> However, our three XP boxes at home have all been fine. I believe that's > because firewalls and anti-virus programs have gotten better over the years > and they are perhaps better integrated into XP than Win98SE. Well, AV is not really better nowadays than was it before (OK, number of threats are increasing so the number of detection is also increasing, but as a percentage (detection rate) everything is the same. Virtually there is no new technology except there are so many new file format targeted by the bad guys and that nowadays a file infector is really rare in the AV queue - there are only trojans, backdoors, botnets, trackwares, adwares, spywares and sometimes rootkits). Anyway, 95/98/ME all were DOS based, only somewhat better than Win3x. XP is NT based, and as an OS it is so much better. Also it has built in firewall and sometimes it helps that XP tries to protect the files and directories belonging to the OS - far from perfect but it helps a bit. Also since then Microsoft has introduced the automatic update which helps people to keep their system up to date so there is a less chance for hackers to use a well known security hole to break into or compromise a system. If you have a good AV + if you do not just click on anything that is comping into your inbox then you are pretty much safe. Tamas On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 9:21 PM, Jeff Findley wrote: > > "Xiaofan Chen" wrote in message > news:a276da400810150713pd8fb666wb44cd61ebc542db5@mail.gmail.com... > > On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 10:04 PM, Andre Abelian > > wrote: > >> Not for internet use. Windows gets virus, spyware etc very easy. > > Not really true if you are careful enough. > > > >> How often do you repair or restore or format windows ? > > > > Never after XP came out. My old desktop was running Windows XP > > for all its life without installing. In the Win95/Win98 days, yes. > > Same here. At home, I had to reinstall Win98SE so many times that I > practically have the ID memorized. It was almost as bad as Windows 3.1. > :-P > > However, our three XP boxes at home have all been fine. I believe that's > because firewalls and anti-virus programs have gotten better over the years > and they are perhaps better integrated into XP than Win98SE. > > Jeff > -- > A clever person solves a problem. > A wise person avoids it. -- Einstein > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- Rudonix DoubleSaver http://www.rudonix.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist