Come on, now. Microsoft surely has the resources to write the best antivirus/anti-rootkit/anti-malware solutions for their own code.

Nope. MS don't even understand the internals of their own NT kernel. There is no hope whatsoever of MS making "their" code secure - it just can't be done. Their only hope is to ditch all their products and start again - probably with a BSD or Linux core - and forget compatibility with their existing codebase.

Game over, Microsoft.

I do think that a good A/V program is needed.

It is difficult to believe that serious corporations still use MS brokenware. The really successful, progressive corporations migrated to proper operating systems many years ago! You have to remember that Windows is only susceptible to most viruses because of two stupid decisions taken by Gates himself back in the late 80s. Those stupidities continue to dog Windows to this day, and are now so deeply entrenched that they can't ever be fixed.

Your only real option is to get rid of the proprietary Gatesware, and install something less bloated, more stable, more secure and much cheaper...

Windows: a poor proprietary client for a Unix world.

...then it's time to ban Windows machines from the internet.

It IS time to appotion blame - the blame lies squarely with the stupid marketing-based decisions made by the clueless in Redmond, and their fundamental lack of understanding of the basic concept of a security model.

Simple solution: Put those Redmond morons out of business once and for all by disconnecting every Windows machine and then suing them for each machine disconnection from the web - say $50000 per machine, just for the inconvenience....

I only see viruses when I'm cleaning out machines belonging to friends that surf the web willy-nilly without using common sense.

You must be using broken "anti-virus" tools, then. I have NEVER seen any Windows computer that has been connected to the 'net for more than a moment or two that hasn't got some malware on it. Recent tests with Windows 7 demonstrated that it was invariably infected during its initial patching session when first connected to the 'net!

Windows: an abysmal proprietary client for a Unix world.

You see, I've found a properly updated Windows box is actually pretty hard to infect,

It actually takes between 30 seconds and 2 minutes for the Windows machine to get its first infection. After 10 minutes it will be riddled with crap to the point of uselessness - and this is a "Fully Patched" Windoze 7 install.

Security is something other people do, according to Microsoft.

A whole series of stupid decisions way back when the NT kernel was still young, a whole lot of even worse commercial decisions since then, and a programming workforce that just don't care guarantee that Windows will never achieve any kind of security or stability.

Actually I was giving criticisms of the literal "NT" kernel.

Having been there when NT was thrown together (in 1991 - it's STILL the same code today), there was no proper development cycle whatsoever. It was and remains a particularly dirty hack. MS haven't had a proper product since its inception. The kernel was unmaintainable from the day it escaped (it wasn't released!), and all MS have done since is polish the same old turd. It still suffers from ALL the flaws it had at first - including some interesting race conditions that were never fixed.

It all stems back to some spectacularly stupid Gates demands. The man was, and remains, a moron (albeit, a rich moron). It has never ceased to scare me that such a large proportion of the world's computers have MS crapware on them....

Grown-ups who play games don't use PCs for it - they buy games consoles. I'll give you a clue- they don't buy the Microsoft one....

There we go: Either a Microsoft shill or just another clueless moron babbling on about Linux without knowing the slightest thing about it...

It's nearly 8 years since I found any hardware that wouldn't work under Linux.

On the other hand, trying to install Windoze 7 on a bog-standard Dell, and get the graphics card, mouse and printer working properly proved virtually impossible. When the Windoze crap was finally installed, it fell over on reboot. After another hour of pissing about using instructions from MS' webshite, the thing would boot. After just five minutes of trying to download a free "anti-virus" program, it was infected by the first dose of malware. Two hours wasted trying to clean up this crap resulted in a 15 minute installation and configuration of Ubuntu.

Game Over, Microsoft!

Sorry you don't get on with Linux, but it's not designed for morons (nor is OSX or Windoze, come to that).

Unfortunately, the world is full of idiots that assume computing is "easy". The reality is that it requires a modicum of intelligence. If you are unable to successfully configure Ubuntu, then that's your problem - in fact, it's your stupidity showing through. Reading some simple instructions is a task far beyond your capability. In fact, you will find Windoze and OSX impossible to configure as well...

You want to play Windoze games? Buy an Xbox. It's just as much crap as Windoze. If you are stupid enough to keep using Windoze, then enjoy your viruses, instabilities and all the other people using your computer

When can you clueless fools get used to the reality of this bogus "climate change"? This nonsense is a political construct - it's just a crude attempt to control the usage of increasingly scarce fossil fuels, particularly in the third world.

There was more "climate change" in the ten years prior to the start of the industrial revolution than there has been recently, and this was followed by a period of almost thirty years when most of the major European rivers froze each winter...

Do you honestly believe that MS will give you a "Compatibility Pack" that will actually work? If so, I've got a bridge to sell you!

It's not in MS' interest to allow compatibility - they can't sell you anything new if it "just works"!!

Funny you should say that - Virgin (on the ridiculous) lost almost 30% of their users when they announced the introduction of "Phorm". They continue to lose customers at an alarming rate - this neighbourhood used to have over 95% of homes connected to the cable service before the Virgin takeover, and the old service was superb. Since the arrival of Virgin, the quality fell, outages became commonplace, prices rose, and their user base dwindled so that they only have about 5% of the households around here nowadays!

Virgin are a disaster, and the sooner the British cable network is broken up again into small, competitive companies, and as fibre is introduced, so we'll be able to get proper cable TV and ISP services. As long as Virgin are there, we'll all stay with satellite for TV and ADSL for internet....

Firstly - NO anti-virus product has "heuristics" no matter what the advertising BS tells you.

Secondly - NO commercial anti-malware software is remotely good enough to compensate for or obviate the stupidities of Microsoft, or those of Microsoft users.

Thirdly - "due diligence" is ONLY provided by using an OS that cannot be corrupted by viruses or other malware.

The solution is out there, and it doesn't involve Microsoft!

Yeah. Right! Win7 still uses the same crap brokenware kernel as NT 3.5..... MS have not had a truly viable product since 1991 (and even then it was faulty).