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If you're stupid, yes
If you are brain dead and do absolutely nothing to protect a PC running Windows XP (and other OS) hanging naked on the Internet, yes it will become infected.

With personal home routers going for $20 which offer firewall protection for every computer in the home, DHCP (yes that alien concept) services, Internet sharing, and saves you the trouble of using a PPPoE client to connect to your DSL provider, you have to be utterly stupid to run any computer on any operating system naked on the Internet. All you need to do is go to www.zone-h.org and see how many Linux machines, Windows machines, BSD, and even Mac get hacked.

If your point is that a PC can't survive for more than 12 minutes or 12 days or even 12 months, it may be great red meet with the ABMers but has no credibility with PC users. There are many Windows workstations and servers that have run without incident for many years even if they're on Windows NT 4.0. Instead of looking for a gotcha with these silly academic games of setting up a PC to fail from the start, what ever happened to that real challenge you were so eager to take up? The silence there is deafening.
Posted by: george_ou   Posted on: 07/21/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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If you're stupid, yes  george_ou | 07/21/05
How many people *really* do nothing to protect their PCs?  Zogg | 07/21/05
Being wrong and learning is not a bad thing  george_ou | 07/21/05
Except that your simple advice is too simple!  Zogg | 07/22/05
If you're in non-admin mode, spyware can't take root  george_ou | 07/22/05
But in non-admin mode, you have other problems.  Zogg | 07/22/05
Never seen that  george_ou | 07/22/05
True, it *might* be due to a bad driver...  Zogg | 07/22/05
Weird  toadlife | 07/22/05
Registry tweaks????  Zogg | 07/22/05
Sorry  toadlife | 07/22/05
And you just described 90% of home users..  Patrick Jones | 07/22/05
overbrained geeks  pesky_z | 07/22/05
Two things  IT Scion | 07/22/05
2 became 3  IT Scion | 07/22/05
faster to install new os...  pesky_z | 07/23/05
Ghost is much faster  george_ou | 07/23/05
Rock on George  tshinder@... | 07/25/05
Stupid people use Windows  IT-sys | 07/21/05
Linux is only used by competent people because only competent people can  george_ou | 07/21/05
Evolution in progress?  Sabz5150 | 07/21/05
Competent windows users don't get hacked either  george_ou | 07/21/05
Do you still scan for spyware regularly?  Zogg | 07/22/05
Yes, and I never find anything  george_ou | 07/22/05
Why limit it to IE and Outlook?  Real World | 07/22/05
runas on msi files  toadlife | 07/22/05
Re: Competent windows users don't get hacked either  ~1iota | 07/23/05
You think Linux would be easier?  george_ou | 07/25/05
Once you get past the installation, you mean?  Zogg | 07/26/05
Stupid people  toadlife | 07/21/05
Wrong again!  Sabz5150 | 07/21/05
What exactly was I wrong on?  toadlife | 07/22/05
Market share always the last refuge...  Sabz5150 | 07/22/05
Unlimited configurability?  quietLee | 07/22/05
WinNUKE?!  toadlife | 07/22/05
Time Will Tell  zack.manning@... | 08/01/05
time is money  ~doolittle~ | 07/22/05
stupid = uneducated  ~doolittle~ | 07/22/05
Perfectly reasonable  emcee_z | 07/21/05
better still  archnova79 | 07/21/05
I used to help my friends using Remote Assistance....  JoeMama_z | 07/21/05
Try OpenVNC  toadlife | 07/21/05
TightVNC for across internet  ~doolittle~ | 07/22/05
Whoops...I meant just "VNC"  toadlife | 07/22/05
Where are they doing this?  jorwell | 07/22/05
Me neither  murph_z ZDNet Moderator | 07/22/05
I believe power users can install software  ebrke | 07/22/05
The specific rights  Real World | 07/22/05
Power users can install software  ebrke | 07/22/05
Trashing PC's  brilang | 07/22/05
Jst wait until everyone moves to Windows Thin Client services!  HypnoToad | 07/22/05
already been done  ~doolittle~ | 07/22/05
Why shouldn't the computer work out of the box?  danson@... | 07/22/05
Was this an advertisement for Apple?  Jones0430 | 07/22/05
Point the blame at the right direction then  quietLee | 07/22/05
Safety is easy...common sense is hard.  IT Scion | 07/22/05
Car analogies do not work with software!  Patrick Jones | 07/22/05
to operate a motor vehicle, you need a license  ~doolittle~ | 07/23/05
You have made the victim into the criminal  Hugh Jass | 07/23/05
walking has no prereq's  ~doolittle~ | 07/23/05
ah - I see what you mean  ~doolittle~ | 07/23/05
No fines, just block their Internet until they comply  george_ou | 07/25/05
Technology was supposed to help, not hinder...  ordaj@... | 07/22/05
There are very few tech problems...  quietLee | 07/22/05
Disposing of PCs  Mark Miller | 07/23/05

What do you think?

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