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I'm not sure that I understand the slippery slope thing here. The UEFI is an independent panel. MS is on the panel, but they're just one voice; I don't imagine them all deciding to make all computer hardware Windows-only. They are basically like the hardware equivalent of SSL certificate publishers. Like f0dder said, Windows 8 certification requires that you be able to disable Secure Boot, and that certification is important to OEMs.

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It's just different, really. Windows has kept things relatively similar for 17 years, and it's hard to re-learn these things after so many years.

There's plenty of room for improvement, but Windows 8 is the first step for MS along the path to a new way of computing that was laid down by mobile devices. When tablets came around, they started changing how we compute, and it's likely that our desktop systems will be shrunk down into mobile devices at some point in the future, and more and more things will become connected and unified; Windows 8 just provides the framework for MS to keep up as the changes happen. I think that Windows 8 does a good job of balancing new and old; it's pretty easy once you get used to the charms bar and get the start screen customized the way that you want it. I'm actually thrilled to have a full-screen Start screen that gives me a nice clean and organized way to get at the multitude of apps that I install, and having my appointments, tasks, etc. on my start screen as live tiles.

I also think that people's attitude will change a bit when developers start making new and innovative apps. We've got new UI options, and I have no doubt that there will be some brilliant apps to enhance entertainment and productivity. I'm excited to see what Windows Blue will bring, too.

Just before Windows 8 I was starting to think about creating a more unified experience with my mobile devices, PC, HTPC, and so on with network and cloud apps, and when I first booted up Windows 8 my mind started reeling at the potential. I can't wait to see what the future brings!

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Accidents will happen, but until the average users are willing to take/accept responsibility for their actions/activities online, malware will always be a threat.  Instead folk on the Web want to rely upon third party software to protect them from their own folllies.  Kinda like a drunk driver not understanding why he got a DWI - he was just havin' fun.

When I was on CompuServe many moons ago, there was a guy - Ross Greentree or Greenberg, I think - who challenged virus writers to attack him.  (This was when Peter Norton (nice guy) and Ron McAfee (ego and bad attitude) and Phil Katz (ZIP format author - interesting story tied to that) were just getting started.)  He considered his protections to be superior.  It wasn't.  A lot of folk browsing today have Ross' attitude:  they can go anywhere because they are protected, so they don't have to exercise caution, just have fun - just like that guy with the DWI.

The willingly unaware will always be in danger, for, as Renegade said, "New threats will always emerge."
It's definitely too often overlooked that the person is an integral part of their security. It's just like any RL security: you need to lock your doors, don't park in a bad part of town if you don't have to, don't leave an expensive laptop alone in public spaces, and so on. Part of the problem is that there isn't much education on the matter, though. I've been recently thinking that AV software really should have a "product tour" when installed (like so many other apps) that shows the user what real alerts look like (as opposed to the fake AV popups and such), generally how it works, and things to look out for while using the computer.

With that said, this test was deeply flawed. They used VirusTotal, which does NOT give an accurate picture of how well the software protects the user (VirusTotal themselves state this -- they use the commandline scanner only, which often doesn't include things like heuristics, for starters; see HERE).

AV testing is also something that really requires that the tester be highly knowledgeable on the subject to get meaningful results. Even if they had done things right, though, they didn't use enough samples to be statistically significant. Lastly, it's true that simple file detection is not enough to keep a system protected, but there's more to antivirus software than simple file scanning.

There's a response article HERE.

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This should be really easy for anyone that knows about adding a small app to Windows explorer.

I use a Mac with Windows 7 (x64) in a VM for my work, and other people here use a mix of Macs and PCs. As such, network paths get sent by email, and sometimes they're Mac and sometimes they're Windows.

I would really like to be able to right-click and copy a path, and have it automatically convert them. All this really means is replacing forward-slashes with back-slashes, and vice versa.

So if I have \\share\directory, I'd like to be able to right-click and copy as //share/directory, and vice versa.

Thanks!

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I would :D

The server-client app would be preferable, for sure (for all of the obvious benefits, including the ones you stated), but I would be fine with the client-only as well. With that said, I'll leave it to you and your schedule and motivation :)


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