Windows root kits is a new thing. Is not MS to blame for this? Two years ago there were no rootkits as far as the general end-user was concerned. Everyone was root on her or his machine. After one introduced user windows mode, the crackers went to run root with a rootkit. MS should make it very difficult for people to log in as root, and that services do not run this as a standard. Sys-admins too installed too much under root/administrator because it was the quick and easy for this and that software. Therefore it is not the mistake of the software makers. Adopt a vague DLL or VXD/SYS file and it won’t be easily detected. A reinstall of such a compromised system is senseless. So an AV solution that does more as detect and preventively scan is useless too.
Only if MS wrote the code and infected your machine. It's easy to blame MS why not every one and everything is blamed on them.
They have a responsibility to make a reasonable effort to protect you however, it's your computer and your surfing habits that are
usually the ultimated demise of your operating system.
Yes, I feel deeply for the poor boys at Richmond. I think they have put quite an effort in what they are doing recently. At the job I am hug and snug behind a XP Pro SP2 externally hosted machine, not doing anything out of line, clean machine. What I liked about Microsoft has been taking from me a bit. I am a Microsoft trained Certificate Holder NT 4.0 & kernel administering. I miss the full foundation of DOS, I have lost a lot of it in ME and more in XP. I am really not amused that programs from an older OS cannot be taken to another: results driver conflicts and blue screens from error in dibeng.dll etc. etc… That is not my mistake. Tthose are the makers who push the new model. What is done with computers, you would not accept for your car bob, that after 10 years’ time spare parts are gone for it, and they say better buy the latest model. But I am fair to say if there was only one or two carmakers in the world, we would have the same situation there on our hands. I don’t say MS is a can of worms, no way. But if it were, I like to know where the worms are running. But you are right we are on MS and the graphical boys on Apple, that’s the world to-day. No hard feelings bob3160, keep smiling.
I’m not even remotely interested in defending Microsoft since it is well “defended” by its huge capital already (They even began to support Win application makers in law cases in order to go ahead of open-source community). However, if different user mode is a bad thing, then, Linux must be the source of evilness (Root in Linux=System/Administrator in Win NT/200X/XP series).
Windows XP’s problem is the difficulty in introducing user right system to average PC users. If a user finds that he cannot install an app he bought, then, he will begin to complain. To prevent this, MS made administrator as the standard user right. If users become accustomed to the system, then, after installing apps of their use, they may log in as non-administrators, which is exactly user right system is designed for.
As for DOS, I like the idea of DropMyRight when it is introduced by DavidR. However, I didn’t install it on my PC. Why? The reason is that it uses DOS. Even I am not familiar with DOS, I can deal with at least batch files but I rarely use it nowadays and have Kerio’s system security module warn me when DOS is used. Considering my email /browsing apps, I don’t think I need DropMyRights but, of course, if it doesn’t use DOS, I am probably using it (since I’m lazy to log in under normal user account). Sorry that you can’t use your old skill in the new system, though. Then again, don’t forget Linux as an option for tech users.
I think you put the whole thread here back into the right perspective. The rootkit discussion has not ended here though, because the trend is follow the marketeer, you get the adware farmer, and soon to follow the spyware author. If there is a platform vulnerability on a grand enough scale, spyware makers are going to jump in. When you see the gigantic amounts of money involved and invested, it is going to be very hard to uphold a tiny bit of privacy rights for the end-users. What should be halted is bad code, demanding CPU and bandwidth. But there is not even a beginning of a regulation. If they can drag the discussion on defining what spyware and malware actually is, this could take ages before they feel they should act. Spyware makers get an awful amount of legit invest money, see the site of Ben Edelman to get an insight of what the anti-spyware forces are up against. At the moment there is not even a chance for users to opt-out in the case of hidden malware installs. Rootkits are a newer trend, rss inserts will come, and if we all should have had a similar bios, bios would be hacked too (flash-worm).