All I would add, Nexus12, is that you shouldn't place too much trust (if any at all) in your anti-virus software to do as good a job next time you stumble upon an unsavoury website. It's a bit like getting a Malaria jab and then visiting Africa or somewhere like that and expecting an absolute zero risk of getting infected.
Secondly I find it utterly bizarre how someone can be so anti-UAC yet so pro AV and pro-software firewall at the same time. It's really REALLY weird. Considering UAC in combination with a bit of sense and discipline is pretty much ALL you need nowadays to keep your PC secure.
Lastly, when you do get infected (cause it will happen sooner or later), think of this thread okay?
Neither do I, I just go by the expert reviews for security stuff and what works best for me and comodo, NOD 32 come out as top for both.
I am not anti-UAC at all, I am saying that for me I find it pointless as I know, and am experienced enough (I would hope so
) to know what I am doing on my PC by now and what needs access and what doesn't, what to do and what not to do etc. however saying that it does not mean that UAC is going to protect you from everything as the user will need to have some sense and know a bit about the stuff as they might not have a clue at all of what the pop up means, as one of my friends is like that, trying to show him the basics (he has vista now instead) and I was taking him step by step showing him how to uninstall programs and install them etc. as he is useless when it comes to computers e.g. he thinks that he is deleting, uninstalling programs by just simply clicking on the start menu and right clicking and selecting delete
lol, and after I showed him how to install something, I downloaded one other program to let him have a go himself and of course the UAC popped up and I didn't say anything and what does he go and do, he hits the "no" button and then wonders why nothing happens
, oh and best of all;
When he first got into uni and tried connecting his laptop to the uni connection, he rings me and says he can't get on, but yet all his hall mates can, so I said are you sure you are wired in or connected to the right network if your using wireless, he said;
"yes I am plugged into the network here"
"right has anything popped up saying that your connecting to a certain IP address or something like that"
"no"
So I thought that his firewall might be blocking him from the internet or something like that and said that I would look at it sometime or if he needed it straight away to ask his hall mates and see if they can get him on and said "however make sure they do not turn off your firewall/anitvirus protection", he was using norton that came with his laptop and had UAC on the default setting) and of course what happens, his hall mate turned off the norton protection completely and I got a phone call telling me that he is on the internet now and it's working great and I asked;
"how did you get it working in the end then"
"my hall mate just turned off something and it was working then"
"please tell me it wasn't your firewall/antivirus?!"
"No it wasn't"
"What was it then?"
"I don't know"
Then in the next few days I get a phone call asking me what to do as he had stuff popping up non stop, laptop running real slow, every website he visited just came up with some crap etc.
So I had to fix his laptop for him, by just installing AVG and another antivirus just to check they weren't false-positives and some other spyware programs etc. to scan for anything and guess what, a ton load of viruses, spyware was found and programs which he didn't even recall of installing, so I had to remove them all and just reinstall norton for him and get it working etc. Would have been easier just doing a fresh install of windows vista, but he didn't want to loose anything at all and he doesn't have any form of backups or a large enough USB or external hard drive to do so
Also to say that you don't really need anything apart from UAC is a big NO NO, UAC is not going to stop a virus/spyware or someone from hacking in to your pc etc. and also due to the above reasons.
I think it is inevitable to say that no matter how much protection you have or how knowledgeable/experienced a person is, your bound to get some kind/form of spyware at some point of your life using computers, however you can make it harder and prevent it from happening easily (with a sensible amount of security software etc.).
And to date (with this windows 7 install) I haven't actually got anything on my pc at all apart from that one thing from a very well known good forum simply from an ad that was quarantined straight away.
However if your simply running UAC and no other protection I am surprised you haven't caught anything yet
to be perfectly honest
PS: To those whose mind cannot ever be changed on this subject. I would only recommend that you don't turn UAC fully off but just set it to "Silent" mode. That way at least you don't lose the benefit of Integrity Levels between processes. Which is a pretty killer security feature, and one that never causes prompts
Suppose that is fair enough statement, it all just depends on the user really IMO, if they are confident/experienced enough to leave it off completely.
So if people do like to leave it on but not have the prompts then as NathanE said leave it on at the lowest setting.
Too much paranoia over security these days, I always turn off UAC/Defender and don't run any anti-virus and I've never been compromised, if I have they didn't do any damage. I do keep software up to date though.
Don't have a house alarm, security camera or alsatian either and never been burgled.
+ 1
Plus same
And just encase people are wondering about Comodo and eset 32 etc.
Here is a site that is very well regarded and known, apparently the companies actually pay these guys to test out there protection and to get back to them regarding what is wrong, what needs to be improved etc. and comodo is top of that list:
http://www.matousec.com/projects/proactive-security-challenge/results.php
However it only does that for firewalls and not anti-viruses etc.
