Why Update Windows?

[dclive]

This is very true. I just had a customers XP PC in that I ran a buch of updates for and it added a good 40 seconds to the boot time.

...sure, on first boot up after patching it will be slower, but after prefetch has had time to run, then what?

 

[Matt1970]

...sure, on first boot up after patching it will be slower, but after prefetch has had time to run, then what?

I wish that were the case. They are typicly slower from then on.

 

[dclive]

Prefetch completes?

I've not seen anything quite like that. What was the before and after, and how did you ensure prefetch had completed?

 

[Matt1970]

I actually disabled prefetch on a few of them and it doesn't help.

 

[mechBgon]

Most of all infections/malware come through holes in Internet Explorer. Most of the Microsoft updates do not deal with the holes in IE.

I don't think you've researched that statement very carefully. Take a careful look at what the bad guys attack with their exploit packs, and take a look at Microsoft's updating history with regards to all supported versions of IE.

Sample:

And why do they go after Java like crazy...? For one, it's common to have out-of-date Java on consumer systems. One researcher puts it at about 35% of the popluation browsing with a vulnerable JRE installed. And a successful Java exploit bypasses a bunch of browser protections entirely... this might be a repost, sorry if it is, but Dino Dai Zovi illustrates it really well:

Dunno about anyone else, but I can live without Java.

I also mean something the user elected to install like when they get a popup message "Yyou needz this videos codex to view xyz" and they install it.

It's amazing that such an obvious tactic keeps working, but evidently it does. I used to hunt those things down, harvest and submit them to the antivirus vendors for a hobby. There were plenty to go around IE9's reputation-based version of SmartScreen is aimed at cueing people with The Red Shield Of Danger™ in those situations, and according to Microsoft's research it does get the users to stop and think, but in the end there's no fixing stupid.

 

[dclive]

I actually disabled prefetch on a few of them and it doesn't help.

Umm..yeah, it wouldn't. Doing without prefetch will destroy performance. Better to let prefetch finish up, then do a defrag to build on the prefetch results.

Have you done an XPerf on it to see what's actually going on in the machine?

 

[Matt1970]

Umm..yeah, it wouldn't. Doing without prefetch will destroy performance. Better to let prefetch finish up, then do a defrag to build on the prefetch results.

Have you done an XPerf on it to see what's actually going on in the machine?

I am not sure you understand what prefetch does. Disabling it on XP in a lot of cases will actually increase performance. The internet is full of people who have disabled it and had performance gains. Most people just run IE and email so having those programs start with nothing in prefetch will hardly hurt performance.

If you have a perfectly running machine, then throw a boatload of Windows updates at it and it adds 40 seconds to the boot time with or w/out prefetch, then you know what the problem is.

 

[dclive]

I am not sure you understand what prefetch does.

I understand what it does and the massive impact (massive positive impact) it can have on bootup performance.

Do you?

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

Otherwise old malware can use the old unpatched vulnerabilities to gain access to your system. When that happens your firewall and AV become as useless as wet toilet paper. Its not really to update windows. Every 2nd Tuesday of the month thats it!

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

I don't think you've researched that statement very carefully. Take a careful look at what the bad guys attack with their exploit packs, and take a look at Microsoft's updating history with regards to all supported versions of IE.

Sample:

And why do they go after Java like crazy...? For one, it's common to have out-of-date Java on consumer systems. One researcher puts it at about 35% of the popluation browsing with a vulnerable JRE installed. And a successful Java exploit bypasses a bunch of browser protections entirely... this might be a repost, sorry if it is, but Dino Dai Zovi illustrates it really well:

Dunno about anyone else, but I can live without Java.



It's amazing that such an obvious tactic keeps working, but evidently it does. I used to hunt those things down, harvest and submit them to the antivirus vendors for a hobby. There were plenty to go around IE9's reputation-based version of SmartScreen is aimed at cueing people with The Red Shield Of Danger™ in those situations, and according to Microsoft's research it does get the users to stop and think, but in the end there's no fixing stupid.

You know whats wrong with java really? the updates. No where is there a message or anything saying UNINSTALL OLDER VERSIONS FIRST BEFORE INSTALLING UPDATE.

Now what happens? Avg Joe go download the Java update and install it. Aah im save java updated not knowing that malware can just call the older versions still installed on the system and render lets say a web page with it. So that makes the update useless. Even when installing the updates sun installer just install the new version done. Nothing about the older versions thats still on your pc

 

[bononos]

Okay well this is some scary stuff indeed. but the truth is I just don't have anything they'd want. I don't play WoW, or have any top secret information on here.. and everything is cloned on a hard drive stored away safely. The mods I have are free, and I'd gladly upload them into a compilation if anyone wanted them that badly.. and that leaves a bunch of pictures of my dogs and family members.

I use a debit card for online purchases, and when I make purchases I deposit the same amount of cash at the bank that I'm spending right before.. so its not like I don't take any precautions here.

I can also absolutely assure you nobody is keyloging me.. they'd see a bunch of forum posts that are already made public and a random combo of "WASD" over and over again.

If your keystrokes have been logged, then maybe your online banking activities could have revealed your passwords, bank accounts#, bank routing# among other things.