

Minimum system specs for the operating system look to hold steady





Windows 7 memory usage Windows 8 memory usage

Mr. Sinofsky writes:









States the blog:






Source: Building Windows 8

Comments     Threshold


RE: Antivirus
By Kaldor on 10/12/2011 8:52:19 AM , Rating: -1
Windows Defender is a POS. Yeah its low profile but what good is it if it does nothing? A far better solution is to use a lightweight AV like Avast! that actually will protect you. I can count on one hand the amount of viruses me my wife have had on one hand in the last 2 years. Hell, I use the Avast! boot time scan to cleanup after Windows Defender at work sometimes. Microsoft needs to buy up a company like Avast! and incorporate that into Windows if they really want a slam dunk solution for their AV, instead of offering something that probably will not protect the user very well if at all.

RE: Antivirus
By Breathless on 10/12/2011 8:57:59 AM , Rating: 3
You are both mentioning Windows Defender, but not Security Essentials? Why? They are barely even comparable. Security Essentials is far better.

RE: Antivirus
By Steve1981 on 10/12/2011 9:46:13 AM , Rating: 2

It sounds from the article as though Security Essentials will be incorporated into Windows Defender in Windows 8.


RE: Antivirus
By B3an on 10/12/2011 12:14:26 PM , Rating: 1
They're still using the Windows Defender name but are now using features from Security Essentials. This has been known for some time.

Already 3rd party anti-virus companies are trying to make MS's attempt look bad in order to sell there junk.

RE: Antivirus
By kleinma on 10/12/2011 2:19:59 PM , Rating: 2
The only AV product that has been better than MSE at clearing certain types of infections is the TDSSKiller utility from Kaspersky which can kill certain rootkit infections in the MBR and device drivers that MSE can't seem to get rid of yet.

When I get someones badly infected system, I do a few things:

1) Run the MSSS (Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper) which is a live CD/USB drive version of MSE, so you can scan an infected machine even if it has other AV or the virus has crippled the system to where you can not get an AV installed or safemode won't boot, etc..

2) Once I can get into Windows properly, I run Malwarebytes to find and remove additional infections and reg keys.

3) Run TDSSKiller to remove any rootkits that neither AV programs could find/get rid of

Sometimes the order this is done varies depending on the state of the machine when I get it, but other than some manual settings I may have to change back that were altered by the infection, these 3 utilities tend to get the job done everytime. And I clean out maybe 4-5 virus filled machines a week here.

RE: Antivirus
By borismkv on 10/12/2011 7:17:17 PM , Rating: 2
Combofix. Virus gone. Tada.

RE: Antivirus
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 10/13/2011 9:04:30 AM , Rating: 2
Combofix is a very nifty tool I've used on many occasions.

RE: Antivirus
By borismkv on 10/12/2011 11:00:46 AM , Rating: 5
I haven't had a virus in about 10 years. I use the best anti-virus out there. A brain.

RE: Antivirus
By Taft12 on 10/12/2011 12:02:57 PM , Rating: 2
Now that I'm done bowing to your eliteness, your brain won't save you from the zero-day exploits in flash and web browsers. Those have been served up from ads on huge legitimate sites like Yahoo too.

RE: Antivirus
By GuinnessKMF on 10/12/2011 12:21:47 PM , Rating: 2
Your first mistake was going to yahoo.

There are also plenty of ways to stay insulated from virus' if you really care to, if you don't need flash, don't install it, ad blockers go a long way to prevent "legitimate sites" from serving you that crap, enabling flash only when you need it. Same for things like PDF Reader. You can even run a virtual machine to insulate yourself from problems.

RE: Antivirus


RE: Antivirus
By borismkv on 10/12/2011 7:16:02 PM , Rating: 2
Heh. Seems my brain has protected me from 10 years worth of zero-day exploits in flash and web browsers quite well, actually.

RE: Antivirus


RE: Antivirus
By cjohnson2136 on 10/12/2011 3:53:31 PM , Rating: 2
Except that doesn't allows help. Accidents can happen. My mom got a virus because she typed wrong. She typed and it landed her on a page with a virus. So just because you have never had a virus does not mean everyone should do that.

RE: Antivirus
By Synastar on 10/13/2011 9:57:49 AM , Rating: 3
If you're not running any scans, how would you actually know?

RE: Antivirus
By MrTeal on 10/12/2011 11:22:00 AM , Rating: 2

How many viruses have you and your wife had on the other hand?

RE: Antivirus
By Mitch101 on 10/12/2011 12:20:24 PM , Rating: 3
Lets leave this to computer viruses nothing more.

RE: Antivirus
By Paj on 10/12/2011 12:21:40 PM , Rating: 3
Remember, herpes lasts forever

RE: Antivirus
By Kaldor on 10/12/2011 1:00:19 PM , Rating: 2
Hah, nice play on words... :)

Seriously though. Those that say blah blah blah I never get a virus, etc. Great good for you where you live in a world where you control every little option in your web browser. You are the minority.

The average user is my wife who looks at Facebook, email, message boards, YouTube, you know, normal web browsing habits. These are the people that AV software needs to be written for. Those people that click on everything and install anything cant be helped. "You cant fix stupid" is a term I use for those people.

