Windows H8

[Dragon Tamer]

My son just got a nasty malware to his computer even though it has MSE updated and running. Didn't do diddly against the attack. His floorball teammate sent him a download link to download minecraft. The link installed a 'download manager' which hijacked the browser and did probably other nasty things too judging from the spur of network activity, which I didn't investigate any further before restoring the computer from a freshly installed image.

So there it was, MSE happily chugging along and updated and the computer was fully pwned by malware. That's how much you can trust the 'security' products, folks.

He couldn't just visit minecraft.net?

An associate of mine, who's name I won't disclose, is a hacker.  He says that the two easiest security programs to bypass in order are Mcafee, and MSE.  Not because they are bad, but because so many people use them that it's become the equivalent of riding a bike.

No security software is ever perfect, even the government gets hacked from time to time.  It's something that most people seem to be incapable of wrapping their heads around.  My brother criticizes me for only playing the same 3 games, and visiting a small handful of websites on the computer.  In one afternoon, he visited 56 different websites, downloaded 1.5GB of data and 7 games (their file sizes are included in the 1.5GB of data).  The very next morning I got on the computer before work and it alerted me that there were 1 new virus and 5 malware.  He promptly tried to say that it was me who caused the problem, so I promptly deleted everything that he had downloaded, including the $30 he spent on games.

As for what gyrene81 said; I am the only one in the house who can fix the computer, except for a few problems that are beyond anyones experience.  The problem is that I'm usually working odd hours so I'm not always home to take care of the problem.  It's easier on my part to have someone else fix it for $75 than to spend 20 minutes a day for 6 weeks trying to fix it myself.  Besides most of the viruses that get onto the computer are benign and cause no noticeable performance issues.  There is no security risk because I never do anything risky on the computer.  I don't check my bank account, and the online shopping is done with PayPal and green dot.

And also, microcrap is the most popular OS out there, I doubt that will change anytime soon.

[zack1234]

Microsoft is the peoples choice and the majority of people have no view on operating systems

Apple OP is supposed to be good, but people who own apple stuff do for snobbery reasons.

[Ardy123]

Apple OP is supposed to be good, but people who own apple stuff do for snobbery reasons.

or fashion

[bozon]

Microsoft is the peoples choice and the majority of people have no view on operating systems

Apple OP is supposed to be good, but people who own apple stuff do for snobbery reasons.

People are choosing their OS for a multitude of reasons. How good is the OS is right down at the bottom of the list. MS never had the best OS by any measure. Same thing is happening now with Apple. Once you learn to herd the sheep, the world is your oyster and so is all the money in it.

[zack1234]

OS are important as red shoes the majority have got better things to worry about.

Ford motor cars are good cars but not the best, but they are fine.
BMW and Volkswagen are over priced and over rated and sell by reputation and myth of quality.
Honda and Mazda sell because they are reliable and last for years.

The majority of people buy cars because they are red and have lots of cupholders or they have big shiney silver wheels, if its a good car has nothing to do with it.

Windows media player is not the best but it works, VLC have a free media which is good.

The majority of people are not sheep they have just figured out that they are getting played and want to get on with what they are doing.

Microsoft works its as simple as that,its not the best so what.

I don't like people knowing what I am doing and I don't do a lot, but the internet and computing as a media encourages this.

Herd the sheep are you not a sheep ?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

He couldn't just visit minecraft.net?

Well his friend sent him a download link that he himself just used earlyer 'and it was ok' 

[zack1234]

That has nothing to do with Windows, its to do with the download culture we live in

I downloaded Mitsu's sound pack the other month and had to reformat my drive because of nonsense, i got caught out it was as simple as that.(no one else had a problem by the way)

Its first virus I have had in years, this is where windows is going to keep track of issues and stop people downloaded whats not meant to be downloaded.

Viruses are created by AV producers to keep their business going.

And the fact of the matter is people steal products everyday on the internet, films,software and even op software. I even knew a bloke used to download AV software from a torrent site

Its not a conspiracy its just that the majority don't care about OP systems and get problems on theirs PCs because they are daft. (And people are)

[Trell]

If you want to support Microsoft being able to tell you what you can install and what you cannot install on your computer, then that is your choice.

If you want to give even more information to Microsoft than ever before, that is your choice.

If you like being spied on, that is your choice.

If you like that any and all information, on your computer, can be made available to law enforcement without any type of warrants, then that is your choice.

Windows 7 is bad enough, but 8 takes it all to new levels.

The day is coming where you will not be able to own any applications.  You will rent them, paying to use them for a specific time.  This is where Microsoft is going and each iteration of the OS, they bring it one step closer to reality.  If that is what you want, then by all means, go out and buy Windows 8.

