Are You Ready?

Are things shaping up?

Go ahead - click it. You'll be taken to the MSDN home page. Where you can get the latest - and possibly last - beta of Microsoft Windows Vista. And then you can see if it brings clarity to your world. With all the strange things that are plaguing the other players in the industry, this might be all you can reasonably bank on.

But hold your horses: for even if this was a final release, are you reasonably sure Microsoft are going to protect you better than they've done before - that is to say protect you at all?

Or maybe you're one of those people who feel it's perfectly all right to throw money in the river for a computer system that should but does not protect you and then pay extra money - juice - for that protection?

If you think you're ready, then ask yourself the following questions. Note: ask yourself. This isn't a pop quiz - and there are no prizes beyond you maintaining your safety. So be honest in your answers.

• Are you reasonably acquainted with the security damage Windows has caused over the years?
• Do you think you have a 'ballpark figure' of how much damage was caused?
• What are the Microsoft programs that constitute the major attack vectors?
• Have you heard anything about Microsoft making these programs more secure?
• Have you heard anything about Microsoft making Windows itself more secure?
• If so, how would you evaluate those efforts?
• Do you have any idea of what a 'file system' is?
• If so, do you have any idea how one goes about securing a file system?
• Do you know the difference between Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer?
• Do you use Windows Explorer for a significant time every day?
• Do you know where your menu startup items reside on disk?
• Do you have even a rudimentary idea of where malware can hide on your Windows system?
• Do you know what the 'Registry' is?
• Have you ever used Microsoft's Registry editor?
• Do you feel comfortable navigating through the Registry?
• Do you know where your menu startup items reside in your Registry?

If you did not answer an honest unequivocal 'yes' to all the questions above, you should wait.