Running a PC without antivirus software is pretty much “asking for it” but a year’s subscription to decent av package costs around £30. A Mac with no viruses at all costs around £500 above a PC. I know which one I’d choose.

I would feel a lot better about my security online if you just stuck to your Mac and never went near a Windows PC again.

The fact that you have been running it for weeks and still haven’t picked up any viruses shows the truth unlike Apple would make you believe. It’s not a huge problem as long as you’re careful. Yes you can go to sites that are legitimate and get caught out but you would be unlucky. I only ever run free anti virus software and in the past 4 years I haven’t had any

Nevertheless – isn’t thinking about something a good thing in itself?

The thought of running anti virus never occured to you?? Have you been living under a stone? Do you not watch television ever? Do you ever read newspapers or surf the web? Even my 80yr old grandmother, when showing her the pretty desktop backgrounds in windows 7 said “I hope you have that nasty virusy thing on it”. Ok she didnt know what it was called but gezzzz atleast she new to have it… and she doesn’t even have a computer.

Of course windows 7 is susecptable to viruses out the box. It doesn’t come with a fully function and integrated virus program… they could easily build their security essentials software into windows and then it wouldnt be suscpetible to 8 out of 10 viruses but can you imaging the reaction if antivirus was built in… In europe they have tried to get IE removed for crying out loud… they would certainly do the same for an antivirus program.

… besides the security center comes up straight away telling you to install virus software when you install windows 7… and it keeps reminding you unless you turn it off… so anyone that “it doesn’t occur to” either doesnt read or ignores the install virus software warning and so may pay the price.

And you are right, Macs have fewer viruses because they are such an insignificat part of the computer user base that no one really cares.

Where do I start with this dribble.

“Apparently, Windows 7 is susceptible to eight out of ten new viruses.”

No you’re wrong. All operating systems are susceptible to 10 and of 10 virus, if no Antivirus product is installed. The only reason 2 out of those 10 virus didn’t work was because they was not designed to work on Windows 7.

“for the past few weeks I’ve been running Windows 7 without any antivirus software” then yes, you are incompetent and I’ve seriously lost any respect for PC Pro hiring someone who doesn’t know what Antivirus is.

“If so, which one is going to protect me and how much should I pay?”

Perhaps Microsoft should be commended for providing a free Antivirus product to tip the balance away from over priced bloated security software from the likes of McCrappie and Symantec.

” I spent online without security software could mean that my personal data is already on a website in a dark corner of the internet”

Do us a favour. Find a new career.

“but the fact remains Macs have fewer, if any, viruses.”

Maybe thats because as a percentage of devices, the hackers/scum will target the majority over the minority.

Are you pretending to be this naive or are you genuinely this incompetent?

I’m not a Mac-boy or Microsoft’s biggest fan – but heck, even I can recognise a completely biased set of blogs when I see them.

Give the guy a break! What this illustrates is that 80y old granny is switched on to the soup of bad stuff aimed at Windows but someone from Mac-land has never had to worry about it so, guess what, just isn’t as switched on. That’s not incompetence – that’s psychology based on exposure to problems that affect you.

I thought the W7 security prompts pop ups was overkill, people cant be that clueless?
Chris Your NOT giving other Mac users any credit, I know most Mac users CAN think outside the ‘Mac box’, Your the PC_PRO face for the average Mac user.

Humm. We’re thinking this is all suspiciously rigged!

Next your install ‘McAfee siteAdvisor’ or ‘Firefox WOT’ and click away on every dangerous web site link.

Remind me why you are writing on PC Pro? Maybe you need demoting to PC Beginner or PC Clueless.

I think this is a positive thing that a Mac user admits he knows very little about Windows security. Most Mac users would claim to be experts after watching Apples adverts and reading a few second hand comments on messageboards. Few of them know that in practice one of the free antivirus solutions will suffice and a healthy scepticism about which links you click.

I feel a bit sorry for Chris, I think some of the comments were a bit harsh. Go easy on him, remember he’s only a MAC user )

Sorry about the formatting in my comment above. I left blank lines between each paragraph for easy reading (which usually works on this site when submitting a comment and gives a readable result) but the blank lines seem to have disappeared.

@WindyWoo:

You are right, I missed the point. It seems it was Chris’ fault that he ignored the prompt from Windows 7 to install antivirus software.

As you say, it begs the question, why it suddenly occurred to him that he should install antivirus software.

“Win7 insists that anti-virus occurs to you unless you turn it off, and if you turn it off, it must’ve occurred to you.”

A VERY good point. If Windows detects that you aren’t using a virus checker or firewall, it WILL tell you in no uncertain terms.

Windywoo, bless you, we’re really not.

Windywoo makes a subtle and very good point.

