Security is a process

...are such an amusing group of disillusioned elitists. same argument every time, slightly different spin. so i'll throw back the old, tired argument educated microsoft users use:any product that has the largest market share is going to be subject to people who can't stand how successful it is, and others who know how to social engineer exploits to their own gain.if linux or mac ever turn the tables and grab the market share that microsoft enjoys right now, the talented malware writers will develop crap that takes advantage of the many linux security holes that are constantly being patched.i've used machines that hadn't been patched in months, sometimes more than a year. either they hadn't been turned on, vm's that hadn't been updated, test machines, or just plain laziness. None of the machines I personally use, have ever gotten a virus or been compromised (assuming i was the only user). Basic user knowledge and wariness can prevent most users from having their computers taken over.

If you got a car in a similar condition to Windows it would be unsafe to drive.To make it safe you would need to locate a shop and get front and rear crumple zones added and side protection bars inserted into the doors. Then find another shop and get anti-skid, split system power brakes installed then a third shop would provide seat belts and air bags. Finally your brand new car could be used, more or less safely, on the road.But the next day before you took your car out to go to work or anywhere else you would need to visit 2 or 3 of the previous places where you had your car made safe to get the safety equipment updated. This would be necessary every day you took your car onto the road. Note that while driving down to the shops your car would still be somewhat unsafe. You would have to pay for the safety equipment which would come with updates for a limited time and when that time expired you would have to pay again.It would be possible to get a package deal with the original purchase of the car. Sometimes you might even be able to specify which brands of safety equipment was to be installed. But usually not,unless you got the car from a custom dealer. Most of the package would be free for a while. But would still need the daily trips to a shops to get the latest daily safety updates. You could keep going in for the updates until one day (soon) the tech would ask you to pay first, otherwise – no more updates. The package would also include a pile of stuff that you didn't need or want but it would come with the car and would be very difficult to get rid of in spite of much of it being of questionable quality and dubious utility. If you were a fleet owner you could get a much better deal regarding what packaged stuff came with your cars.The car maker would also come out with modifications which supposedly made your car safer; usually once every month. The design of these manufacturer's modifications would sometimes conflict with one (or more) of your existing safety packages so you would not be able to use your car without removing your seat belts or anti-skid brakes or what ever it clashed with. After a while one or the other supplier would make some modifications to what ever it was they supplied and you could have all your safety equipment working again. All of this stuff loaded down your car and made it run slowly so you got a car with a much bigger engine than you really needed and also a multi speed gearbox and traction control to offset the performance loss caused by the safety equipment. This of course separated you from more of your hard earned cash. It then used much more fuel than you could afford. Every so often the performance would deteriorate so much you would need to get it completely rebuilt to make it usable again.There would be no chance of you (or your agent) doing any real work on your car or the safety packages. There would be no useful manuals. If you tried to work on the safety packages this would void the (very questionable) warranties. If you tried to work on the car proper you would become liable to return the car to the supplier or at least junk it and could look forward to defending your freedom and/or whatever assets you possessed in a court of law.

And don't forget perhaps the worst of all ... running your machine as an admin when you're just surfing, checking email and running Office. Malware runs with the rights of the user logged in. If you have God rights, so does the virus.

I read a few weeks back from someone that Windows security is like trying to make a screen door waterproof. That how bad it is.