Your AVG Protection.



  •  

    Yes, it's my AVG protection! Damn right. OK, so let me know when I need to renew. kthxbye.

    Also, broken image URL in the top left. Personally, I think web-based application dialogs are extremely lazy.



  • Avast recently started prompting me to "Allow us to Maximize Your PC's Performance! We've detected 37 areas where your PC is suboptimal! Subscribe now!" Might be time to revisit AVG...



  • @mikeTheLiar said:

    Avast recently started prompting me to "Allow us to Maximize Your PC's Performance! We've detected 37 areas where your PC is suboptimal! Subscribe now!" Might be time to revisit AVG...

    AVG did the same thing a couple of times (all the big players give it a shot, I'm sure) but fortunately for its own sake and mine, there is an option to turn off 'AVG Advisor notifications'.  Not a big deal. From the reviews I see, AVG still ranks among the top three for everything. Norton, on the other hand... Ugh.



  • @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    From the reviews I see, AVG still ranks among the top three for everything. Norton, on the other hand... Ugh.

    So they removed their ddos code? I stopped using it when it killed all my favourite websites due to it preemptively scanning every link on every page, increasing load on many websites by orders of magnitude.



  • @Zemm said:

    So they removed their ddos code? I stopped using it when it killed all my favourite websites due to it preemptively scanning every link on every page, increasing load on many websites by orders of magnitude.
    I can't say anything about that... I have the web features turned off.



  • Are these guys better than M$ Security Essentials?

    I encourage framily to use it because it's "really free" as in beer.

    Most of the others push for upgrades and imply that their current protection isn't enough, which confuses some people.



  • I lost faith in AVG the first time I got a popup on startup saying something like:

    Thanks to AVG, your computer started up 105% faster than usual!

    with absolutely no indication of why. If anything I expect startup to be slower with anti-virus running, so what exactly is it doing to improve startup speeds and how is that any of AVG's goddamn business in the first place?



  • 105% faster implies your computer started up in less than half the time. Is that actually true? Or did they mean 5% faster... And of course, that cannot possibly take into consideration the time taken in the POST screen.

    I don't think an antivirus suite should be blowing its horn like this all the time, but I guess the marketing guys know best!



  • @jmap said:

    I lost faith in AVG the first time I got a popup on startup saying something like:

    Thanks to AVG, your computer started up 105% faster than usual!

    with absolutely no indication of why. If anything I expect startup to be slower with anti-virus running, so what exactly is it doing to improve startup speeds and how is that any of AVG's goddamn business in the first place?

    Yeah, I raised an eyebrow at that notification too. Especially since the percentage reported to me was a lot bigger, something like 250%. It was a new laptop on which I installed AVG and removed all the factory-issue bloatware. But yes AVG, good job on imrpoving boot speed.

    Also I really like the way how AVG needs an update every three months and how it automattically checks the premium edition for you. Pretty neat feature!



  • @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    105% faster implies your computer started up in less than half the time. Is that actually true?

    I was setting up my Grandma's new computer at the time so I'm not really sure what the improvement was, if there was one. I don't remember if it was exactly 105%, but it was definitely above 100%, which makes me think that

    @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    marketing guys know best

    how to fudge the stats to make them look more impressive.

    To me this this message read like "We're fucking with your computer in ways that we didn't ask if you wanted, aren't going to explain and aren't going to let you disable". I'll try Avast next time.



  • @jmap said:

    To me this this message read like "We're fucking with your computer in ways that we didn't ask if you wanted, aren't going to explain and aren't going to let you disable". I'll try Avast next time.
    I've never got these messages while I've had AVG, and I've had it for over a year. It might all be down to that hidden setting 'Enable AVG Advisor Notifications' I mentioned earlier.

     



  • @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    @jmap said:

    To me this this message read like "We're fucking with your computer in ways that we didn't ask if you wanted, aren't going to explain and aren't going to let you disable". I'll try Avast next time.
    I've never got these messages while I've had AVG, and I've had it for over a year. It might all be down to that hidden setting 'Enable AVG Advisor Notifications' I mentioned earlier.

     

    Still trying to find the "just periodically scan for viruses, scan downloaded files and DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE, EVER" option. I'm so sick of software that thinks it knows better than you what you want happening on your system. "You should really update this", "try our new thingy", "you haven't done suchandsuch for a while", etc. I'm looking at you Oracle, Adobe, Apple, AVG, Microsoft, and pretty much every major software vendor. Weirdly, even including the "upgrade plz!" screens AVG seems to be one of the least in-your-face anti-virus programs paid or free, but it's still a major PITA.