For me, Windows 7 is the last OS I will own from Microsoft.  I will not support the direction they are taking.  I hope most people will make that same choice.

I think this may be stretching it a little. 

Maybe I am wrong But I have not seen anywhere on Microsoft removing files or building a backdoor to monitor the computers.
Now if we are talking about their “Microsoft Store”  and the applications inside the store.  I think Microsoft is following the same policies as the other vendors on the chance of them removing programs that are causing issues or that they find contain something not allowed with in the store.  I would have to check, But I am guessing the store runs on the background and should be easily stopped if needed.  I don’t see anywhere that Microsoft is removing any kind of standard files.  They are not watching what you are doing and are not creating super-secret backdoors.

What they seem to be doing is bringing in features and options that are costing them market share because they are missing them,

I have been running the windows 8 Beta and loving it so far,  Have not installed server 2012 in my environment yet But plan to do that in the next week or two.
The search feature is great for selection apps and the system seems to run better then when I was running 7.  Now you do have a little learning curve on some of the stuff where Microsoft is bolting on the new GUI but nothing that is that bad.   Once you get used to it,  I think the start screen is a better option for me then the start button.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

That has nothing to do with Windows, its to do with the download culture we live in

Not entirely. The way windows is built makes it extremely easy to spread infections like this. It'sAnd my point there really was that having an antivirus didn't protect the machine at all. So it's foolish to trust them.

I have seen only 1 infection happen to a computer that didn't have an antivirus (XP sucked a worm through cable modem on first boot after install). All the other infected machines have had either AV pwned by the virus (disabled it) or then the AV just simply ignored the whole thing and claimed all is well.

[Skuzzy]

I think this may be stretching it a little.  <snip>

Trell, Microsoft has admitted to all I stated after they got caught by several people who looked at the network packets flying between Microsoft and their computers.

You can ignore it if you like.  Most people will.


As far as security goes, Microsoft is on record stating Windows was never designed to be secure.

[warhed]

Not entirely. The way windows is built makes it extremely easy to spread infections like this. It'sAnd my point there really was that having an antivirus didn't protect the machine at all. So it's foolish to trust them.

I have seen only 1 infection happen to a computer that didn't have an antivirus (XP sucked a worm through cable modem on first boot after install). All the other infected machines have had either AV pwned by the virus (disabled it) or then the AV just simply ignored the whole thing and claimed all is well.

So your son tried downloading paid software for free, and got a virus?  What's the problem with that?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

So your son tried downloading paid software for free, and got a virus?  What's the problem with that?

Minecraft is free to download, duh. His idiot of a friend just copied a link from facebook or where ever and lured my son into loading it too. Not only that he was trying to assure us his computer was 'just fine' when I told him he had a malware running

Luckily I've profiled the computers so that nothing important ever resides on windows machines - if they get infected they just get wiped, end of story. And no banking is naturally done on them.

[Trell]

Trell, Microsoft has admitted to all I stated after they got caught by several people who looked at the network packets flying between Microsoft and their computers.

You can ignore it if you like.  Most people will.


As far as security goes, Microsoft is on record stating Windows was never designed to be secure.

Would you have any links about this?
Back a few years I used to do the monitoring of Firewalls at a mid-sized company and did not see this kind of traffic,  Is this new on just windows 8?  Would also be interested in what kind of information these packets contained.

When did Microsoft say that windows in not secure? 

It is used by the major financial institutions across the world on both a desktop level as well as a server level.   Not going to argue that security could be better.  But you can say the same thing about all systems.

[warhed]

Minecraft is free to download, duh. His idiot of a friend just copied a link from facebook or where ever and lured my son into loading it too. Not only that he was trying to assure us his computer was 'just fine' when I told him he had a malware running

Luckily I've profiled the computers so that nothing important ever resides on windows machines - if they get infected they just get wiped, end of story. And no banking is naturally done on them.

So why wouldn't he download it from the source..for free.  Sounds more to me that he was downloading a cracked version so he could play the full version without paying.  

This argument you're using is like blaming TV and Movies for violence.  Stop insisting some entity needs to protect you and your family, use common sense and protect yourself.  The world is a big scary place out there, and if you rely on others to protect yourself, you get burned.  

[MrRiplEy[H]]

So why wouldn't he download it from the source..for free.

You're beginning to sound a little thick there. He's a kid, his friend sent him a link to a download. He was fooled to trust him - now he knows better.

It's funny that you should say those things about protection after all the soap box talk you had about how secure and impervious Android is - even after I showed you an article that claims 91% of all mobile malware resides on Android 

I protect my family by using secure OSes for anything that needs to be secure. Windows is used only for games - and droid users have prepaid connections limiting the maximum possible damage to 20 dollars. Subscribed users may get up to 20 000 dollars charges before the carrier cuts off the connection.