems have been under attack by various malware the last 6 months or so. Is this just my imagination of have I been lucky with Win98? My thought is that maybe since XP is probably the most widely used OS at the moment, people are writing more crap for XP than the older OS.

Sal

 

[phisrow]

It wouldn't much surprise me if there are indeed many more nasties floating around for NT series than 9X series OSs at this point. XP is certainly more common with the clueless home user ideally on broadband demographic that makes a great botnet. Also, NT is rather more capable, and is probably a more useful system to compromise. Your situation, though, may or may not be influenced primarily by this. Are the two machines subject to the same network conditions(e.g. same firewall or lack thereof, equal browsing(or not) of sleazy, dangerous, websites, ActiveX on both or neither, etc, etc.)

 

[Maximilian]

I dunno but i think you were lucky. I had windows 98/ME boxs n they get trashed by spyware n malware n viruses.... My windows XP box is perfectly ok though.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: Salvador

My thought is that maybe since XP is probably the most widely used OS at the moment, people are writing more crap for XP than the older OS.

Ba-bingo.

Why (from a malware writer's point of view) code stuff for an OS that has a very small market share now, when you can code for the most widely-used Windows OS and infect many more people?

 

[Salvador]

Originally posted by: phisrow
It wouldn't much surprise me if there are indeed many more nasties floating around for NT series than 9X series OSs at this point. XP is certainly more common with the clueless home user ideally on broadband demographic that makes a great botnet. Also, NT is rather more capable, and is probably a more useful system to compromise. Your situation, though, may or may not be influenced primarily by this. Are the two machines subject to the same network conditions(e.g. same firewall or lack thereof, equal browsing(or not) of sleazy, dangerous, websites, ActiveX on both or neither, etc, etc.)

Yep. The system is on the same network and I use both computers almost exactly the same on the internet.

I thought about upgrading the OS system on this computer to XP, but I think that I'll just stick with 98 for now.

Sal

 

[mechBgon]

What malware is your WinXP computer being attacked by, specifically?