  • Streamlining your boot process is a relatively new 'feature' in AVG. I've used it for several years now and only noticed it in the latest release.



  • @steenbergh said:

    Streamlining your boot process is a relatively new 'feature' in AVG. I've used it for several years now and only noticed it in the latest release.
    I'm not aware of any of the commercial products doing much more than you can do yourself with CCleaner and MSconfig - namely rooting through the various startup programs. It's not something I'd pay extra for

     



  • @Zemm said:

    @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:
    From the reviews I see, AVG still ranks among the top three for everything. Norton, on the other hand... Ugh.

    So they removed their ddos code? I stopped using it when it killed all my favourite websites due to it preemptively scanning every link on every page, increasing load on many websites by orders of magnitude.

    That was back in 2008, and they killed the feature just a few months after it went live, owing to the massive protests. (Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/07/avg_stems_fake_traffic/)

    I stopped using it because it turned to the dark side, i.e. became a constantly-self-advertising attention-seeking marketspeak-spewing bloated monster, like Norton or McAfee.



  • @DaveK said:

    I stopped using it because it turned to the dark side, i.e. became a constantly-self-advertising attention-seeking marketspeak-spewing bloated monster, like Norton or McAfee.

    At least you don't have to pay €50/year to receive these advertisements.

    Is there a better free antivirus? Last I checked (1 year ago or so) the best alternative to AVG and Avast was MS Security essentials, but it still detected a lot less stuff than them and most other scanners.



  • @DaveK said:

    I stopped using it ...

    Out of curiosity, what do you use now and are you paying for it?


  • FoxDev

    @jmap said:

    I'm so sick of software that thinks it knows better than you what you want happening on your system. "You should really update this", "try our new thingy", "you haven't done suchandsuch for a while", etc. I'm looking at you Oracle, Adobe, Apple, AVG, Microsoft, and pretty much every major software vendor.
     

    That's because you're part of the ~1% that actually knows what you're doing. Remember that these companies sell to the sort of people that call Google 'the Internet', and call the computer itself the 'hard drive'.

     



  • @dtech said:

    At least you don't have to pay €50/year to receive these advertisements.

    Is there a better free antivirus? Last I checked (1 year ago or so) the best alternative to AVG and Avast was MS Security essentials, but it still detected a lot less stuff than them and most other scanners.

    When PC Pro run their benchmarks and tests on antivirus suites, they tend to find AVG has among the highest detection rates and the lowest number of false positives. I think that's what really matters. Feel free to show me evidence that shows otherwise, though. After all, I might be in the market for a new product in the next X days (of course, I don't know exactly how long).

     



  • @dtech said:

    @DaveK said:
    I stopped using it because it turned to the dark side, i.e. became a constantly-self-advertising attention-seeking marketspeak-spewing bloated monster, like Norton or McAfee.

    At least you don't have to pay €50/year to receive these advertisements.

    Is there a better free antivirus? Last I checked (1 year ago or so) the best alternative to AVG and Avast was MS Security essentials, but it still detected a lot less stuff than them and most other scanners.

    Yes there is.

    AVG was good up to about version 7.5. Since then it's slowly become just another gassy bloated corpse.

    Panda Cloud Antivirus, on the other hand, has only just left its honeymoon phase and should stay good for a few years yet. Consistently high malware detection rates (much better than MSE), no noticeable effect on system performance, and none of the weird misbehaviour I saw after trialling MSE on a bunch of school workstations.

    If you install it, make sure you pay attention to the installer windows and turn off the optional extras, or you will end up with another useless fucking toolbar (not third party, to their credit) and fucked-up search and home page settings. Apart from that, I've found it works extremely well.

    What it's not particularly good at, though, is cleaning up stuff that's already made its way in past the drawbridge. For that, you want Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.



  • @steenbergh said:

    @DaveK said:

    I stopped using it ...

    Out of curiosity, what do you use now and are you paying for it?

    My customers, when they've taken my advice, use Panda Cloud Antivirus.

    Personally I use Debian.

    None of us pay for any of it.



  • @Ill Stew said:

    Are these guys better than M$ Security Essentials?

    Butthurt Linux/Apple user detected.



  • Personally I use F-Prot. It's pretty far up there on detection rates but it is not free. Cost though is like 30 a year for a 5 computer licence. not bad, isn't targeted often because after 20 years they still are not the big talked about company because they don't advertise a lot, and it just works, it doesn't nag you at all except at the end of a year to remind you to upgrade.