Lots of ppl shooting their mouth off about how dumb Mac users are not to take AV seriously.
Actually believe it or not, if you do your operating system right you really don’t install an anti-virus product. There are NO viable mac viruses. Nada. None.
MS would like you to think it’s all because they’re being picked on, but it’s really not true.
Macs may only be 4-5% of the market, but they are owned by high income consuers & would be a valuable target for virus writers.
There are lots of juicy tools on a standard Mac configuration, and like any piece of software there are flaws in OS X. Many of the most important virus techniques were developed on Unix platforms, and code for rootkits etc. is there for the taking – but – no viruses.
Unix was written by people who knew what they were doing. The security model is not hugely sophisticated, but it works. Microsoft’s development process was driven at the top level by people who knew very little about operating systems.
When the OS they wrote really couldn’t be patched up any more they called in some really good people to write NT. Then the guy in suits punched holes in their work for the purposes of ‘rich-user experience’ – which I suppose they really gave us – if you consider rich-ness to include spending days cleaning up sasser & melissa and tens of thousands of other delights, and having your PC crippled with crapware from Nor**n and McA**e.
As someone said it’s not a Q of being a fanboy – how many Windows users are running snort on their networks to see if there is suspicious traffic ?
No one except security professionals.
Why not ?
Because in general it’s not necessary.
That’s why Mac users don’t pay attention to Anti-Virus.

tomm its that attitude that we mock openly. BSD is written to prevent the average user from having access to many vital parts of the machine, but it won’t stop keyloggers, trojans, phishing and numerous other nasties.

The single biggest reason for OSX’ lack of viruses (and there have been some though they are always written off as something else by Mac zealots) is its obscurity. Whenever hackers at conferences come together its often OSX that is broken first. Virus writers ignore it because its simply not worth the effort to write a virus that attacks 4% of machines when you can write one and hit 95%. That 4% would have to be super rich to make them a worthwhile target.

Oh and Gosh, somebody else did miss my dig, so really keep your nose out of it.

I guess that many of you really don’t understand computer security…

An external hardware firewall is a good thing (if it is managed properly), but not a replacement for individual security measures – you just make your network like a boiled sweet – hard on the outside gooey in the middle.

Security by obscurity is not a solid strategy – yes it works, but only as long as the obscurity exists.

AV software should be on all machines including Macs – not because your Mac might catch a cold, but to filter crap out of emails from infected Windows machines that you receive and might forward in blissful ignorance, and at least when something is released into the wild, you’ll be as well covered as can be expected.

The “my AV only uses….. when Idle” is irrelevant – a good AV product should be busy whenever your machine is busy, but not to the extent that it impacts your use of the machine – nowadays, unless you’ve got either an old machine, or a bloatware AV, you really shouldn’t notice it unless you’re doing something like moving a massive swathe of files.

As for the whole Mac vs Windows argument, if you’re gonna do comparisons, do please actually make genuine comparisons rather than comparisons like I can buy a Pc for $500 less than a mac, that do nothing more that show your complete ignorance of the market – go to the Dell website or any other manufacturer that allows you to customise your own build, and configure a like for like machine, then make statements about how more expensive one platform is against another.

I can upgrade a Linux machine to the latest fully functioning version of its OS for prices ranging from free, running up to £49 and above, depending which distro I pick – I can upgrade the full version of OSX for £25 – I can upgrade Vista Ultimate to Win7 Ultimate for a penny short of £200 – or I could opt for a hobbled version for £79…

As for all the slagging off, PLEASE get over yourselves – If you love your Mac, continue loving it, if you love your PC, continue loving it, but hey, some folks swing both ways and may even love the third way too…

It’s easy to say that Windows is not as structurally sound, but Microsoft are not entirely to blame for this. I believe that they were planning to lock down the system much tighter from outside influence, but the AV companies cried foul as that would effectively put them out of business.
I personally use OneCare with Windows 7, because I feel it’s right that Microsoft be responsible for fixing their own security holes; I’m not paying someone else to do that for them.

@Tomasz
$30 for a yearly virus subscription vs $500(over-the-top) for a Mac….

Lets examine:
-$30 over a 5 year period (estimated lifespan of a mac) = $150.(not counting upgrades of software and assuming it’s only one piece of software that’s needed)
-Rate of devaluation of PC vs Macs means i will get more for a Mac in 5 years than what i would if anyone would buy the Windows box after 5 years.
-Time/effort saved from having to worry about, read up on malware and download/install patches on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis….. priceless(imo).

The worst case for the Mac is that it’s about as secure as Windows7, but even then, it’s a lot safer due to the sheer volume of malware…. until that changes, the Mac is still the safer computing platform, irrespective of reason.

The whole time I was reading the article, I was waiting for a conclusion that justified his blog post title of “Why Windows 7 has forced me to worry about security”.

It’s was like listening to a rambling long joke that finishes without any punchline.

In my opinion an intersting article. It’s not the first time that someone said that Windows 7 is susceptible to a lot of viruses. As a result of that I’ve bought an up-to-date internet security software from softwareload.co.uk (with a special 50% offer).

I recommend this downloadshop if you need an up-to-date internet security too!

Best regards,
Joker

Please note that Windows 7 configured to be LUA+SRP is the most secure operating system today rivaling Linux configured to use SELinux mode. The sad thing is that it is not well known.