[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
My favorite is Linux[/quote]
You could also run AmigaOS 4 and be even safer.
For many people, especially businesses, using Windows is often a non-negotiable point.
For all it’s warts and problems, there’s something that Windows has that Linux and Mac OS don’t: Marketshare.
I’d contend that it’s THE solution for all environment. Linux and OS X simply work like that from the outset.
Running Windows as a non-admin user would be the perfect solution, but unfortunately, there is so much stuff that breaks, doesn’t work or makes you jump through ridiculous hoops when you try it that most people simply go back to running the admin user after a few days.
My solution above (sort of a “reverse sudo”) has been the best way I’ve found of making Windows machine stable and infection resistant. I’ve done that setup on the PC of many relatives, and their infection problems went from weekly occurrences to never. Except for the rare cases when they did extra work to infect themselves, but no OS protects against user ignorance.
That’s the main problem. Setting up the machine the first time is somewhat time consuming and complex for someone not familiar with Windows.
Maybe I should write a program to automate it and sell “Pookie’s Permanent Crapware Vaccine”… The main problem would be to make sure you do it on a clean machine.
It only embeds itself where it has the permission to embed itself. No permissions, no infection.
The best fix is the one you don’t have to make. I’m running on a three year old installation of Windows. It hasn’t needed to be reinstalled once, nor has it ever been infected. I also don’t have to waste memory, CPU cycles and disk I/O by running an anti-virus, an anti-spyware and the rest of the usual “fix it after the fact” battalion of crap most Windows installation sport these days.