    Oh and upgrades are just there to keep the signature file going, even expired copies still check using whatever signature file they have. Works in the background, doesn't interfere unless it finds something, it just works.



  • @steenbergh said:

    @DaveK said:

    I stopped using it ...

    Out of curiosity, what do you use now and are you paying for it?

    On my main W2k dev box, I don't use AV at all. I rely on NoScript and FlashBlock to avoid getting hit by drive-bys, and I don't open spurious attachments.

    On my toy home-use/games Win7 box, I have MS Security Essentials, just because it was offered by Windows update.



  • @DaveK said:

    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat



  • @db2 said:

    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.



  • I've been running Microsoft Security Essentials for over half a decade now, and I haven't had any problems with it. It's clean, unobtrusive, and if I feel like I've been hitting some shady places and need a little extra assurance, I just run MalwareBytes on top of it. MSE every day and MalwareBytes once a month seems to work pretty well.

    I used to use AVG, but I stopped when MSE came out since AVG was starting to get as bloaty and pushy as Norton or McAfee. It's really a shame how many home anti-virus products have deteriorated into complete shit.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.



  • @db2 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.

    Would you like to purchase a copy of our company site? All of the above, plus a charming classic ASP VB front-end, all newly-written just last year, by the finest Indian devs around!

    Almost forgot to mention, you'll get a bonus Java applet for free.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @jmap said:

    Still trying to find the "just periodically scan for viruses, scan downloaded files and DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE, EVER" option.
     

    Every virus scanner has that option. It's called "Uninstall and switch to MS Security Essentials" instead.  Again, for all the shit MS puts out, when they get something right, boy-oh-fuck do they get it right.

    - Silent. Only pops up when it finds something. Occasionally throws a notification in the taskbar "Hey, you haven't scanned in, like, a month. Wanna do it now?"

    - Obeys your options. If you set up some excludes, or a scheudle, or turn it off entirely, it never EVER changes them because it knows best. Worst I've seen it do, whe I turned off Real Time protection, it threw ONE window up saying "Hey, buddy, turning this off may be bad unless you know what you're doing, k?"  When I clicked "K", it NEVER bugged me about it again.

    - Stays the fuck out of everything else.  I never have to worry about my Firefox suddenly getting hijacked by the MS Essentials Toolbar. There is no MS Essentials Web Scanner DDOS'ing every website I visit. There's no MS Essentials Speedup Boost fucking with my registry. There's no MS Essentials Upgrade Helper threatening me for money every 15 days.  There's no MS Essentials Safe Browser hijacking the browser by putting in a spyware laden web proxy.

    - Free. Even updates. It never expires.

    MS has a vested interest in keeping this efficient and free because people associate "getitng a virus" with "Windows le Sux".

    It just sucks that they don't have a Linux version.



  • @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    @db2 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.

    Would you like to purchase a copy of our company site? All of the above, plus a charming classic ASP VB front-end, all newly-written just last year, by the finest Indian devs around!

    Almost forgot to mention, you'll get a bonus Java applet for free.

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.



  • @DaveK said:

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Or between lettuce and kale.


  • Considered Harmful

    @blakeyrat said:

    @DaveK said:

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Or between lettuce and kale.


    Or between continuous and continual.



  • @joe.edwards said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @DaveK said:

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Or between lettuce and kale.


    Or between continuous and continual.

    Or flammable and inflammable.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @boomzilla said:

    @boomzilla said:
    @boomzilla said:
    @Buttembly Coder said:
    @joe.edwards said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    @DaveK said:

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Or between lettuce and kale.


    Or between continuous and continual.

    Or flammable and inflammable.

    Or there and they're.


    Or your and you're.

    Or their and there.

    Or should of and should have.



  • @Buttembly Coder said:

    @joe.edwards said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    @DaveK said:

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Or between lettuce and kale.


    Or between continuous and continual.

    Or flammable and inflammable.


    Or between canola and rape.

     



  • @DaveK said:

    @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    @db2 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.

    Would you like to purchase a copy of our company site? All of the above, plus a charming classic ASP VB front-end, all newly-written just last year, by the finest Indian devs around!

    Almost forgot to mention, you'll get a bonus Java applet for free.

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.



  • @db2 said:

    @DaveK said:
    @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    @db2 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.

    Would you like to purchase a copy of our company site? All of the above, plus a charming classic ASP VB front-end, all newly-written just last year, by the finest Indian devs around!

    Almost forgot to mention, you'll get a bonus Java applet for free.

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    You guys are all missing the point, he said it's his main win2k dev box. Meaning he has more than one.



  • @Buttembly Coder said:

    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    @db2 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.

