What Slows Windows Down?

Lazybones · September 10, 2006, 06:23:59 PM

http://www.thepcspy.com/articles/other/what_slows_windows_down/1

Good old Norton.. Bringing systems to their Knees for years.

Mr. Analog · September 10, 2006, 06:51:31 PM

All this time I thought it was windows! Bad NORTON BAD! Get out! And take all your precious processes with you! More important processes like svchost.exe & firefox need those cycles for great justice!

Thorin · September 10, 2006, 08:13:33 PM

Quote
If you can avoid them, don't install an antivirus program (especially not Norton). That's not perfect advice for everyone, but if you've got an oodle of web-smarts, you should be able to spot what's bad and what's ok.

Yeah, great advice. I should give this guy a few links for seemingly-safe websites that install downloader trojans using JavaScript. Unless he thinks that "web-smarts" means turning off JavaScript, in which case I wonder how he uses Google Maps.

Lazybones · September 11, 2006, 12:31:18 AM

ya, it is bad advice,but the test results where interesting.

Cova · September 11, 2006, 09:32:07 AM

I don't run a virus or spyware scanner at home on my gaming box. Not advice I give to dumb people (read: everyone else), but it really isn't that hard to keep a PC clean.

Tom · September 11, 2006, 03:42:22 PM

I haven't gotten a virus, trogan, spyware, or any such thing for, god It's been 6 or more years. Though I installed a virus checker on my server, just to make sure noone is posting virus's or infested files on the wiki I host

Thorin · September 12, 2006, 11:13:46 AM

Quote from: Cova on September 11, 2006, 09:32:07 AM
I don't run a virus or spyware scanner at home on my gaming box. Not advice I give to dumb people (read: everyone else), but it really isn't that hard to keep a PC clean.

Quote from: Tom on September 11, 2006, 03:42:22 PM
I haven't gotten a virus, trogan, spyware, or any such thing for, god It's been 6 or more years. Though I installed a virus checker on my server, just to make sure noone is posting virus's or infested files on the wiki I host

I'm sure if I let a couple of the kids that use my computers loose on your systems, you'll pick up all kinds of things. They know just enough to be dangerous (like, "freejavagames has free games! Oh, it says click OK, I guess I'll click OK"). Basically, both of you are expert users that don't let novices at your systems. I'm willing to bet you don't even share those systems with anyone, either. I think its terrible that anyone would say, "Oh, you don't need all that crap slowing your machine down if you have web-smarts", because anyone who *doesn't* have web-smarts won't know they don't have web-smarts. And so the bot armies continue to swell their ranks.

Mr. Analog · September 12, 2006, 11:55:10 AM

One of my old coworkers kids learned about this the hard way...

"Oh look free smilies!" should read "Oh look free malware!"

Adams · September 12, 2006, 11:56:56 AM

Anything free... is never free.

Cova · September 12, 2006, 01:36:37 PM

Quote from: Thorin on September 12, 2006, 11:13:46 AM
Quote from: Cova on September 11, 2006, 09:32:07 AM
I don't run a virus or spyware scanner at home on my gaming box. Not advice I give to dumb people (read: everyone else), but it really isn't that hard to keep a PC clean.

Quote from: Tom on September 11, 2006, 03:42:22 PM
I haven't gotten a virus, trogan, spyware, or any such thing for, god It's been 6 or more years. Though I installed a virus checker on my server, just to make sure noone is posting virus's or infested files on the wiki I host

I'm sure if I let a couple of the kids that use my computers loose on your systems, you'll pick up all kinds of things. They know just enough to be dangerous (like, "freejavagames has free games! Oh, it says click OK, I guess I'll click OK"). Basically, both of you are expert users that don't let novices at your systems. I'm willing to bet you don't even share those systems with anyone, either. I think its terrible that anyone would say, "Oh, you don't need all that crap slowing your machine down if you have web-smarts", because anyone who *doesn't* have web-smarts won't know they don't have web-smarts. And so the bot armies continue to swell their ranks.

Like I said - its not advice I give to other people. If I had kids I'd build a linux virtual machine with firefox and a few other apps, lock it down good, and snapshot the VM so when they inevitably break it I can reset it very easily. I'd also reconfigure the proxy server on my clark-connect box for content filtering and force the kids traffic to all go through it.

Melbosa · September 12, 2006, 02:24:59 PM

Ouch hate to be your kid... forcing them to use linux

Tom · September 12, 2006, 08:05:11 PM

QuoteI'm sure if I let a couple of the kids that use my computers loose on your systems, you'll pick up all kinds of things.

Not a chance

I assume I'm the sole desktop linux user here

(for 5+ years). IE just doesn't work, and there are no root exploits for Firefox or Konqueror, or Opera that I know of, so anything they might have downloaded, would stay in their home folder, and not harm the rest of the machine. And likely won't even run, since most malware assume windows

Java and most Flash games work just fine, so theres none of that "Oh its linux, nothing works on linux" bull

now if they wanted to play a "real" game, thats their problem