Thinking about Vista

[Arkaign]

^^ Sounds like a good route for people of the OP's needs.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: pugh
In vista you will still catch things. Make no difference.

Not necessarily. In the pursuit of malware samples, I've sent Vista x64 / IE7 to the most malignant sites available, with UAC/Protected Mode enabled. No infections have ever succeeded.

CU, if your version of Vista is Business or Ultimate, consider using a non-Admin account plus a Software Restriction Policy. This is a very broad mitigation against the execution of exploit payloads. If you have IE7 in Protected Mode, it would be impossible for, say, an .EXE file to run from your Temporary Internet Files when you're using SRP as shown in my link. Unfortunately, Home versions of Vista can't do SRP.

Also use the Secunia Personal Software Inspector. http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal



I should add that those same tactics will also help you harden Windows XP Pro or Media Center Edition (which can do SRP), if you end up using WinXP instead.

Oh, and

Does 30gig sound like a good C:\ (OS only) partition size for Vista?

I would go with the default setup where the OS and apps are in their normal, expected locations, and use a big partition so you have plenty of room for expansion.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Mem
Personally I do find my Vista x64 a lot better then XP spyware wise etc...infact I no longer worry about spyware/viruses etc

This is gonna sound like BS, but I swear it's true!

I've been using Vista for about 18 months. Occasionally, I run SpyBot, mostly to update my hosts file, e.g. immunize it... but I also run the bot checker, and...

Spybot has NEVER detected a single piece of spyware on Vista.

LoL!

How can this be???

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

How can this be???

The virses are incompatible.

Zing!

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Mem
Personally I do find my Vista x64 a lot better then XP spyware wise etc...infact I no longer worry about spyware/viruses etc

This is gonna sound like BS, but I swear it's true!

I've been using Vista for about 18 months. Occasionally, I run SpyBot, mostly to update my hosts file, e.g. immunize it... but I also run the bot checker, and...

Spybot has NEVER detected a single piece of spyware on Vista.

LoL!

How can this be???

I did use Spybot ,Superantispyware etc in the past and they always came up with 0 results in Vista x64,I think its because Vista has better security then XP.

I still use Windows Defender once a week (set to scan once a week) and mechBgon's Secunia.com online scan to check for updates etc..anyway whatever I'm doing seems to be working just fine against spyware/malware with Vista x64 since Jan 2007.
Common sense when browsing goes a long way too ,I like UAC too its my friend.

 

[nerp]

If you switch from AVG to Antivir, please uninstall AVG fully. AVG is kind of bloaty these days.

Also, disabling the splash screen and daily popup can be easier than using regedit. Just right click on avnotify.exe and disable "exectute" permissions for all user accounts. Problem solved.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: VinDSL

Originally posted by: Mem
Personally I do find my Vista x64 a lot better then XP spyware wise etc...infact I no longer worry about spyware/viruses etc

This is gonna sound like BS, but I swear it's true!

I've been using Vista for about 18 months. Occasionally, I run SpyBot, mostly to update my hosts file, e.g. immunize it... but I also run the bot checker, and...

Spybot has NEVER detected a single piece of spyware on Vista.

LoL!

How can this be???

The only thing any tools finds are tracking cookies for me

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Crusty

The only thing any tools finds are tracking cookies for me

It will find much less of those if you set your browser to reject third party cookies. I suggest everyone disable third party cookies when browsing the net as an extra layer of protection. A lot of malware and viruses are spread through third party cookies and sites that are linked to on legitimate web pages. You should see no loss of web functionality by blocking third party cookies.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Mem
I still use Windows Defender once a week (set to scan once a week) and mechBgon's Secunia.com online scan to check for updates etc...

Akin to what CU said...

I'm think I'm the one on AT that runs Windows Defender full time!

I never have bought into the claim that Windows Defender does nothing but slow down your computer.

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is...

I've been using Secunia PSI since the day it came out, and I love this utility - and it just keeps getting better n' better!!!

Truthfully, I thought it was kind of rough beta - many times it acted more like an alpha release - but, I'm glad I stuck it out.

For those that have never used PSI - it takes a LOT of work on your part to keep your proggies updated (at least it did for me) - but it gives a LOT of satisfaction in return. LoL! I would work on it for a day here, and a day there, then again next week. Seems like it took me months to get everything up to snuff...

Secunia PSI isn't for everybody! It basically shows you how inept you are at maintaining security - but I love it anyway! :thumbsup:

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: CU
So a browser infection could just live in ram and send any information from your computer they want, to whoever, until you reboot? Are there known browser infections that do this and do they infect Firefox? That is certainly a short coming of UAC I didn't think of.

Yes it could stay in ram and steal information from the browser (say later access to your banking site). Harder to steal other information from the box (e.g. your quicken files) since IE would be sandboxed and not allowed to access those files.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Crusty

The only thing any tools finds are tracking cookies for me

It will find much less of those if you set your browser to reject third party cookies. I suggest everyone disable third party cookies when browsing the net as an extra layer of protection. A lot of malware and viruses are spread through third party cookies and sites that are linked to on legitimate web pages. You should see no loss of web functionality by blocking third party cookies.

Nobody has any business putting 3rd party cookies on my machine. Disabling that is one of the first things I do when I setup a new O/S install.

 

[bsobel]

A lot of malware and viruses are spread through third party cookies

Please provide just ONE example to prove this false statement.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Crusty

The only thing any tools finds are tracking cookies for me

If you disable third-party cookies, the tools probably won't have any tracking cookies to report next time. The option to disable third-party cookies has been added back into FireFox (it went missing for a while IIRC), and is also available on IE6 SP1, IE7, and IE8beta by going to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy tab > Advanced button.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: Crusty

The only thing any tools finds are tracking cookies for me

If you disable third-party cookies, the tools probably won't have any tracking cookies to report next time. The option to disable third-party cookies has been added back into FireFox (it went missing for a while IIRC), and is also available on IE6 SP1, IE7, and IE8beta by going to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy tab > Advanced button.

Stopped getting them since started using no script. Actually with it I found almost no need for Adblock since a lot of the adds are from another address.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: bsobel

A lot of malware and viruses are spread through third party cookies

Please provide just ONE example to prove this false statement.

Please include the whole statement before asking me to prove it correct. You lose the meaning when you only quote half the statement.

A lot of malware and viruses are spread through third party cookies and sites that are linked to on legitimate web pages.

Tracking Cookies are malware and a threat to privacy when used to track your surfing, by third party sites you never even visited. Another major problem is flash content linked to by third party sites (Mainly advertisements) on web pages being used to infect computers in a drive by download. There are many examples of this happening including major sites like Tom's hardware and Microsoft.com.

 

[DasFox]

Use Sandboxie CU: ( In XP )

http://www.sandboxie.com/