yep. go the windows defender. it's awesome! and very good too. and i have rarely found any scanner so accessible or simple to use. ok, it took microsoft about 10 or more years to do it, but it's there now. and it works well. and, as a side note, having a faster machine means that you get your every day tasks done with so much more smoothness and less hastle. wether you are wanting high speed performance for gaming, word processing, browsing the net, or what ever. it does make a difference to all tasks. it's offen hard to define what you would gain from it, till you have been on it for a while. only then, and then looking at your old system, do you realize just how much of a difference it has made to you. regards: Dallas
On 19/12/2013, Thomas Ward <thomasward1...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Dark, > > Actually, the reason I upgrade and urge others to do so has nothing to > do with some misplaced intrinsic value of newer hardware, more ram, > and having my computers run more efficiently as you stated. I am not > that shallow. The real reason I upgrade and urge others to do so is > that I see real benefits in upgrading, but those benefits do not > necessarily apply to you personally. > > For example, as you know I happen to run a number of different > operating systems concurrently on my laptop. That requires a lot of > CPU power and ram to run more than one OS in memory at a time. A > 64-bit system with a quad core processor and 8 GB of ram would have > direct and immediate benefit to me because I can give Windows 8.1 the > first three or four GB of ram for running everything and give the > other three or four GB of ram over to the virtual machine to use. That > way both operating systems will have plenty of memory and CPU power to > work with. Since you are only using XP at this time and have no desire > to use Linux or another version of Windows in a virtual machine having > multiple processors and several GB of ram aren't as beneficial to you > as they would be to me. There is no argument about that fact. > > There are other benefits that I value because I genuinely think that > they are necessary. Security happens to be one of those things I think > is worthwhile paying for. Not just because of some misplaced intrinsic > value in system security, but because I am a computer professional and > have dealt with my fair share of systems that have been compromised > due to poor security. Either the end user failed to update their > computer, they failed to keep their antivirus up to date, or they did > something else to compromize their security which ended up costing > them money to fix. > > To give you an example a couple of weeks ago one of my aunts was on > the Internet when a little dialog popped up asking her to download an > update for XP. She did, and as soon as she did it installed a nasty > piece of ransomware onto her computer that took over her PC, > encrypted her hard drive, and when she started the computer all that > would come up is a dialog box asking her for her credit card number to > unlock her PC. Since she could not pay the $1,000 to get rid of the > ransomware I had to come over reformat her hard drive, reinstall XP, > and restore the system back to factory defaults. You want to know why > I think XP is a poor choice for people? > > For one thing Windows XP has a major security hole which viruses, > addware, ransomeware, etc has been exploiting for years and that is > the admin account. If you run XP as admin, AKA super user, any virus > or piece of malware you download has free reign over your computer and > if your antivirus etc fails to stop it the malware can totally wipe > out your system just because there is no way to prevent it. My aunt > had antivirus software on her system, but it didn't stop the > ransomware that took over her machine, because there was no way of > stopping it. > > Windows 8.1 does however have an extra layer of security called User > Account Control. I know people turn it off, think it is a pain in the > butt, but it does stop things > like viruses and other malware cold. Before a piece of software can be > installed or run UAC will pop up and prompt you to confirm the action. > It will tell you the name of the program, the manufacturer, and so on. > That feature has saved me more than once from a malware attack because > I was able to catch it and kill the process before it could do > anything to my machine. Perhaps if my aunt had been running Windows 8 > she could have called someone and asked about running this fake > Windows update before it took over her PC as UAC would have blocked it > and prompted her to confirm the installation and encryption of her > drive. > > Besides UAC Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 comes with a number of basic > security tools such as antivirus and malware protection out of the > box. Yes, I know there is AVG, Avast, etc available for XP but the > Microsoft tools are both free and accessible on Windows 8 and 8.1. > Even better I find that they don't use as much system resources as > third-party scanning engines and are very accessible. So in terms of > basic security Windows 8 and 8.1 has some benefit to me over Windows > XP. > > In summary I do usually upgrade because there is personal benefit in > doing so. Not because I think it will help me browse the web, > send/receive e-mails, or listen to music, but because I appreciate > having better security and the hardware and performance boosts usually > help me in one way or another. It is just that those benefits I enjoy > from upgrading aren't really benefits to you. > > Cheers! > > > On 12/18/13, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: >> Well Tom I do agree our criteria are different. >> >> I think part of this is that you, as a person with a rpactical interest >> in >> >> computers attach some sort of intrinsic value to the efficiency of >> hardware >> >> and software. >> >> You care for example that modern machines have more ram and use more >> memory more efficiently as a basic good in and of itself, you see a >> computer >> >> as a designed object with some sort of value in and of itself, perhaps >> even >> >> an aesthetic appreciation for it's correct running. >> >> I confess I don't understand this, since for me a computer has only >> instrumental value and has no worth above and beyond what it can do for >> me. >> >> To take another example, I know there are now consoles around that in >> technology are orders of magnitude more powerful than the capabilities >> of >> >> my snes, yet because they don't have games I can play, I don't care >> about >> them, indeed on a personal level I rather wish Nintendo was still >> developing >> >> snes games that I could play rather than games for more powerful modern >> consoles that I can't, for all I know that isn't going to happen. >> >> As I've said I'm fairly certain that at some point in the future the >> situation with respect to computers at least will change, but it >> certainly >> hasn't as yet. >> >> Beware the grue! >> >> Dark. >> >> >> --- >> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org >> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to >> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. >> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. >> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the >> list, >> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. >> > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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