Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

If you didn’t know, I was running an experiment for the month of May where I would run two Windows XP machines.  Neither one would have anti-virus or anti-spyware running.  One machine was dubbed “Win Idiot” and was used in a way an idiot would use their computer—clicking everything that popped up.  The other machine, “Cautious Windows,” is one of my personal machines where I only visit “safe” download sites and “safe” video sites.  Let’s see where we stand at the end of the experiment.

Win Idiot

I tried to be even more of an idiot than usual for this week.  I downloaded music from less than reputable sources, visited porn sites (for science, of course), and used the default search page in Internet Explorer 6.  Surely, something would happen here.

Using the Symantec Security Check (an online virus scanner), 21,541 files were scanned with zero infected files.  I also just installed Ad-Aware free to see if there was anything else on the system.  35 cookies, but nothing major.  Four weeks of acting dumb and still no viruses. 

Cautious Windows

If you’ve been following along, you know what you’re going to read here. 68,808 files scanned, zero infected files.

The moral of the story

I actually consulted friend of mine, an IT professional, before running this experiment and he offered lots of cautious advice and he seemed kind of freaked out at the concept.  Then again, he was probably used to lots of different computers being used by lots of different people and all kinds of who-knows-where-they-have-been USB drives. 

It is possible to run a system without anti-virus or anti-spyware running without ill effects.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check your system from time to time.  I’m pretty sure that if I kept running this experiment that it would only be a matter of time before I clicked the wrong thing.  Would I suggest this kind of setup for everyone?  No.  Can it be done?  Yes.

Curious about how the other weeks went? 
Part 1
Part 2
There was no week 3 update