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GeneralStuff <[log in to unmask]>
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PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 4 Dec 2005 16:50:27 -0500
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For the first time, since I've had Win XP Home, a window popped up saying it
was doing an 'automatic update', and it took a little while to run.  I'm a
little nervous about anything that my computer does on its own.  I looked in
"Help" to see exactly what was going on and it said it was doing updates in
the program relative to security.  I got the impression this would be a good
idea, because otherwise I could be sitting with a 'hole' in my system for a
long time before I thought to check for any needed updates.  I left it as
is, but now I'm wondering if there are drawbacks to letting my system do
automatic updates.  Any comments?  --Carol Hanson

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I don't like Microsoft having unsupervised access to my computer either.  After they "fixed" Internet Explorer so it wouldn't copy some embedded images to the the clipboard (putting "links to the original images" there instead), I went to msconfig - services and turned off "Automatic Updates." When I tried to do it within the software, MS kept turning it back on.  

The long answer:  MS is already putting precursors of the old (and controversial) "Palladium"  nee "Longhorn," nee "Vista on machines."  A copy/paste that I did weekly from my bank suddenly stopped working and research pinned it down to IE now failing to place these items on the clipboard - this embedded image failure is across all applications that you attempt to paste an IE image into.  Some images still copy and you can copy the image separately as opposed to embedded, but you get the link, not the actual image. This change with IE forces you to allow Word unfettered access to "phone home" if you want to paste images from the internet into Word and then view them later.  The ultimate goal is to allow vendors, including MS, to have remote access, whenever you run their software, to be able to remotely disable software on your PC and delete the files it created from your PC if they think you might have "pirated" something.  The government of course, wants in on this access too.  It it Orwell scary!

I reformatted and reinstalled a clean copy of XP SP1.  I installed one update that I identified and downloaded myself related to NTFS file deletions.  I won't use SP2 or any other update unless it is something I particularly want.  I have not been able to find a previous copy of IE that worked with my bank images (before SP1).  I have both hardware and software firewalls, anti-virus that also checks my web pages for worms & such before presenting them to me, ad/spy ware immunization & prevention monitoring & periodic scanning (never finds any).  I have disabled some dangerous things such as Messenger, UPnP, DCOM, etc. and closed ports used by Task Scheduler etc.  (I do my tasks on demand).  Any folders that contain personal data are encrypted with 256 AES and a 12 char-dig-symb random password that I have memorized.  Any software that uses sensitive data (Roboform, MSMoney, TreePad, etc) are also passworded with this password.  Online scans say my ports are completely stealthed (invisible to pings from hackers).  I have been happy with this with no problems for a couple of years now and don't intend to let MS mess with it.  I will switch to Apple before I allow Longhorn, Vista, the FritzChip or any of MS's attempts to gain control of my PC to happen.  After the first time MS tried this (then called "Palladium") in 2003 and started an uproar, they are being VERY careful about what they say about Vista and are hiding their ultimate agenda very well.  They even formed a consortium/cartel with Intel, HP, IBM & AMD to try to spread the blame in case it blows up in their face again.
"NGSCB (nee Palladium) is the ultimate "phone home." You still pay for the PC in your home, but you no longer control it - or your files."

A "Games Explorer," designed to list all the games stored on a user's computer, also will be part of Vista Beta 1. 

A feature called "Network Location Awareness Service" is designed to collect network information, "such as the DNS suffix of your computer, bandwidth availability, and intranet connectivity," and make this information available through an application programming interface to applications that may require this information. 

"When Microsoft Corp. distributes the preview release of Longhorn at the WinHEC at the end of this month, it will look quite different from the early Longhorn bits it distributed at the same show a year ago.

Unlike last year's Longhorn Windows Hardware Engineering Conference preview build, this year's will include the first pieces of Microsoft's built-in Windows "security" system (again, don't interpret this as security FOR YOU). 

That system-originally code-named "Palladium," (and more recently, "Next-Generation 'Secure' Computing Base," or NGSCB)-has been one of the most controversial of the planned Longhorn components, since Microsoft first detailed it in 2003. 

The nexus was slated to provide a set of APIs that would enable sealed storage (that you and I can't get to to disable their access) and other foundations for "trusted-computing". 

The goal for NGSCB was "to marry hardware (the fritz chip) and software to gain better security (again NOT security FOR YOU)," said Jim Allchin, Microsoft's group vice president for platforms.  (my note: this is to make sure you can't "tamper" with their ability to have remote access to your PC, or so you cannot reformat your PC and install another operating system on it.).

That continues to be Microsoft's ultimate goal for NGSCB, Allchin said. But the Redmond software vendor is planning a longer and different route to achieve that end, he acknowledged. 

To read more about Longhorn, go to eWEEK.com's special report Longhorn, Windows' New Frontier."

http://www.drmwatch.com/special/article.php/3529586



Vista has one good item that I know of:  Beginning with next year's release of Windows Vista Microsoft plans to move device drivers out of the kernel and onto the user level. At least this one vector of attack will be shut down on systems running Vista code or later.  



However, I think my system is already well protected as it is now and I keep data backups and C partition images that can be restored in the extreme case that something ever fails me.  I'd like this feature, but not enough to turn over control of my PC to MS.



Microsoft actually has teams of volunteers out on forums trying to "sell" us on Vista.  I don't do ANYTHING with music on my PC and I purchase all my software (that isn't free), but I find the entire idea of Palladium/Vista - you buy your PC, but others control it - abhorrent and downright scary!  



Anna Summers

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