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Windows XP Myths

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zridling:
For the rest of us not switching to Vista the minute it hits the shelves, take a couple of minutes to skim XP Myths. Nice tips and well worth knowing when applying random tweaks to XP found throughout the web.

                 http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html


Sample:

/Prefetch:1 Switch Tweak

MYTH - "Adding the /Prefetch:1 Switch to the startup path of a program's shortcut will decrease the program's startup time."

REALITY - All it does is change your hash number - the OS is doing exactly the same thing it did before, and just saving the prefetch pages to a different file. It does not improve performance in any way. Ryan Myers of Microsoft's Windows Client Performance Team writes: "The /prefetch:# flag is looked at by the OS when we create the process - however, it has one (and only one) purpose. We add the passed number to the hash. Why? WMP is a multipurpose application and may do many different things. The DLLs and code that it touches will be very different when playing a WMV than when playing a DVD, or when ripping a CD, or when listening to a Shoutcast stream, or any of the other things that WMP can do. If we only had one hash for WMP, then the prefetch would only be correct for one such use having incorrect prefetch data would not be a fatal error - it'd just load pages into memory that'd never get used, and then get swapped back out to disk as soon as possible. Still, it's counterproductive. By specifying a /prefetch:# flag with a different number for each "mode" that WMP can do, each mode gets its own separate hash file, and thus we properly prefetch. (This behavior isn't specific to WMP - it does the same for any app.) This flag is looked at when we create the first thread in the process, but it is not removed by CreateProcess from the command line, so any app that chokes on unrecognized command line parameters will not work with it. This is why so many people notice that Kazaa and other apps crash or otherwise refuse to start when it's added. Of course, WMP knows that it may be there, and just silently ignores its existence. I suspect that the "add /prefetch:1 to make rocket go now" urban legend will never die, though."

mouser:
cool find.  8)

nudone:
fantastic. myth busting should be part of the everyday news reports - might reduce the stupidity of the planet. great to see a retort to all the needless xp tweaks (i think i can hear the cry of someone already declaring "tweak **** made my system quicker, so there" ).

jgpaiva:
I specially like this one:

Myth - "The Windows Platform has more Security Vulnerabilities than the Linux/Unix Platform"

Reality - "Between January 2005 and December 2005 there were 5198 reported vulnerabilities: 812 Windows operating system vulnerabilities; 2328 Unix/Linux operating vulnerabilities; and 2058 Multiple operating system vulnerabilities" - Source
-http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html
--- End quote ---

Josh:
I specially like this one:

Myth - "The Windows Platform has more Security Vulnerabilities than the Linux/Unix Platform"

Reality - "Between January 2005 and December 2005 there were 5198 reported vulnerabilities: 812 Windows operating system vulnerabilities; 2328 Unix/Linux operating vulnerabilities; and 2058 Multiple operating system vulnerabilities" - Source
-http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html
--- End quote ---
-jgpaiva (July 16, 2006, 06:20 AM)
--- End quote ---

I love that. People always assume that just because the windows vulnerabilities get more publicity (because it is a much more widely used platform) that there are more for windows. This is not the case. Its just we never hear "The linux kernel had a stack overflow, or DDoS vulnerability today" because the linux platform is not in the majority of use. I subscribe to the secunia, security focus, panda's oxygen, and several other mailing list's and I get to see just how many vulnerabilities come across the pipe. You'd be surprised how many more exploits exist for linux and its included software than do for windows.

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