Microsoft → Re: [XPPro] Talk about over dramatizing things

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Oh cry me a river please, they got a small one time payment for a decade of updates, and they're offering extended paid support for those actually willing to pay after thirteen years of support.

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This isn't the point of my post............they tend to over exaggerate the importance of critical updates,like you'll be hacked immediately if you don't install every patch available.

It's total bs and you of all people know that if you've secured your machine and browser properly............updates aren't that important.

As stated I haven't installed one since the updates starting giving me more problems than they fixed,over a year ago

I even run W2K on a drive with the Sygate firewall...........and have had no problem for years.

Well lets consider it this way, if you're running an old os you're not likely to try to run new software, but if the software like your browser is outdated it's possible it could be exploited.

I have so many bad memories of 9x, and early xp where IE was unpatched for some kind of remote exploit a good deal of the time. If you browsed the internet with IE on default settings, and no hosts file/etc.. there was a good chance you were one of the many who might have been exploited.

You remember the internet worms don't you? Unless you had a firewall, or your isp protected you they could exploit a service to gain root remotely. You didn't even want to do a fresh install connected to the internet, and I don't remember if 2k was even patched for it, however I remember 2k and xp were both effected. The least damaging, but just as annoying was the messenger spam. In xp sp2 they finally added a basic inbound firewall, but before then I was helping people with software firewalls to prevent it.

I'm not going to go over every little thing over the years, but hopefully you get the point. Those were some major events in their past that stood out for me. They were not mere scare tactics, but those internet worms I believe were a grey hat for Microsoft ignoring a exploit Microsoft released, otherwise somebody wanted to make a name for themselves. The worms were not damaging, just caused quite a lot of down time.

I'd have to look again for what it was exactly, but there was a remote exploit for IE recently. I'm not going to say any browser is perfect either, but if your software does get exploited your 3rd party protection may not be enough. Whitelisting can be even better, but still not totally perfect.

If all you browse are sites like this one you might just be ok. Other than a few websites being stopped by my web scanner which may, or may not effected me at all I haven't had to deal with known malware on my systems since the days of dos with mbr virii. I needed a anti-virus to keep the mbr virii that was spreading through the computer lab from getting on my home computer.

I've unfortunately had to clean too many computers other people have owned, something I hate doing actually, and if they keep doing it I'll let them fall on their own sword in the hope they'll learn to prevent it from happening next time, otherwise pay geek squad, otherwise some random socipath off craigslist. I just don't trust a system after a confirmed infection, and rather nuke and pave, otherwise possibly restore from a known good backup image.

I realize I'm at TL;DR now, but maybe you'll see my point. I error on the side of being pro-active usually. I don't want to have to clean my own system for some old flash, or browser exploit.

I understand quite well what you're saying ..........but basically if you don't use I.E.,as I haven't for 10 yrs plus..........you're not as likely to be susceptible to any malware.

Most [99%] of machines that I clean are due to using I.E. and usually when I install another browser with some security protocols...........I don't get them calling back as often.

But I do understand that it isn't the norm for the average user to ignore those updates.............I'm just saying that Microsoft goes a little overboard with the ''sky is falling'' scenario and it's mostly because they want the customer to spend more $$$ updating to a newer OS and computer.

I ran Win98 till after XP SP3 came out.

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I have so many bad memories of 9x, and early xp where IE was unpatched for some kind of remote exploit a good deal of the time. If you browsed the internet with IE on default settings, and no hosts file/etc.. there was a good chance you were one of the many who might have been exploited.

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Well Ill tell ya bud.. I am on 98se and I am glad to have a firewall!!!

Last week I had an attempt to list all files on my computer! (HTTP netscape directories) It was embedded on this site I visit regurally.. This one morning the site was very slow and eventually didnt respond at all!! -- I checked my firewall log and several INTERNAL ERRORS were listed (Like whatever this was put it thru hell) and it had added that domain to the auto blocked list... I went in and deleted the event and block and then I tried the site again and although was STILL SLOW IN LOADING,it didnt trigger my firewall again... I PMed a staff member and told them....... After this the site is fast as ever!!! (They must have corrected whatever it was)

Details: »www.iss.net/security_cen ··· ries.htm

Is it possible someone could have attached a trojan onto thier site so when someone loaded it it attacked?? (I load the site thru a page most ppl do not use so I suppose it could have been placed right there)

As long as the user knows what they are doing and keeps active-x blocked,they should be fine!!!!!

You caps lock, and shift key is broken, again... Maybe you should look into that?

A firewall doesn't stop your software from being exploited, it's only supposed to filter ports, and ip addresses.

Yes even supposedly trusted sites can be hacked, and be used to distribute attacks. Sometimes ad networks don't vet their ads very well, and they let one some code slip in that tries to attack the users.

You can't assume you'll be fine just by blocking scripts, and activex on a dangerously out of date browser. No matter how many exclamation marks you want to add.

How else do you expect them to sell Windows 8?