Windows 7 is a great modern operating system. Most people have been praising it’s robustness and that it closes the gap on OS’s like Mac OS X while still staying somewhat similar to Vista and XP to not lose any users along the way. Yet according to the Sophos Blog, after a clean install of Windows 7 with the default UAC (User Access Control) settings on, 7 still became infected by 8 our of 10 common bugs/viruses. [A good overview of UAC in Windows 7 can be found here]

Is this really surprising? It doesn’t seem so to me. I have been using the Windows operating system for a long time now and Windows has always had some types of security issues.  Theses issues though are nothing that a little common sense and a decent, lightweight anti-virus program can’t fix.

Something strange here

Something that I have been wondering about for a couple of months now with all of the crazy Windows hoopla is this: since Microsoft has released their own totally free anti-virus suite, Microsoft Security Essentials, why don’t they just include it with Windows 7? You have to go the site here to download and install the software. The only reason that comes to mind to not include MSE with 7 is that they don’t want to completely dominate all markets.  Microsoft is probably a little tired of fighting monopoly battles.

What this means for you

Like I said before, it is not a big surprise that Windows continues to be prone to viruses even though it has a shiny new coating and name.  With OS market share of Windows 7 slowly rising with it’s release on the 10/22/09 more and more people may be put under the guise that “this version is the best and most secure.” That may be true, but when you speak of “most secure” in regards to Vista or XP you are not saying very much.

Case in point: make sure to download some decent, lightweight anti-virus software and don’t open and install files that you don’t recognize.

Some good, free anti-virus suites:

• Microsoft Security Essentials
• AVG
• avast!
• Panda

These are all free and good quality: let Rick tell you why free anti-virus is OK.