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Windows 7 is our Most Secure Client OS ever, but Common Sense is still required

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Public opinion is a strange beast. In the past, especially when reading articles in the rather populist corner, you got the impression that anything with a Microsoft logo on it should only be touched with a Hazmat suit on because it was “sooo insecure”. Now, after we launched Windows 7, which is undoubtedly generations apart from Windows XP in the security department, one specific security vendor seems to fear that a naive home user might believe the Operating System to be so secure that they would even be tempted to run it “au naturel”, without any antivirus on.

They then ran up an unprotected Windows 7 machine and hit it against a few malware-infested test sites. Not all too surprisingly, with a certain level of success, thus proving common sense to be right – yes, you should be running antivirus when hitting the internet.

Interestingly, Windows 7 is of the same opinion and will actively warn you if you were to run it without security software, with popup messages and a big, fat warning in the Action Center. From the latter, you are actually presented with a link to a Microsoft-hosted web page giving a choice of around 20 products, including some free offerings (there is, of course, also our own Security Essentials product…)

AV_Warning_1 AV_Warning_2

I sincerely hope that most, if not all, people will fall into one of two categories:

  1. People who employ a base level of common sense when operating a computer or
  2. People who are annoyed enough by the popup messages to go and download one of the offerings, just to stop Windows bothering them

To anybody falling into an exception of the above, may I kindly urge you to go to www.microsoft.com/protect and take a look through the videos we put up there to learn some of the basics around online protection.

Thanks in advance :-)