Windows "rot"

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@Usram

Raymond Chen (Microsoft old timer) describes some of the headaches of USB devices here. In short, it is not always easy to tell if the device you have plugged in is the same one you plugged in yesterday, or a different identical device, because manufacturers don’t necessarily give each device a unique USB serial number. Windows needs to keep track of the devices separately in case you have different customised settings for them. I guess something like that is responsible for your plethora of USB entries.

So why isn’t that a problem for Linux systems?

[Jake]

@Testy

Well, I’ve only had viruses three times in the last 18 years or so and I was responsible for two of those as I was playing with viruses to see how they worked. I did have someone do a buffer-overflow attack once but, once again, I have to take responsibility for that. I do like to do a scan every week or so just to be sure.
As we’ve been talking about Norton, I’ve been peeved at them ever since they failed to detect the Sony root-kit. Actually, I understand they detected the thing but didn’t report it.

Anyway, I’ll pick up AVG tomorrow.

Thanks again

Testy

I’ve used Norton for years. It was great in DOS. Something happened and they became a resource hog with other problems also. (Locking up my computer among other things.) When they started to charge for virus updates (Last look was $30.00 yearly) I said the hell with them and went to AVG. I still use Norton from the disc but keep it off my hard drive. AVG is great!

[Mangetout]

@Jake

I’ve used Norton for years. It was great in DOS. Something happened…

That something was Symantec acquiring Peter Norton Computing in 1990; they have capitalised on the Norton name and reputation, but the software today owes almost nothing to the original Norton utilities and antivirus, indeed the contemporary Symantec software simply doesn’t deserve the popularity it enjoys.

[flex727]

It seems to me there is a solution to all this Windows rot nonsense. How about MS (or a third party) provide the capability to have a restore point that can be made permanent. What I would want to do is create a restore point after initial installation, then return to that point just prior to each software installation that I am sure I want to be permanent. After the software install I would then create a new permanent restore point. If you were disciplined, the Windows install would last much much longer before it bogged down.

[Mangetout]

You could do that yourself byt making a disk image, test-installing a new bit of software, then when you’re sure you want to keep it, restoring back to the image, installing the app and immediately creating a new image. This would be more cumbersome than your solution, but even with that, there are so many things going on from day to day on a typical PC - not just user-installed stuff, but driver updates, security patches, automatic updates for browsers, email clients, antivirus, java runtime environments, etc - it’s just not a linear enough path of change to be able to pick a permanent restore point.

[DrDeth]

@Mangetout

Of course it could be argued that you’re not plagued by them because you have Norton installed - I’m not going to make that argument though. You definitely should have some kind of resident antivirus installed, but I think AVG is fine.

I’ve never actually used it myself (I still use Sygate Personal Firewall, which is no longer easily available), but everybody seems to rate it highly.

I suggest Kasperky Internet Security 6.0 a complete suite. Viruses are not the risk they used to be but Spyware is far more dangerous now, And you can get Spyware from a pop-up ad, and from fairly repuatable sources, such as Snopes (Snopes didn;t have the Spyware but they pretty much take $$ from anyone to run pop-ups and such and this has been a probelm).

[DevNull]

@Testy

I did have Norton installed from the get-go and would like to get rid of it. Unfortunately, the only way I’ve found to really get rid of it is to adopt a “scorched earth” policy on the system drive and start over.

I find the Norton Removal Tool (Google it) works like a charm.

I also second Kaspersky as a fine product. Small footprint. I am an authorized reseller going on three years. I sell nothing else. AVG and AntiVir are pretty good for free solutions.