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No wonder I ditched Windows

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I fired up Windows 7 in VirtualBox for the first time in a couple months or more, and quickly found out my browser searches had been hijacked. This despite having ClamWin installed and I always update it any time I run VBox (which is pretty rare). I finally was able to get a tool downloaded from Kaspersky and it found a virus. Cleaning that cured the problem.

What's baffling is HOW I even got a virus. The only thing I use VBox for is a couple games, and I have clean installers of my own for those. Also a couple media tools, all of which are clean. Java was a bit outdated... I may have been victimized by one of those recent vulnerabilities, though how I could have been is baffling also. *shakes head* No wonder I ditched that walking disaster of an OS.
 

Raz0rEdge

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I have a VM of Windows 7 as well and what I did was to do a fresh install and then installed the couple of apps that I needed and then powered it off and in VMWare Fusion, I take a snapshot of this clean state.

I don't run any anti-virus or anything on it since I use the VM primarily to access my schools online tool for my graduate work. This tool uses Java for a bunch of things and I didn't want to install Java on my Mac if I wasn't going to use it..

I did have this machine get compromised once and had to restore the snapshot but now I'm very particular about not doing any other work on it to avoid any compromises..

But it is absolutely amazing how quickly the system can be damaged..
 

chscag

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But it is absolutely amazing how quickly the system can be damaged..

It's no wonder folks coming to the world of Mac for the first time are so paranoid about using an AV tool. It doesn't take much to get infected when running a win box even when exercising care.
 

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I am one of the rare windows users who actually never myself get infected and it's because I am SO careful. It makes my blood pressure rise actually trying to be that careful. :D My doctor said Stress helps trigger my health issue, so OSX really helps me in that regard for sure as I just use it and don't have to worry very much at all about it.

Every other friend and client with Windows XP, Vista, 7, ETC get constantly attacked as they are not all that careful, but some of them are a mystery as they don't do warez, don't surf porn at all and one is a pastor and only does research for his Bible studies and gets hit quite often.

I just can't deal with it myself any longer and only use Windows here for helping others with their Windows issues and for a very few games. Now that Steam is on OSX, that helps get rid of needing Windows for most gaming I do.

I hope this does not sound to Apple Fanboy, but it's true and even the doctor notices how much calmer I am using OSX!!!! :D
 
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I am one of the rare windows users who actually never myself get infected and it's because I am SO careful. It makes my blood pressure rise actually trying to be that careful. :D My doctor said Stress helps trigger my health issue, so OSX really helps me in that regard for sure as I just use it and don't have to worry very much at all about it..............

I hope this does not sound to Apple Fanboy, but it's true and even the doctor notices how much calmer I am using OSX!!!! :D

Hi Dennis - I too have BP issues (on several meds), AND am transitioning from Windows to OS X the last month or so - looking forward to my doctor seeing a helpful change in my blood pressure! Dave :)
 
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My doctor said Stress helps trigger my health issue, so OSX really helps me in that regard for sure as I just use it and don't have to worry very much at all about it.

Well that's another selling point. Want to live longer and spend less on meds, then switch to a Mac

Less so over here, since we have our socialist healthcare system, but you still have to pay for some prescription drugs, so it could help
 
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LOL louishen don't think Fair Trading or whatever would allow that advertising!
 

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Glad you posted this. About time to replace the wife's 6 yr old MB and I was considering going on the cheap and getting her a Win notebook for what she does with the thing.

This reminded me of the reason I got her a Mac to begin with and why she was never allowed to touch my computer. After 6 years of malware free operation and not having to touch her computer at any time because of her complaining it wasn't working right, I just couldn't imagine going back to the days requiring me to spend hours upon hours removing malware and ultimately needing to do clean installs much of the time.
 

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I still have my Windows Machine but again the only thing I used it for is Gaming. If I do have to download something I do it on my Mac and transfer it over.
 

RavingMac

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I am one of the rare windows users who actually never myself get infected and it's because I am SO careful. It makes my blood pressure rise actually trying to be that careful. :D My doctor said Stress helps trigger my health issue, so OSX really helps me in that regard for sure as I just use it and don't have to worry very much at all about it. .....

I hope this does not sound to Apple Fanboy, but it's true and even the doctor notices how much calmer I am using OSX!!!! :D

Maybe insurance would cover a new MBP if your doctor writes you a prescription.
 

chscag

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Maybe insurance would cover a new MBP if your doctor writes you a prescription.

Hey, who knows? With all the unread pages left and countless red tape remaining to go through with our "socialist" Affordable Care Act, Dennis may be entitled to lots of free stuff. ;P
 
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I am sorry to bring a different perspective to the table. I have been using Windows from the time they made Windows 3.1 Yes in all these years, malware was surely a problem with Windows. And for Server side, anyway - you depended on Linux/Unix. But truth be said - after Windows 7 - the situation is not so bad. MS's Security Essential does a good job of protecting Windows computers from most threats. My main computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate for the last couple of years and till now - there is no BSOD or any infection.

