Virus crims_winning?

[G_Town]

Is Windows a Virus?

No, Windows is not a virus. Here's what viruses do:

    * They replicate quickly - okay, Windows does that.

    * Viruses use up valuable system resources, slowing down the system as they do so - okay, Windows does that.

    * Viruses will, from time to time, trash your hard disk - okay, Windows does that too.

    * Viruses are usually carried, unknown to the user, along with valuable programs and systems. Sigh... Windows does that, too.

    * Viruses will occasionally make the user suspect their system is too slow (see 2) and the user will buy new hardware. Yup, that's with Windows, too.

Until now it seems Windows is a virus but there are fundamental differences:Viruses are well supported by their authors, are running on most systems, their program code is fast, compact and efficient and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature.

So Windows is not a virus.

It's a bug.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

That is awesome G, where'd you get that?

[G_Town]

At my old job we had double doors that we could shut to cut the light (film days).
Anywho we plastered the doors with pro apple anti windows propaganda.

This was one of 'em.

[gnubler]

G Town, you get five stars! 

[G_Town]

Thank you thank you :embarrassed:

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

... and another 5 stars for that one... hilarious.

[Joe]

While we're at it, I vote for Microsoft Windows as being a virus as well.

Vista dosn't run well enough to be considered a virus. :lipsrsealed:

I have never seen Vista, but heard the nightmares, you "running" it Joe?

We have one PC at work running it and it sucks. It takes over 8 hours to copy a 100 mb file to the file server and that is not an exaggeration. Microsoft claims SP1 will fix all of it's problems and I've tried to install it at least 25 times. It gets right to 100% of stage 4 of 4 and then fails. Microsoft has no answers and won't reply to my emails anymore.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

While we're at it, I vote for Microsoft Windows as being a virus as well.

Vista dosn't run well enough to be considered a virus. :lipsrsealed:

I have never seen Vista, but heard the nightmares, you "running" it Joe?

We have one PC at work running it and it sucks. It takes over 8 hours to copy a 100 mb file to the file server and that is not an exaggeration. Microsoft claims SP1 will fix all of it's problems and I've tried to install it at least 25 times. It gets right to 100% of stage 4 of 4 and then fails. Microsoft has no answers and won't reply to my emails anymore.

I still haven't figured out if MicroSoft stands for Microscopic - Software, or a description of Bill's nether-regions. Some mysteries never get solved. Maybe Vista will be another.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Getting back to the virus thread, I came across this, and found it interesting...

http://www.enfocus.com/kb.php?id=981

[frailer]

point us to the interesting bit, DCS. The link just takes me to the Enfocus Home page, [but that might just be me].

[frailer]

point us to the interesting bit, DCS. The link just takes me to the Enfocus Home page, [but that might just be me].

S'orright...found it. Next step on...   Ah, Next Step, a brief diversion on Steve Jobs' return to glory...

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

No, when I click on the link I go to an Enfocus article about PDFs containing viruses. Oh-well, here it is...

Information: Can a PDF document contain a virus?

Question
Can a PDF document contain a virus?

The short answer is yes. Adobe Acrobat (the full version, not Adobe Acrobat Reader) is capable of embedding arbitrary documents or applications inside a PDF document.

That means that a malicious individual could embed an application that does damage when it is run. It also means that one can embed a virus inside a PDF document

The capability to embed documents or applications inside a PDF document has been around since Adobe Acrobat 4, and Adobe has long recognized that this feature could indeed be abused. As a precaution a quite severe error message is shown before any embedded document or application is opened.

To become infected by a virus embedded inside a PDF document, a user would have to do the following:

· Open the PDF document attached to an email message inside the full Adobe Acrobat – the free Adobe Acrobat Reader does not support embedded files and will not allow the virus to run).

· Double-click on the file attachment annotation inside the PDF document. This attachment cannot be run automatically – the user has to double-click on it before anything happens.

· Ignore the warning message shown by Adobe Acrobat. This warning message looks like the image below.

This is a quite complicated process, and as a result the risk of being infected by a virus inside a PDF document is relatively small.

Still, it is important to know that it is possible to embed dangerous applications inside a PDF document. And as always, it's important to be weary of attachments to email messages.

Solution
Removing the threat

Users of Enfocus PitStop Professional and Enfocus PitStop Server can remove all embedded files from a PDF document by running a simple Action List.

To download this Action List, click on the following link:: http://www.enfocus.com/files/actionliststlib/Remove%20Embedded%20Files.eal

Alternatively, users of Enfocus PitStop Professional, Enfocus PitStop Server and Enfocus Certify PDF can remove embedded files during preflight. To do this, they must preflight using a Preflight Profile that has the check for annotations (the last check on the "Varia" tab) set to "Remove" or "Remove and Log". Be aware that doing this will remove all annotations from your PDF documents, not just embedded file annotations.

[Slappy]

We have one PC at work running it and it sucks. It takes over 8 hours to copy a 100 mb file to the file server and that is not an exaggeration. Microsoft claims SP1 will fix all of it's problems and I've tried to install it at least 25 times. It gets right to 100% of stage 4 of 4 and then fails. Microsoft has no answers and won't reply to my emails anymore.

Yeah,I think the biggest "fix" is that crappy network speed issue. Seems like many people I'm reading about trying to patch are failing though. It's impossible to say why, with the millions of different environments Vista is running on right now. Just hit as many forums as you can that deal only with Windows, in hopes of finding an answer.

This is good though, the PeeCee I was given to run our variable jobs through (Darwin based) has Quark 6 on it, not that I'm using it. Well, I got this Symantec pop-up the other day, almost laughed myself out of the friggin' chair too:



Notice the file that's infected.  :laugh:

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

How appropriate. Gnubler said, "Quark is a virus." How true she was.