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posted by
LaminatorX
on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:30AM
from the unplugging-the-network-cable dept.
from the unplugging-the-network-cable dept.
Appalbarry writes:
"Microsoft is about to abandon Windows XP to the wolves. Fair enough it's ancient. However, there are still going to be a lot of XP boxes out there, and a fair number of them are unlikely to ever get upgraded until the hardware dies.
My question is: what's available to help make this old OS stay reasonably secure and safe for the people who can't or won't abandon it?
Over the years I've been through Central Point Antivirus, Norton, McAfee, AVG, stuff like Zone Alarm, and of course the various Microsoft anti-malware offerings. But since moving over to Linux I really haven't kept up on the wild and wonderful world of Windows security tools.
Suggestions?"
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Everything you know is wrong!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by gallondr00nk on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:06AM
I've decided to keep an XP box simply because of hardware issues. It's only really used for older games, and barely gets online.
If you want to install x64 Windows 7, it mandates having signed drivers. There doesn't seem to be a way of getting around it. So this means my Adaptec SCSI card, despite having Windows 7 and Vista drivers, won't install because Adaptec understandably didn't want to fork out $$$ for driver signing on legacy hardware.
If it becomes a problem , I'll probably just install 32 bit Windows 7 (which doesn't require driver signing), but that means giving up extra RAM. 7 in any form also means giving up a loyal but ancient colour laser printer.
You've got to love an OS that arbitrarily dictates terms to you..
The most obvious advice I'd give is *don't log in as admin*. You can escalate permissions just fine in most scenarios, though it isn't as seamless as 7/Vista UAC.
(Score: 5, Informative) by damnbunni on Wednesday March 05 2014, @10:38AM
I have unsigned drivers installed in Win7/64 bit. There's a bit of command line hackery involved, but nothing too terrible.
Open a command line as admin, and:
bcdedit -set loadoptions DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit -set TESTSIGNING ON
If you don't want to be bothered with the CLI, there's also a program called EasyBCD that has a tickbox in its 'Advanced' section to disable the driver signature check.
(Score: 2) by gallondr00nk on Wednesday March 05 2014, @11:02AM
Indeed, I've used the method on other machines. The trouble is I believe it needs a reboot, which is out of the question on the installation DVD.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 05 2014, @06:59PM
I remember when windows admins used to make fun of how unintuitive and complicated linux admin work was, especially the command line access. The times certainly change.