Not being able to do things as non-admin in windows is probably my least favorite part about the OS. I'm the kind that cares about security so I keep her well updated and such, so that has never really been a problem. Not there is anything on my laptop to steal anyway.

Normally I wouldn't care about Windows people staying secure, if one keeping their system insecure effected them only. The thing that bothers me about these users is that ultimately they are making the entire problem worse by letting hackers turn their systems into spam zombies and, even worse, letting their systems execute viral code which obviously effects us all. It is unacceptable that I, and many other people, have had to spend hours fixing computer issues and institutions worldwide have had to spend literally billions of dollars on security because some lazy Windows user didn't want to spend the extra five minutes to set up a real firewall and now has a zombie for a computer.

Well what can we say, I worked in a pc shop for about 6 months and the fact just is that most 'common' user don't know how to secure their pc.
Most of he times people buy a pc with Windows XP, which we delivered fully update, and Norton Antivirus, which slows your pc down like a maniac.

My WinXp pc runs Zonealarm and AVG-free and I never experienced any problems. Not one

What I'm trying to say is that most common users expect their pc to be well secured with a fresh Windows install. People just should be better educated on these things.

Cheers!

I like the idea that users should be required to view a little "security tutorial" before they even use Windows. Don't want to view it? You can't use Windows. (And no fast-forwarding either.) Simple as that. It's not at all harsh. The problem really is that serious. I'd be willing to bet that if Microsoft instituted such a plan that we'd see a pretty dramatic introduction in computer security issues. I don't think that it's really a laziness problem among your average Windows users. If they realized how serious the problem is, and how it works, and how they can stop it on their computers, they'd listen. It's just that nobody as-of-yet has required these people to take a sort of "user's ed". Institutions lost billions of dollars on these problems every single year, and in that sense it's as important of a problem as locking your car doors is.

By the way, for any security consious Windows user, I highly recommend installing ZoneAlarm if you haven't already (it's free) and using it's application rights management feature to block Internet Explorer from accessing the web at all. That's how I run my Windows installation. That more or less completely eliminates the chance of a cracker breaking in. The only applications allowed to access an internet connection on my compy are Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. If I ever need to use IE (which I do sometimes), I just temporarily unblock it's access.

Does that ever become annoying? In Windows everything (ok, almost everything) uses IE by default, i.e. Windows Update, MSN Messenger, etc.

MSN Messenger is independent of IE. I do use Windows Update though, about once every week, and that's the one time when I do have to enable access. My point is, if you don't need IE for daily access to something that Firefox can't deal with (online banking, for example), then there's no reason to even bother with Internet Explorer at all.

here is something that i heard..... just tell me if it is true.....

i heard that the SP2 for winXP has reduced its own piracy detection capabilities!!!!! If it is true no body catches you for using a pirated winXP anymore (ie if they did catch anyone for using pirated winXP before)and the explanation for this??????(of its true that is )......
They make people use winXP for FREE!!!!!

I've never met anyone who was actually caught by Microsoft using a pirated copy of XP. SP2 or not. Trust me I know plenty of people that have priated copies too.

I was just wondering if MacOS has any of the security problems of MS (I have not used MacOS). I would assume that OS 10 wouldnt because it is based on Unix, but I still haven't heard of people setting up a root account and a user account. I just wanted to know because I was thinking of getting one of those Intel Mac laptops, and dual booting with Linux, but if it is just as insecure as windows then I would rather just purchase an OS free system and put my own on it.

Also when I *have* to use Windows my solution is to not use IE. Once I started using Firefox all of the pop ups and spy-ware stopped.I also use AVG free-edition.

It is most certainly much more secure than Windows. Safari (Mac's web browser) is more-or-less equal to Firefox. Don't worry about it. Besides that, I'd trust Apple much more than I'd trust Microsoft any day.
Macs are just about as renowned for their security as Linux is. In the security world, it's not so much a question of "what operating systems are secure?" as it is a downright statement of "anything but Windows."

You got that right ^^

Also your right saying Windows users should all have some security tutorial. Even better i think every person who is using internet (or is going to) should have one. So they gan defend themselves against hacks, viruses, spyware etc.

But wouldn't there be a lot more Linux users if this was the case?

Or you could have just given her full access to the install folder and appropriate registry hives.....

Yeah that would probably work, but I think he is just using his story point out the bigger problem. There is NO REASON why a user must have administrator rights to play a game that is already installed. I would say that calling the company was the right move, as the more people that call and complain the more likely they are to actually do something about it.

She already had full access to the install folder. Giving her full access to the "appropriate registry hives" (what would those be, BTW) would appear to be effectively the same as giving admin access to the system. At least, it would open a big security hole, and when dealing with a fairly young child whose browsing skills aren't so great, that seems like a bad idea.

Real problem is that in Windows user space and system space are not separated, but are all jumbled together. Hence maintaining user rights appropriately can be a real nightmare.