In reply to a post by Pipexer:

That's the one Apologies all - nothing worse than someone coming along and repeating already given advice!

I'm more guilty than most when it comes to missing bits in threads!

In reply to a post by 4M2:

Actually I've never understood why autorun should be considered a vulnerability?

It gives more attack surface, I wouldn't argue against that, but I think it's questionable whether it needs disabling on a home users PC.

Unfortunately we have people on earth who use a computer and rely on autoplay to do anything, they do not have the technical competancy to click Start > Computer and do their right click or whatever from there.

This is what happens when you dumb down computers, the users funnel their knowledge into a routine and can't break out of it when they need to do something slightly different or when something stops working automatically.

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

..... Ah, of course, the nonsense value-add stuff they put in, I should have guessed....

Actually, it can be quite useful. The user isn't forced to accept the results.

I'm still of the old fashioned view that an antivirus program is there to detect viruses, not act as a firewall or modify the behaviour of the OS in an attempt to make it more secure. These should be called other things.

Of course, I am aware they now call themselves "Internet Security Suites" and all sorts of other stuff, but if I didn't know better it all gets bolted on and mangled into the code of the core product, detracting away from the quality of the antivirus engine and making the program much more inefficient at its core task.

Users generally press the "Yes" or "OK" button when it comes to anything related to security, which is why fake antivirus is so good at getting on machines

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

..... but I think it's questionable whether it needs disabling on a home users PC....

Many users employ pen drives to transfer photos etc from friends machines and these may well be infected. This is why "autorun viruses" became so effective.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

..... This is what happens when you dumb down computers, the users funnel their knowledge into a routine and can't break out of it when they need to do something slightly different or when something stops working automatically.

I fully agree but ease of use is a must to drive popularity amongst technophobes. This in turn drives down prices which is good for us.
As they say..... It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

In defence of Kaspersky, by default, it does offer to scan just about anything plugged into the machine which may be useful for those potentially infected pen drives etc. whether autoplay is enabled or not�

I do like autoplay for legit DVD videos though - works just like a stand alone DVD player

In reply to a post by 4M2:

In defence of Kaspersky, by default, it does offer to scan just about anything plugged into the machine which may be useful for those potentially infected pen drives etc. whether autoplay is enabled or not�

I've used Kaspersky since, IIRC, ver3. It was the only effective remedy to both clean and defend against CIH at the time. In some circles, it was claimed that KL created and released CIH in order to gain entry into the market!

I've been looking for a suitable replacement as i don't like the way it's been heading into the "complete suite" format but so far, nothing comes close to it for me. Luckily, there are workarounds that force the installer to what I want rather than what they want.

Edited by Deadbeat (Sat 28-Apr-12 18:47:49)

It's a pig of a thing sometimes when one tries to install an unknown app though - the damn thing allows a partial install that can be very tricky to clean out. Several times I've had to disable it, fully install the "unknown app", uninstall the "unknown app" and then re-enable it....I always forget to go to: Application Control > For unknown applications > Move to the following group automatically > Low Restricted.

I'm still wondering though why WMP plays the first audio file that is placed in my burn list. I have a feeling that this is a quirk of WMP and not really an Autoplay issue. When ripping tracks from a CD (legally, of course!) I get the option to play the CD as it is being ripped and I can turn this off if required. Nothing like that for burning files from other sources (e.g. Windows Explorer).

Sorry for the double post but it must be all meant. I've just discovered that my Dell comes with Roxio pre-installed. After almost 2 years I might now activate it and give it a go, although I expect there will be the odd update coming through after all that time.

I use Nero (Still versions 6 and 7) so can't say much about Roxio but I'm sure you'll find it a far better tool than WMP for burning. It's well worth your while sticking with dedicated burning software even if you have to spend some time finding your way around it. The advantages will soon become obvious.

Edited by Deadbeat (Sun 29-Apr-12 10:46:16)