First you say to disable on access virus/trojan/spyware scanning and then you say you should definately run on demand checks for viruses every week. So you say the on demand scan is important in case you have picked up a virus (ie the risk is there) but the on access scan isn’t.

by the time your on demand scanner has picked up the virus its payload will have already triggered. If you had used your on access scanner the payload would not have been allowed to trigger.

You say that running a file of 500kb or more is dangerous.. LMFAO… its not the size that matters its the content… its whether there is a trojan or virus hiding in there and the way to find out is to scan it with an anti-virus program. Saying that running all files of 500kb or more is dangerous is the stupidest thing i ever heard. A virus/trojan or spyware can be very small, that would not even make a dent on the 500kb file. Then you say to beware of running setup.exe… yes its true that trojans/viruses can be affixed to the install program of legitimate software but without using the virus scanner more than once per week or month how will you know the file is dangerous… so you advise us not to scan it for viruses, what should we do? never run another setup program again, btw they are not all called setup.exe. Also how will you verify the file size of a program you just downloaded off the internet? and youd probably have to run the file first to be sure about the version number and by then its too late. You may as well have just said to only download files from the official site.. even then im not sure you will have an easy way of verifying the file size is correct, sometimes they just point to the installer and you have to trust them… well actually “just run an anti-virus on the file”.

As for the sandbox idea i can imagine that some viruses/trojans/spyware will keep very quiet about them being on your system and considering the vast number of payload options there are, some of which may not trigger straight away, maybe not until after you have taken it out of the sandbox.. i doubt you would even notice all of the different payloads, sure you would notice the one that deletes all the files in your sandbox but the others… hmm.. i think i will leave it to my anti-virus to work out whether theres a payload rather than trying to work that out myself…

other than that you have listed some good points like downloading from safe sites, performing backups.. using a firewall (you pointed to one that scans outbound traffic as well which is good)… but i don’t agree on your do regular on demand scans but no on access scans.

Probably the next best program for avoiding serious malware infestations on a Windows system is the Firefox web browser which can downloaded here http://www.firefox.com – once installed and feeling comfortable with Firefox, set it in Windows as your “default browser.”

What more can be done pl.

However, in my opinion, the first line of defense is a knowledgeable user. Simply having the common sense to browse trusted sites cannot be stressed enough. Thinking before you click will protect the average user from the majority of malicious content.

The second as mentioned in the article is a firewall. I would go out on a limb and say software firewalls are dead too. A properly configured off-the-shelf router is sufficient for consumers. However, most don’t choose to seek out this knowledge which leads to vulnerabilities.

Lastly, Sandboxie or virtual machine software can render malicious content harmelss to your machine.

I have not run any active anti-virus or software firewall over the past 3-4 years and have never been affected by malicious content.

Quote “However it seems now that mostly everyone who is at all tech-savvy are turning away from anti-virus, which leaves the demographic mostly to people who are confused and misinformed.”

Utter nonesense. I have worked in IT for many years and I have never heard of anyone turning their back on antivirus. Doing so is a huge risk and a disaster just waiting to happen. PCs these days can handle antivirus software with unnoticable preformance degradation. I urge everyone reading this to ignore the advice.