MidiSystem, IMO the whole midi package needs a do over, at least on windows.
I try to not be, and try to not have to care if I have one (when using my computer, I say to my self that I may have a virus)
Usually you got infected when performing an insecure action (downloading an exe file as a video codec / soft crack from lowpopular website, launching a signed stuff (java or other maybe viewpoint / unity / etc…)
I always scan exe file I download using different online scanner (to be sure it is not infected), sometime (rarely) I trust : like signed stuff comming from well know JGO members, I never open unsecure attached file in email (even from friend) or I scan it, I take care of USB keys that I push inside my computer. (NB: if you want a nice way to introduce a malware code into a society, put your malware program into a USB key, go in that society for any reason and let the USB key somewhere before leaving, someone will find it and will probably use it, just use attracting name like : games/pingpong.exe)
full scan twice a year with different online scanner (usually three)
also perform scan when earing about powerfull worm or if I find anything strange on my computer (drive access when not doing anything / bandwith comsuption / process using cpu), as I am mainly programming (always watching cpu used / running process / etc…) and have very few services running I usually detect when something is not going normaly in my computer, but yes finally it is very specific to me as I only use my computer to program, not recommended and not the most secure way, dont know how but I can feel when a virus is in my computer, the infected file by TROJ_JAVADL.A was from 23/10/2010 I made the scan 26/10/2010
until now It have worked fine for me but yes it is a bit demagogic (I like to be) to say that using no antivirus is as secure than using one but it is still better to consider that you may be infected (with or without antivirus)
While security is on topic: What anti-malware software is best for Linux-Ubuntu?
I don’t think there is any. If we analogise anti-malware software to anti-malarial drugs, linux users live on the shore of a sun-kissed fjord and have titanium skin, while windows users are splashing around naked in a leper colony in a sub-Saharan swamp.
Amusing mental imagery, but the rate of malware creation for a given desktop platform is almost directly proportional to the installed user base.
Security holes are a fact of life. Have a quick peek: http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/section/3/170/
yea just live with it. like living beings do with real life viruses and bacterias. I knew i had a computer illness when IE kept crashing for no reasons. So I downloaed many medecines but only Ad-Aware cure my computer.
Anyways your Credit Card company insures you.
I agree with DzzD. I don’t run any antivirus crap. I am just careful what I run. The only way I’ll get infected is some security hole in the software I use. It isn’t all that likely that an antivirus would even stop this, and for me it isn’t worth having an antivirus running.
I use Acronis for backups. I like that it can backup/restore over the network. I recently saw it has a feature you can turn on, install some malware, and then revert back to the complete state of your system when you turned the feature on. I haven’t tried it though.
I use a hardware firewall. I used to use a software firewall too, Sygate Personal Firewall. Fantastic software that was. It pops up any time some piece of software tries network communication. However, unlike garbage like Zone Alarm, it wasn’t intrusive and had a nice UI. Unfortunately it no longer exists, and old versions don’t run on Windows 7. I haven’t been able to find a replacement. Anyway, a software firewall is a good way to know if you are infected, since you’ll see strange network activity. Sure, some virus could disable it, but you are never really 100% safe unless you just turn off your computer.
Does anyone know of a good software firewall for Windows 7?
I’ve been using comodo as my software firewall and antivirus for some time. Works fine.
Actually they can and several do.
Zone Alarm was a pretty awesome firewall when it first came out, not sure what happened to it. The developers just went mad one release and added a super heavyweight system killing gui to it.
Bahh…
It is interesting how problematic it is to render rich text in a web browser.
I used Zone Alarm in the past too, and found it awesome but I finally decided to not use it anymore when changing my computer, on my old laptop it have learned all program and was well configured, I did not want to take time agan to configure it for all program I installed, it also was producing some lags on some FPS game
yes that’s why window is probably the most easily OS to hack but paradoxaly the most secured (in an absolute view)
there is no “perfect” antivirus nowadays for two reasons :
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they dont share sigs : as mentioned above performing scan on a fully infected computer with different antivirus land to diferent virus found, in case of a worms propagating faslty they dont get the sig enought fast (eg : blaster/sasser : I got one of this but manage to disable it pretty fastly, going on msdos console and typing shutdown -a, and then cleanning it)
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hundreds / thousand viruses came out everydays (some are copy and use similar sigs and are catched but severals dont), best to try to patch security hole a maximum, on window for example : disabling server service & others like, disable autorun on drive, activate auto window update , and tens more…, windows can be secured aswell as linux can be unsecured if you activate some sofwtare that open security hole, problem is that by default window open a cupple of potential security hole)
Saying anti-virus software is bad because there are new viruses made everyday is like saying seatbelts are bad because there are car crashes everyday.
You are less likely to be affected by a virus if you have anti-virus software then don’t.
It is no replacement for backup because it is not 100% safety, so I don’t find any reason to bother.
I’m checking out Comodo. Seems ok so far. I hate default settings for programs to get through the firewall, but they aren’t hard to disable. A software firewall, unlike antivirus, is actually useful because it can stop your data from being compromised.
Not if it’s trusting an application which has been infected by a virus.
Virus scanners, firewalls and creating backups are for solving different problems. You can’t really justify using one to solve a problem of another; it’s like using a hammer as a screwdriver. So I personally use all three.
Yay! 
It finally pays off to be on thw weird distro nobody uses, or supports 
Ironically, the only piece of software that took my whole system down to point I had to re-install completely was Norton AntiVirus.
On my desktop running XP with no service pack I never had a virus scanner installed, just a firewall. It still boots super fast and works perfectly fine. That machine is just exclusively for making music though, all software installed on it is legal; and I hardly ever install anything there and I rarely even use the internet on it.
I did do a full check a few months ago, and it was still clean.
I mostly use Ubuntu Linux on my laptop (which is what I do most of my work on), and I don’t use anti-virus software there. The risk on Linux is inherently lower than on Windows, even if only because almost nobody uses it.
I’m not saying nobody should install anti-virus software because it can be a real threat, but in my experience they’re like a handbrake on your system and most of the risk of getting a virus is by doing risky things on the internet.
If I need to install stuff that I don’t know about (for example for research), I do it on a virtual machine. Also, sandboxie works quite well.
Maybe it’s just ignorance combined with blind luck though 
yes
but you should not drive at 240Km/h under rain even if you have a seatbelts