dtugg
20th July 2009, 11:10 PM
I am going to conduct an experiment to see how secure Windows 7 is without any additional software. If it will get infected with malware just by being connected to and surfing the Internet.
Right now I run:
Norton Internet Security 2009. Norton has had a bad rap in the past but the 2009 version is vastly improved and takes very little resources. I'm not the only only who thinks so, it has good reviews everywhere I've seen.
Micosoft Security Essentials, which new, free anti-malware software from Microsoft. It is simple and lightweight, yet very effective. In one test it found and neutralized 100% of 3200 pieces of malware and had a 0% false positive return. It is still in beta and Microsoft isn’t offering offering downloads anymore. It can can still be downloaded from third party mirrors though if anybody is interested (if you need a link let me know).
Those both run in real time protection. I know that it often isn't a good idea to run more than one AV at the same time because they can slow the system down and conflict with each other. But they use virtually no resources and I know for a fact that they still work because I’ve downloaded loads of known malware as a test and they both always catch it. They also both do full system scans weekly. These scans never find anything.
OK, back to my experiment. I turned off both NIS and MSE. I turned Windows Firewall (NIS turned it off) and Windows Defender (MSE turned it off) back on because they are both included with Windows 7 and enabled by default. I also plan on using IE8 exclusively because that is the browser included with Windows 7 (at least everywhere but Europe), plus I've grown to like it.
I'll be using this computer every day for several hours a day and it will be connected to the Internet, with IE running 24/7. I won’t change my browsing habits at all. Just use common sense like not visiting dodgy sites and downloading “codecs” in order to watch some porn or download “antivirus software" because I'm supposedly infected. Of course, I never do this anyway (unless I am trying to download some malware).
Once a week (or if I think that I am infected) I will run a full system scan with both MSE and NIS to see if any malware managed to sneak on my system and I will report back here. Honestly, I doubt that it will get infected at all. I'll probably keep this up until I get infected, so if I am right, that could be indefinitely. If I do get infected it shouldn't be a big deal MSE or NIS should be able to take care of it and if for some reason it can’t, I will restore from an image. I will say that even if I never do get infected, running without active AV software is not a good idea. It’s better to be safe, especially considering that there are good solutions that are free and very light on resources. This is just an experiment to see how secure Windows 7 is out of the box.
Right now I run:
Norton Internet Security 2009. Norton has had a bad rap in the past but the 2009 version is vastly improved and takes very little resources. I'm not the only only who thinks so, it has good reviews everywhere I've seen.
Micosoft Security Essentials, which new, free anti-malware software from Microsoft. It is simple and lightweight, yet very effective. In one test it found and neutralized 100% of 3200 pieces of malware and had a 0% false positive return. It is still in beta and Microsoft isn’t offering offering downloads anymore. It can can still be downloaded from third party mirrors though if anybody is interested (if you need a link let me know).
Those both run in real time protection. I know that it often isn't a good idea to run more than one AV at the same time because they can slow the system down and conflict with each other. But they use virtually no resources and I know for a fact that they still work because I’ve downloaded loads of known malware as a test and they both always catch it. They also both do full system scans weekly. These scans never find anything.
OK, back to my experiment. I turned off both NIS and MSE. I turned Windows Firewall (NIS turned it off) and Windows Defender (MSE turned it off) back on because they are both included with Windows 7 and enabled by default. I also plan on using IE8 exclusively because that is the browser included with Windows 7 (at least everywhere but Europe), plus I've grown to like it.
I'll be using this computer every day for several hours a day and it will be connected to the Internet, with IE running 24/7. I won’t change my browsing habits at all. Just use common sense like not visiting dodgy sites and downloading “codecs” in order to watch some porn or download “antivirus software" because I'm supposedly infected. Of course, I never do this anyway (unless I am trying to download some malware).
Once a week (or if I think that I am infected) I will run a full system scan with both MSE and NIS to see if any malware managed to sneak on my system and I will report back here. Honestly, I doubt that it will get infected at all. I'll probably keep this up until I get infected, so if I am right, that could be indefinitely. If I do get infected it shouldn't be a big deal MSE or NIS should be able to take care of it and if for some reason it can’t, I will restore from an image. I will say that even if I never do get infected, running without active AV software is not a good idea. It’s better to be safe, especially considering that there are good solutions that are free and very light on resources. This is just an experiment to see how secure Windows 7 is out of the box.