My girlfriends' ol' fella runs Windows XP and I was trying to sell him the virtues of a good AV programme. He was told by a mate that XP already had its own AV programme and that because it was Microsoft, that it was better than anything else out there, plus it had its own automatic updates.

Does anybody have any objective views in this statement?

Yes.

It doesnt have an AV.

It has protection against silly billys who open attachments thru email. (that is, or so i remember, it doesnt let you open some kinds.)

What it does have is its own Firewall, which is basic in itself, but does prevent attacks and such, and i think traffic through known "hacked" ports, used by programs like SubSeven and BackOrifice.


But no, it doesnt have an AV.

As Condorstats explained, all XP has is filtering software in email to prevent downloading certain attachments like .EXE, .VBS etc as well as a built in firewall. These do NOT function as antivirus software.

1 in 6 emails is believed to be infected. That in addition to infected files and hostile code on webpages makes not having anitivirus software foolhardy.

Send your friend to

this thread for information about good av software.

He can also read the Security links thread.