    Would you like to purchase a copy of our company site? All of the above, plus a charming classic ASP VB front-end, all newly-written just last year, by the finest Indian devs around!

    Almost forgot to mention, you'll get a bonus Java applet for free.

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    You guys are all missing the point, he said it's his main win2k dev box. Meaning he has more than one.

    Now I know what's more terrifying than a Win2k dev box. Thanks.



  • @db2 said:

    @DaveK said:
    @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    @db2 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.

    Would you like to purchase a copy of our company site? All of the above, plus a charming classic ASP VB front-end, all newly-written just last year, by the finest Indian devs around!

    Almost forgot to mention, you'll get a bonus Java applet for free.

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    What part of "The machine that you write software on doesn't have to be the machine on which the software you write runs" do you fail to understand? All of it!



  • @The_Assimilator said:

    @Buttembly Coder said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    @LoremIpsumDolorSitAmet said:

    @db2 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    On my main W2k dev box

    Wat

    Hey man, there's a large market for software time travelers can use when they go back to 2002.

    And all of it written in VB 6 and C++, with a healthy dose of COM to tie it all together. Available for purchase on fine ASP 3.0 sites everywhere.

    Would you like to purchase a copy of our company site? All of the above, plus a charming classic ASP VB front-end, all newly-written just last year, by the finest Indian devs around!

    Almost forgot to mention, you'll get a bonus Java applet for free.

    Look at all the people who don't know the difference between host and target.

    Or between forward and backward compatibility, for that matter.

    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    You guys are all missing the point, he said it's his main win2k dev box. Meaning he has more than one.

    Now I know what's more terrifying than a Win2k dev box. Thanks.

    You terrify easy. Wuss.

    Edit: Just to clarify, because I did word it ambiguously: I have one dev box, which is W2k; for that reason it is also my main box. I have other boxes using other versions of Windows that I use for test and debug rather than dev work.



  • @DaveK said:

    @The_Assimilator said:
    @Buttembly Coder said:
    @... said:
    ...

    You guys are all missing the point, he said it's his main win2k dev box. Meaning he has more than one.

    Now I know what's more terrifying than a Win2k dev box. Thanks.

    You terrify easy. Wuss.

    Edit: Just to clarify, because I did word it ambiguously: I have one dev box, which is W2k; for that reason it is also my main box. I have other boxes using other versions of Windows that I use for test and debug rather than dev work.

    Easy can deal with it. I feel robbed now. I demand that you bring enough Win2k dev boxes for the rest of the class.



  • @DaveK said:

    @db2 said:
    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    What part of "The machine that you write software on doesn't have to be the machine on which the software you write runs" do you fail to understand? All of it!

    Did you also run Visual Studio 6.0 on Windows 2.0 14 years ago? Did they even ship that version on 5.25" floppies?



  • @db2 said:

    @DaveK said:
    @db2 said:
    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    What part of "The machine that you write software on doesn't have to be the machine on which the software you write runs" do you fail to understand? All of it!

    Did you also run Visual Studio 6.0 on Windows 2.0 14 years ago? Did they even ship that version on 5.25" floppies?

    The only version I can find in retail packaging is CD-ROM only.



  • My sister uses some random "BitDefender" thing on hers (I run Linux on mine). No idea about the detection rates, but it's not all in her face.

     

    I have found, though, that common sense seems to be the most effective. Too bad most people don't have that.



  • @Buttembly Coder said:

    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    @db2 said:
    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.
    What part of "The machine that you write software on doesn't have to be the machine on which the software you write runs" do you fail to understand? All of it!

    Did you also run Visual Studio 6.0 on Windows 2.0 14 years ago? Did they even ship that version on 5.25" floppies?

    The only version I can find in retail packaging is CD-ROM only.
    Apparently Visual Studio 6 is some sort of collectors item:

     


     



  • @db2 said:

    @DaveK said:
    @db2 said:
    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    What part of "The machine that you write software on doesn't have to be the machine on which the software you write runs" do you fail to understand? All of it!

    Did you also run Visual Studio 6.0 on Windows 2.0 14 years ago? Did they even ship that version on 5.25" floppies?

    If you ever had a point, you've left in far behind in your pursuit of inanities. The machine I use runs the tools I need to run in order to write software for the targets on which I have to deliver software. Nothing's broke, yet you feel I should be fixing something.

    That's illogical.


  • @DaveK said:

    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    @db2 said:
    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    What part of "The machine that you write software on doesn't have to be the machine on which the software you write runs" do you fail to understand? All of it!

