Well said! These EOL scare tactics are a repeating story. They did the same thing when support for 98 ended, was reinstated, then ended again. A secure kernel is desirable, but it is not the solution to every security problem. It's not a substitute for a reduced and hardened attack surface. You don't secure your home or a business by building a bunker in the center of it. You secure the perimeter.
We have a couple different setups on each of our computers and I've been relatively happy with each of them. I don't foresee changing my setup, at least not on my personal system, any time soon. The only thing that might influence this will be my transition to Linux when Windows 7 support is discontinued. I'll keep Windows 7 on my laptop, but as I've stated I have no intention of continuing with Windows 8 moving forward. I intend to dual boot on my desktop, but I still haven't settled on a particular distro.
I'm quite content for right now. I tend to stick to a good setup for a long time, unless something forces a change, or there is a compelling reason to try another solution.
I'm quite happy with my current setup which includes no real time security other than having Windows firewall enabled. I do have MBAM free installed to do very occasional scans. In time I will install antivirus software again, but I have some annoying performance issues (that are increased when running an antivirus) which hopefully I can diagnose and fix first, e.g. there's a spike in CPU use when I start Task Manager. Of course doing a clean install of Windows or restoring from an old image would be an easy fix to my problems, but I'd rather try and fix the problems myself and learn something along the way.
It didn't take me long to figure that out, after using SBIE for 6 months, I was totally convinced that the program was for real. Eventually, I stopped using other programs along SBIE but I never planned it doing it this way. It just happened on its own. And I am happy that it did. Cheers Osaban Bo
Well said It's perfectly reasonable and even practical in that of all these series of MS systems, windows XP seems to have by far and away, drawn the most attention from security software developers beit commercial to the independent and freelance hobbyists and because of it has to have the largest and robust security stockpile of any of the others. I keep a collection of many, and i do mean many hard drives all with only XP Pro on them from the volume license i used, and it's safe to say I'll pit any of these, each one with different security software in them up against any challenge that today's malware could possibly confront them with. MS as a marketing for profit HAS to try to direct attention away to their new models in keeping with business trends, but on the flexibility aspect of everything from security to educational to automation, XP wins my undivided endorsement hands down with any of it's successors so far. And it looks like i'm far from being in the minority where that's concerned. Regards EASTER
Oh yeah ... sorry ... I use various browser hardening, MSE, MBAM (on-demand) & SpywareBlaster. Simple but effective.
To rehash a little. With Windows 8.0 i'm sorely at a loss and grossly disappointed with the lack of XP 32bit developers not coming into the 21st Century transition for 64bit computing. DefenseWall included. On a brighter note, with the absence of them refusing to go forward with current security compatibility trends, and just for that, security apps may soon become obsolete anyway given the enormous rise and enhanced ongoing developments in virtualization and imaging programs. Aside from browser security, it's very simple to just flush off any browser session now as easy as the press of a button with no ill affects or serious concerns to strap you down anymore. Plus portable is very alive and well. EASTER
I'm reasonably happy with my setup at the moment, but based on past experience I expect to have to change something sooner or later. I've used lots of different antivirus and firewall programs over the years; AVG, Online Armor, Avast, Prevx, PEGuard2, PrivateFirewall, Comodo Internet Security, ... and they all worked well for a while until updates stopped or a newer version of them made things worse for my specific system and I started to experience too much slowdown in windows startup and program launch times or conflicts with each other (firewall vs AV). Right now I'm using ZoneAlarm firewall and Qihu 360 IS as the main real-time security apps and so far so good, although I'm hesitant to update Qihu to the latest version and I'm considering uninstalling it and just using ZoneAlarm's AV component to avoid potential conflicts.
I usually find some setup that I like for a while. But eventually some little nuisances start adding up and I switch to something else. I don't think I've like to rely entirely on a single suite and instead have internet facing apps tweaked to be a little more secure and usually I have some 3rd party program running along with whatever av and firewall combo I have going - whether that be some HIPS, sandbox, MBAM realtime or whatever.
Aye, barebone security. I might be able to do that as well, only relying upon Chrome + ScriptBlock + Norton/Comodo DNS + Process Explorer. But I live dangerously, so need something extra.
well said. and i must say that i've yet to come across an av or fw that doesn't fall under this category.
