Don Penlington wrote:

>Yes. I dislike updates, haven't updated mine in at least 3 years and have 
had no security problems. Much better to have your own good security 
installed (eg Avira, Malwarebytes) than rely on OS fixes, most of which are 
useless anyway. Many are for "problems" that simply don't exist in the real 
world.<

 Hi Don,
I almost feel compelled to respond to your post, but for different reasons than you might think .  
In fact  I agree with your statements and have indicated a similar position several times in the past  .
I also have a few installations that are only updated for functionality updates .
So-called security updates are usually not installed after having scrutinized them.

Too many people seem to be indoctrinated by M$ and the security companies, that if they don't install
every update that comes along ,they're on the road straight to hell with their machine.
Millions of viruses will invade them and render the computer useless to the point where they require a new machine.
Reality is that most of the perceived threats are just that, "perceived" and have never been exploited in real life.

I'm not advocating that everyone stops M$ updates. Some people are just a danger to themselves,
so maybe they'll get some "real or perceived" protection with the updates. >grin<

A good firewall , properly adjusted plus the security software you mentioned ,will do a fine job keeping your machine clean. Most importantly though is practising safe surfing habits.

Better yet, run your programs and browser in a sandbox or virtual environment ,like a VM (Virtual Machine)
Sandbox approach would be using  eg Sandboxie  http://www.sandboxie.com/
There are many other programs to isolate the internet from your machine or vice versa.
SafeSpace http://www.artificialdynamics.com/content/products/personal-edition.aspx   (XP and Vista)
Another interesting one would be iCore Virtual Accounts  http://icoresoftware.com/ (only for XP SP3 at the moment)
Also HyperOS has a good concept  http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/   or http://www.hyperosshop.co.uk/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* The following is my response to Glenn.
Support for XP doesn't end as of July 13 - it's the support for XP SP2 that is in question here.
Support for XP SP3 will end in  August 2014 
The problem for XP SP2 users is, that updates after the July 13/ 2010 deadline,  will only work on XP SP3.
Frankly ,I don't see any functionality updates in the wings for XP in general, but might be wrong.
The only way to take advantage of them would be to install SP3 (for XP).
If you're not concerned about updates ,it won't matter of course.
And no, not getting security updates ,doesn't mean you'll get "blasted" with viruses.
as you may have gathered from above info.

Peter E.

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