Bunnywinkles

i dont have UAC on, i torrent, i do all kinds of stuff that can give you viruses, if your stupid about it. As far as i know i dont have any viruses, nothing suspicious running in task man, no system slowdown, no random popups, no "Ultimate Antivirus 2008" which seems to be the thing right now. Its possible i could have one, but i dont know about it, and honestly, if i dont know its there it can call my computer home.

But hey, some people just like to get a box full of Trojans from porn sites!

pun was intended albeit stupid xD

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Brutuz

99% of viruses = PEBKAC problems, I'm running AV-less right now (Have a firewall and anti-spyware though) and I don't see any viruses. (Using Task Manager to see what apps are running, and I know what they all are, or they've been there since Vista install)

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trueg50

Of course not, because virus's don't work like that.

Poor crappy virus's that are quickly removed used to work like that. However well written virus's require little resources, and do everything possible to make them selves as silent and invisible as possible.

Thanks for the guide Paul; I think I will be enabling and playing around with UAC tonight!

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pauldovi

You don't really want to go from not using UAC to using UAC and vice versa (using it to disabling it). I cannot remember the details (trying to find them now) but with UAC on Windows uses a different location to store your App Data, so casual switching between UAC on and UAC off and really mess with your system.

Edit*

Found it:

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The Hundred Gunner

Don't you kinda need AV or some kind of scanner to know something is there?

That just means you don't have any crappy malware. The well written malware you will never know is on your computer.

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"I just talk the way I see things... If that's offensive to you... I'm sorry; you're a loser." - Michael Savage

"But you would be amazed by how many people think that the only reason to have a computer is to play games, and that playing games is all that anyone with a computer does." - dangerousHobo

pauldovi

This is something that I try to bring up often. Attacks of today are very different of attacks from the early 2000's. Modern attacks focus mainly on data mining for financial gain, which won't lead to any spamming advertisements on your screen and no easy way of knowing you have been comprised without AV.

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DarkNite

Argh i felt like the computer thought i was dumb whenever it asked me "You sure? Really sure?" every 5 minutes so i turned it off.

Useless IMHO

The Hundred Gunner

So how is my idea of doing banking/online transactions through Live Linux distros? One-shot deal, almost like a clean install; no chance that anything unwanted has installed onto the machine, right? I haven't heard any objections to that idea yet.

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"I just talk the way I see things... If that's offensive to you... I'm sorry; you're a loser." - Michael Savage

"But you would be amazed by how many people think that the only reason to have a computer is to play games, and that playing games is all that anyone with a computer does." - dangerousHobo

pauldovi

I suppose if you are highly concerned about security that would work. Most people are not willing to reboot their computer and wait for another OS to start up to do online banking.

I know I try to avoid logging on to any secure website on a public computer. If I have to I put a wrong password in first and make sure it rejects me, then I put the correct one it.

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CorporalAris

Interesting. +rep for the information.

However, I tend to re-install my OS every few months, and I don't do anything that will get viruses on my computer. Not to say that I haven't had them, I'm just not worried.

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