I agree it is not as secure as MacOX or other *nix.
 
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I am sorry to bring a different perspective to the table. I have been using Windows from the time they made Windows 3.1 Yes in all these years, malware was surely a problem with Windows. And for Server side, anyway - you depended on Linux/Unix. But truth be said - after Windows 7 - the situation is not so bad. MS's Security Essential does a good job of protecting Windows computers from most threats. My main computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate for the last couple of years and till now - there is no BSOD or any infection.

I agree it is not as secure as MacOX or other *nix.

I agree, for the more destructive malware Windows 7 and security essentials is pretty robust. But, for browser hijacking, search redirections and god-awful toolbars it's as bad as ever. It's mostly user fault to be fair but I go to 3-4 calls a week where 'Google has gone' and the thing is jam packed full of toolbar additions, search hijacks etc. Always Windows boxes.
Quite why browsers don't have a locked config option as standard is beyond me.
 
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I am sorry to bring a different perspective to the table. I have been using Windows from the time they made Windows 3.1 Yes in all these years, malware was surely a problem with Windows. And for Server side, anyway - you depended on Linux/Unix. But truth be said - after Windows 7 - the situation is not so bad. MS's Security Essential does a good job of protecting Windows computers from most threats. My main computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate for the last couple of years and till now - there is no BSOD or any infection.

I agree it is not as secure as MacOX or other *nix.

I used Windows from 3.1 through Windows XP exclusively until I "discovered" OS X, and was quite proficient with them all. I was active on Usenet in help forums much like I am here now. And I never once got hit by malware. Well actually I deliberately let my system get infected by one once to see what it did exactly. It was an interesting experience.

Now that I think about it, I did get hit once a few years ago in a Windows XP VM also. I was just as dumbfounded then as now. I think I had a very basic, unpatched Windows XP VM running. I subsequently read that Windows XP was so full of holes that if t wasn't running at least Service Pack 2, it'd be compromised within minutes of going online.

Aha! Found one article about that:
Average time to infection: 4 minutes | TechBlog | a Chron.com blog

That "may" have been my problem with Windows 7... I haven't bothered to patch it up in the VM.
 

bobtomay

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I would agree to some extent. Personally, I've been using MS since at least MSDOS 6.0 - maybe 5. I have never had a malware infection on any of my personal machines and there have been a lot of them over the past 30 years. (I do not include tracking/spyware in the form of cookies here.)

Closest I came was going to a Kinko's years ago to do a one time project with a piece of software I didn't have. Copied the resulting file to a CD. Got back to the house and ran my virus scanner on it prior to copying to my hard drive and what do you know - had a nasty their machine had copied to the CD.

My experience certainly can't be said about my wife's, friends and co-workers machines up through and including Win 7. Especially, as noted by mrplow, related to browser toolbar / search hijacks. Have co-workers that will "swear to god" they haven't done anything, but there it is, one of those browser toolbar hijackers.
 
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I am glad to be a member of this wonderful forum. We run a development company where all computers are hooked to a Linux server which acts as a Router, caching DNS server running off OpenDNS for DNS. They have a nice system of blocking most unsavory sites. May be it is one of the reasons why we have such a low incidence rate of virus/malware issues.
Yes - some Windows XP machines have been affected with browser toolbar hijackers. In some serious cases, it forced us to reinstall Windows.
 

dtravis7


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Glad you posted this. About time to replace the wife's 6 yr old MB and I was considering going on the cheap and getting her a Win notebook for what she does with the thing.

This reminded me of the reason I got her a Mac to begin with and why she was never allowed to touch my computer. After 6 years of malware free operation and not having to touch her computer at any time because of her complaining it wasn't working right, I just couldn't imagine going back to the days requiring me to spend hours upon hours removing malware and ultimately needing to do clean installs much of the time.

Also you would have to teach her Windows 8 which might be interesting unless you only use Metro. That might make your Blood pressure rise!!! :D Grin

NetProwler, sounds like the Unix layer in front of everything is really helping. I was going to do that before I first tried OSX and make a Unix/Linux box to do what yours is doing. I do have a quite good Hardware Firewall though that helps.
 
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I have one XP Pro sp3 gaming system that I loaded onto a leftover two core box that is loaded with every XP game that I ever bought. But, the important item is that it has never and will never see the Internet - no wifi or ethernet. Of course, I can't play the new games that are available, but since the advent of required connection gaming, I haven't bought one anyway.

I've never had a single piece of malware jump through the air between my router and the computer.

End of problem.
 

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