[RESOLVED] [2005] Virus Scanner?

[Kasracer]

To think that increased security in Windows will eradicate viruses is naive.

I never said it would eradicate viruses but with a security model similar to that of OS X and *nix operating systems, it will force the user to authenticate when they are installing software. Surfing on a website and then all of a sudden having a prompt ask you for authorization to run a piece of software FROM that site... well that should tip off most users into knowthing something is up and denying it.

Having said that, Windows is likely to always be less secure than other platforms because of the fact that it attempts to be all things to all people. If Apple had sacrificed some of their control for more widespread appeal, e.g. hardware support, then you can bet that there would have been more security holes found in Mac OS and more viruses and malware written for it.

This doesn't make sense. Because Apple is only available on Macintosh hardware has absoultely nothing to do with its security. The only thing Apple is doing right now to control their OS is require a chip on the macintosh hardware. That's it and believe me, a chip isn't going to create more security holes. Other than that, it's just as open as Windows in terms of development.

Apple currently runs on the same hardware as PCs do. x86 with standard nVidia or ATi graphics cards.

Apple's only "control" is the TMP chip present on Apple hardware. That's all.

Pure genius. I've had viral infections before. I removed them with the help of Norton Antivirus. Perhaps I should have just got my dumb ass off the PC instead. I use the Internet regularly and I do like to download things sometimes. If I don't have a virus scanner to warn me if such a file is infected then I am dumb.

I assume this was sarcastic. Unfortunately, I would have to agree with what you said as if it wasn't sarcastic. Anything someone downloads, they should know what they're downloading first and foremost. If you don't know what you're downloading or if you're download something from a shady website then of course something bad can and probably will happen.

Since the age of 8 (when I started using computers) till today (13 years later) I have only gotten infected with a virus once and that was because I downloaded about 200 viruses and worms onto a zip disk and unleashed it on an old windows 98 machine just to see what would happen. It's very easy to avoid infections: avoid websites that are shady, don't download something if you don't know what it is, and don't download illegal software. Those 3 steps have worked quite well for me.

I know most usually say to me how do I know if I've never been infected if I don't have anti-virus software installed onto my machine? Well, I used to have McAfee on one PC and Norton on another because they came with them. I currently have AVG on my computer but I never need to use it.

Anyway, this is completely off-topic and I vote this thread be closed.