Very slow start times for all programs

[Sterling]

So you're entitled to complain when you do something stupid and your AV fails to stop it?

Yes. You're not going to get much sympathy though.

Why does it have to be random people? In the example I was talking about, I was referring to pregnancy, not STIs.

@[member='Foxi4']: WiiBricker is advocating AVs.

 

[Foxi4]

So you're only entitled to complain when you do something stupid and your AV fails to stop it? That's fine because I'm not complaining about anything...

Personally I haven't used any AV for over 20 years with zero infections, currently running a win XP box that was setup in 2006 and a win7 box setup in 2010.

Question à propos, if you haven't used any AV software for over 20 years, how do you know that you have zero infections?

PARADOOOOOOOOOX!

(By the way, I'm not using any AV either. I'm a huge Performance Whore, scanners just piss me off. I'm not complaining either, but I wouldn't cause an uproar if my computer got infected - It'd be my fault entirely)

@[member='Foxi4']: WiiBricker is advocating AVs.

I misread the quote name, will fix that now.

 

[Rydian]

Just today I've seen two (non-techy) people I know with that same thing. One of them just IMed me like 5 minutes ago with it, twice.

 

[tueidj]

But the question is, did they have AV installed? And would that have made any difference since it's apparently undetected?

 

[Sterling]

But the question is, did they have AV installed? And would that have made any difference since it's apparently undetected?

In a day or so, this will be nixed. Corporate environments will have it even sooner. Updates for regular users are on 2 day cycles. Paid users daily.

 

[tueidj]

That would be a bit late if it was as dangerous as WiiBricker had originally posted and the MBR was trashed.

 

[Sterling]

That would be a bit late if it was as dangerous as WiiBricker had originally posted and the MBR was trashed.

Umm, yeah? Kinda the point of a virus. This is the game we all play on the internet. It's basically the computer version of an arms race. Get infected by an unknown virus by your own stupidity? Well, now the AV companies know about it and will do what they do best and kick that virus's ass for everyone else.

 

[tueidj]

And I'll say again: If you play the game of clicking and running every program you get linked to, AV isn't going to help you. Know what happens with an arms race? Either people start acting smarter or everyone dies.

 

[Sterling]

And I'll say again: If you play the game of clicking and running every program you get linked to, AV isn't going to help you. Know what happens with an arms race? Either people start acting smarter or everyone dies.

You're seriously pretentious if you think every virus is spread by clicking. I'm damn smart when it comes to computers and even I get a virus every once in awhile. Shit happens and when it does, I have protection to keep the shit in the toilet and not on the ceiling and walls. How do you know a virus is on a USB stick someone hands you? There is more than one method of infection.

 

[tueidj]

Obviously not very smart if you haven't disabled autorun for removable drives.

 

[Rydian]

But the question is, did they have AV installed? And would that have made any difference since it's apparently undetected?

An AV program won't protect you from everything (I've said as much, multiple times), especially not rare 0-day "in the wild", "holy shit the POC is actually being sent around" things. This is one such example of something new that managed to spread rather far rather quickly. To answer the question, a proper AV will protect you from all the types of things it can already detect, on top of heuristics.

Babies are vaccinated for hepatitis and all sorts of other "old" diseases, right? Same sort of deal. Prevention of a large number of things that have already been detected. The number of already-cataloged infections out there vastly outnumbers the new ones being developed.

Also, Microsoft disabled executable autorun for optical drives with an update multiple years ago.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/967940

 

[tueidj]

You mean they restricted it to optical drives, disabling it for removable drives. So catching a virus just by plugging in an infected USB stick ain't gonna happen.

 

[Rydian]

Er, yeah, my bad.

 

[Originality]

If they disabled auto run on removable drives years ago, then I know it's not 100% effective at preventing infections from removable drives. I came across a removable drive worm a few months ago that infected a dozen of my friends before I caught on to it. Damn thing was spreading the rogue AV message every time it popped up.

When it plugged into my PC (after cleaning up all of their systems), Kaspersky caught it straight away. I made sure to tell each of my friends that too.