    Did you also run Visual Studio 6.0 on Windows 2.0 14 years ago? Did they even ship that version on 5.25" floppies?

    If you ever had a point, you've left in far behind in your pursuit of inanities. The machine I use runs the tools I need to run in order to write software for the targets on which I have to deliver software. Nothing's broke, yet you feel I should be fixing something.

    I think we have different definitions of "broke", because I would include in the definition being almost a decade out of mainstream security patch support, API releases, dev tool updates, etc. Until I know what your targets are and get confirmation that you're forced to develop for outdated embedded/vertical market hardware from a defunct vendor using dev tools from another defunct vendor (which refuse to work on anything newer than 2K), then this sounds like Old Man Yells At Cloud to me.

    I'm almost afraid to ask, but... you're running this as a sandboxed VM, right? Or is it actually some old Packard Bell?



  • @db2 said:

    @DaveK said:
    @db2 said:
    @DaveK said:
    @db2 said:
    Did you have a Windows 2.0 dev box back in 2000? Because Windows 2.0 was newer then than Windows 2000 is now. Unless you're developing for industrial control systems that need bizarro legacy hardware, bin it.

    What part of "The machine that you write software on doesn't have to be the machine on which the software you write runs" do you fail to understand? All of it!

    Did you also run Visual Studio 6.0 on Windows 2.0 14 years ago? Did they even ship that version on 5.25" floppies?

    If you ever had a point, you've left in far behind in your pursuit of inanities. The machine I use runs the tools I need to run in order to write software for the targets on which I have to deliver software. Nothing's broke, yet you feel I should be fixing something.

    I think we have different definitions of "broke", because I would include in the definition being almost a decade out of mainstream security patch support, API releases, dev tool updates, etc.

    Wow. So misunderstanding. Very errors. Let's get the factual ones out of way first:

    • Security patches ended in 2010, that's not a decade ago. Not that it matters, since the security of my dev box is unrelated to the security of the apps I develop on it. It doesn't run any internet-facing services, and I'm not about to start downloading and installing random software on it. Also, I have backups.
    • "API releases" are perfectly available to it, all I need is the relevant import lib and headers to be able to develop against newer APIs.
    • All the dev tools I'm using are up-to-date; I'm not using MS dev tools.

    @db2 said:

    Until I know what your targets are and get confirmation that you're forced to develop for outdated embedded/vertical market hardware from a defunct vendor using dev tools from another defunct vendor (which refuse to work on anything newer than 2K), then this sounds like Old Man Yells At Cloud to me.

    Now you're just being a moron. (I will at least give you credit for being a persistent and consistent one). As I've pointed out over and over, there is no relationship beween the platform I'm using to develop on and the platform I am developing for. Everything I'm developing works on everything up to and including Win 8. I'm not the one yelling at anything; I'm just using a fully functional system to get on with my work, while you're the one yelling at it for not being as bleeding edge as you feel it ought to be. You're just distracted by the new and shiny for its own sake.

    @db2 said:

    I'm almost afraid to ask,

    You scare easy.

    @db2 said:

    but... you're running this as a sandboxed VM, right? Or is it actually some old Packard Bell?

    False dilemma. Neither of those statements is true, revealing the limitations of your thinking.



  • @Lorne Kates said:

    @jmap said:

    Still trying to find the "just periodically scan for viruses, scan downloaded files and DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE, EVER" option.
     

    Every virus scanner has that option. It's called "Uninstall and switch to MS Security Essentials" instead...

    - Silent. Only pops up when it finds something. Occasionally throws a notification in the taskbar "Hey, you haven't scanned in, like, a month. Wanna do it now?"

    - Obeys your options. If you set up some excludes, or a scheudle, or turn it off entirely, it never EVER changes them because it knows best. Worst I've seen it do, whe I turned off Real Time protection, it threw ONE window up saying "Hey, buddy, turning this off may be bad unless you know what you're doing, k?"  When I clicked "K", it NEVER bugged me about it again.

    - Stays the fuck out of everything else.  I never have to worry about my Firefox suddenly getting hijacked by the MS Essentials Toolbar. There is no MS Essentials Web Scanner DDOS'ing every website I visit. There's no MS Essentials Speedup Boost fucking with my registry. There's no MS Essentials Upgrade Helper threatening me for money every 15 days.  There's no MS Essentials Safe Browser hijacking the browser by putting in a spyware laden web proxy.

    - Free. Even updates. It never expires...

    If you install Panda Cloud Antivirus without any of its stupid optional extras, that's pretty much the way it behaves as well - plus, it actually blocks malware.


Log in to reply