Security Firm: Windows 7 Less Secure Than Vista

Vista UAC was one of the major complaints about the OS. Microsoft really had no choice but to change the default. Anandtech, for one, recommends turning UAC back to maximum. But Microsoft was practically forced to loosen the UAC settings.

That's why we have antiviruses

[quote] "I was disappointed when I first used a Windows 7 machine that there was no warning that I had no anti-virus, unlike Vista," Genes said./quote]

"...because now users aren't scared into buying our product."

Did someone mention to this guy that he had to dress, feed and water himself every time ?

I find it very hard to believe it did not tell him he had no Anti-Virus.
Let me see, OH by golly, what is that "flag" in the task bar ? Do I dare place my mouse over it ? Do I dare!!!

Imagine this guy who works for a "security company" and cannot even check what or if any anti-virus is loaded onto a machine. How could he possible even find a virus ?

See its easier than pie to fill a blank page with rhetoric. No special job title or occupation needed.

Well, I'm glad that it's a potential behind-the-keyboard issue and not a real OS flaw.

What an odd position for a company that sells anti-virus products to be taking.

On another note, my old subcompact car is safer than any new vehicle because I placed a sticker on the dash that says "DRIVING INTO THINGS AT HIGH SPEEDS CAN CAUSE SERIOUSLY INJURY OR DEATH". Without this warning, I would have no way to realize that I should be taking precautions to avoid a crash. Of course, the only standard of safety by which I measure cars is their ability to make me aware of the danger of colliding with large objects.

When I installed 7, the "Action Center" immediately told me that I wasn't running antivirus and that I needed to get one. I'm not sure what this guy is saying.

Oh great Yam. Another article slamming Windows 7, and you fail to note that the company stating the claims makes money fixing up problems and viruses in Windows.

Out of the box, Vista can be more annoying (for those who aren't paranoid).

I love Vista, but UAC was/is the first thing to go on any new installation for me.

"Windows 7 will fix all the problems Vista had. Trust me. Its going to be different this time"

UH... when you install Windows7, it does FLAG a warning about the lack of an Antivirus program and WILL/CAN open a Window to download an Antivirus program, besides Microsoft's.

So I call the "Security expert" as fud.

Yeah, UAC is dialed back a bit... but the USER can make it as bad as Vista... and oh yeah, vista's UAC was such retarded crap that most people TURNED IT OFF when they can or find out that they could!

UAC (in vista) is such garbage that it POPs up with when doing such simple things like Device manager, Display settings, rename a desktop icon, etc... it gets old very very fast.

With Win7, it can be left on with minimal bother. Still stupid thjavascript: void(0);at there isn't a CHECK BOX to remember what the program is like firewalls do or SpyBot's tools.

Hmm...i now know my file extensions...oh no...my security is compromised

I'm sure it is just fine security wise, i.e. on par with Vista or better. It just doesn't have all of the annoying security warnings from the UAC.

Bull$hit from a company that tries to sell it's product. I disabled the UAC on Vista first thing and never had a virus because I use an anti-virus (free) and a firewall (free). Also, did the same thing on Win7 and guess what? My AV auto-updates, so I don't need to monitor it.
A PC can only be as smart as it's user, and there is no software in hell that will ever change that, regardless of the OS of choice.
If you know anything about protection you will know what and when to use it.

People complain way too much about UAC. It works fine in Vista. I rarely get alerts. People either overexaggerate about it or are using their system incorrectly.

When I do get an alert, I know it's coming and it's second nature to just click through it. If you like having a less secure computer, then good luck with that.

"Even when you do install anti-virus, warnings that it has not been updated are almost invisible."

For some reason, yesterday my Kaspersky Internet Security turned itself off yesterday. Normally the little flag in the lower right is gone unless it says something. Seeing the little flag (Windows Action Center) there told me something was amiss. Mousing over it it told me what was wrong.

Definitely more user friendly now, instead of bombarding you with annoying pop-ups every 5 seconds, acting like built in ad-ware! Windows 7 action center ftw.

He couldnt find anything wrong with win7... and this is the best thing he can say about win7... sure means to me that win7 is good or better than i thought... look at this positively...

When I ran vista, within two minutes I turned off UAC because it asking me about 5 different facets about the SAME THING THAT I TOLD IT TO DO was completely insane. I couldn't leave it like that at all.

Now in windows 7 I have it on the default because it only pops up basically when things are installed, which is much easier to deal with. I'll probably still turn it off eventually because I don't suck at surfing the web, but it is still much better.

Got up to "...Trend Micro" and stopped reading. Before TM makes any subjective claims on an OS they should first figure out how to write a viable and reliable security program. Not to mention, of course they will claim that an OS is flawed, but if you install their crappy program, all will be peaches and cream. BTW - microsoft security essentials is great! It's not pretty, but it's solid for the average PC user. Cheers!

The CTO of a security firm just failed on security philosophy.

UAC is not a security measure. It's designed to make the admin account act like a limited access acount so that software developers would start programming for limited access accounts instead of assuming Root access. It is not there to protect an administrator from himself, nor to protect an idiot running as an administrator.

UAC is about social engineering, and the Microsoft engineers made no secret of that.

I got a Laptop (C2D, 4GB Ram, 512Mb Ati Graphics) with Vista Installed & the processing sign would always show up.It was real SLOW on such a High End Laptop. Next I got a 7 upgrade from Dell & its real fast. U can feel d difference.

When I saw this article on my RSS I thought I would get to read about security flaws, but saying that Antivirus warnings don't pop (In my case it does pop up if my AV is not updated) & UAC can be customized as less secure OS seems Funny. But its true that because of the Design of Windows system, it will always be a playing ground for Viruses, Malwares, Malacious code & Hacking.

Due to security concerns I only use Windows for Professional Softwares, For everything else I use Ubuntu.

This guy is stupid and he work for security firm? what a joke, I bet you he a MAC fan; why don't you run back to mac dummy. I been using Windows 7 for while now and every time I disable Norton, Windows 7 nag me to turn it back on.

[citation]"I was disappointed when I first used a Windows 7 machine that there was no warning that I had no anti-virus, unlike Vista," Genes said. "There are no file extension hidden warnings either. Even when you do install anti-virus, warnings that it has not been updated are almost invisible."[/citation]

Actually there is a warning. Its just not as in your face. When I first installed 7, it didn't support Live Onecare so I went without until the Beta on MSE. It told me every day I should get a anti-virus, just like Vista did.

And isn't it the job of the AV program to notify you of updates? I know MSE does.

This guy works for a AV company and seems like hes just a pure BS idiot to me. But of course they will claim Windows 7 is less secure. Its just like AV companies claimed Vista was less secure than XP yet Vista was proven by MS and other people to be more secure than XP SP1.

And funny thing, with all the web browsing I did the few months without any AV, I sure didn't get anything. Must be lucky....

Doesn't even matter to me. I'm still on Vista and I've disabled all those warnings and what not. UAC annoyed me to no end so I shut it off.

I thought there is a serious issue with Windows7, not just a lame viewpoint!

This is not less security, this is less warnings about the same lack of security out of the box (since Vista and Win 7 don't come with antivirus software).

So you need Windows to tell you things? You can't figure them out by yourself? Anti-virus warning.... lol