 

[WiiUBricker]

Here is the thing, if tueidj says he doesn't need an AV because he is smart to not click any suspicious links and download any suspicious files, then you can believe him. But this new case proves that a lot of people aren't that smart to not click any suspicious link and download any suspicious files. They need an AV that protects them from their own stupidity and curiosity. Every new viruses, worms etc. are undetectable first, but I read that Avira already detects it (by now other AVs should also be able to detect it). So people who haven't used Skype for awhile are protected against it. Imagine they don't have AVs, run Skype, see this link and get infected. I don't know what else it takes to prove to anyone without an AV that AVs are not useless.

 

[Rydian]

If they disabled auto run on removable drives years ago, then I know it's not 100% effective at preventing infections from removable drives. I came across a removable drive worm a few months ago that infected a dozen of my friends before I caught on to it. Damn thing was spreading the rogue AV message every time it popped up.

When it plugged into my PC (after cleaning up all of their systems), Kaspersky caught it straight away. I made sure to tell each of my friends that too.

They could have systems that aren't updated. I see people who refuse updates all the time because the process annoys them, and as far as this updating being from years ago, people will often restore their computer to factory settings (manufacturer-given restore disc, built-in restore partition, etc.) and windows update doesn't update the version that would be restored (obviously), so when they do it they lose all the updates that came out since then.

Here is the thing, if tueidj says he doesn't need an AV because he is smart to not click any suspicious links and download any suspicious files, then you can believe him.

My main concern is... that's false.
http://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox.html

Critical: Vulnerability can be used to run attacker code and install software, requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing.

Which translates to "visit this site and you can get shit installed without having to give it permission". Check out how many critical-level vulnerabilities are fixed version to version.

I'm just using firefox for an example because Mozilla itself publishes that info, there's "unofficial" vulnerability lists for most common browsers and other internet-facing programs.

 

[WiiUBricker]

What I meant by saying to believe him is that you can believe him that he is in the believe of not needing an AV if he says so. He has no reason to lie since he has over 20 years of computer experience without infections (crediar btw has the same opinion about AVs like tueidj). This does NOT mean that people shouldn't use AV programs. In fact, most people will use AV programs no matter what because their common sense tells them to do that (not to mention Windows keeps bugging you to install one).

 

[WiiUBricker]

Just want to say that I got rid of my Anti Virus a few weeks ago and it was one of the best decisions I have made. My PC and programs run faster including my browser and all random crashes and stuff are gone. No more stupid freezes, no more lock-ups, no more bitching from other programs, no more trolling from an AV system.

tueidj was right from the start. I admit I only got rid of my AV after some other dev said the same things as tueidj regarding AV systems. You can find lots of infos about why AV systems are crap via google. I doubt I will ever use an AV again.

 

[Rydian]

Just want to say that I got rid of my Anti Virus a few weeks ago and it was one of the best decisions I have made. My PC and programs run faster including my browser and all random crashes and stuff are gone. No more stupid freezes, no more lock-ups, no more bitching from other programs, no more trolling from an AV system.

tueidj was right from the start. I admit I only got rid of my AV after some other dev said the same things as tueidj regarding AV systems. You can find lots of infos about why AV systems are crap via google. I doubt I will ever use an AV again.

Congrats on your lack of protection, but don't you dare suggest it to other users.

 

[Foxi4]

If your PC runs slow and you have a feeling that due to its specs it "shouldn't", consider disabling some unnecessary services or switching them to "Manual", run a registry scan followed closely by chkdsk /f and sfc /scannow, then continue with a Disk Cleanup, remove all unnecessary Restore Points and when you're confident that you got rid of all the crap you don't need, run a Defrag on the drive.

It's also a great idea to switch from a Dynamic pagefile to a Static one to prevent it from getting fragmented lowering the overall performance. Boot Time defragmentation is also a great idea if you want to keep it in one peace.

Did I also mention that your C:\ partition should be relatively small, the first one you create so that it's closest to the center of the disk's spindle and filled with the System and only the most essential programs?

Do that and you're set. If that fails, disable Aero and all the fancy stuff that you never really use. That, and prepare some nice Power Plans.