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Unbloating Vista Could Be Security Risk
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-01-31
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A frustrated Windows Vista user who turns to the vLite application to shrink the OS can pick and choose components to remove, including the Windows Firewall.
 | | Unbloating Vista Could Be Security Risk |  |
A 15GB operating system may have a little more on the component side than it truly needs to run efficiently. Lots of people feel this way about Vista, especially Dino Nuhagic.
He developed vLite, a utility that permits customization of the Vista OS before installing it on a system. "This method is much cleaner, not to mention easier and more logical than doing it after installation on every reinstall," Nuhagic said on the vLite site.
Doing this is not for the faint of heart when it comes to technology issues. Being able to remove a component doesn't mean one should. Someone who decides to trust a router for protection and removes the Windows Firewall from a laptop installation could be in for a nasty surprise when connecting to another network that may be lacking in security for whatever reason.
The Windows Firewall arrived with Microsoft operating systems starting with XP. Before that, security pros and other prudent users had to add third party firewalls to Windows 2000 to safeguard against the OS attacks that were common for the period.
People may not realize this, but the shift from attacking Windows to attacking applications began when XP gained a place on thousands of personal computers. Though people could add firewalls to their systems before this, many did not. XP arrived with the firewall on by default.
It may feel right to remove some of Vista's excess. Gamers in particular will be heartened by Nuhagic's comment in Computerworld about putting Vista on a drastic diet:
Nuhagic didn't come right out and say it, but he hinted that he -- like more critical users and pundits -- thought Vista was bloated and could use some reducing. "To be frank, I don't need 90% of Windows. But that 10%, which guarantees that you can run [the] majority of games out there, is what is worth isolating."
To the power gamers who have been frustrated with Vista, vLite may look like an absolute must-have for their systems. Achieving speed at the expense of security should not be part of the process. Plenty of criminals would love to grab a gamer's login credentials, and losing one's virtual identity would be worse than a headshot in-game.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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