Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter]

New today at Windows Secrets:

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/kill-those-vista-and-win7-gadgets-now/

[huwyngr Norton Fighter]

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SendOfJive wrote:

New today at Windows Secrets:

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/kill-those-vista-and-win7-gadgets-now/

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Note the:  << Windows 7 kept gadgets but no longer required the Sidebar stage. >>

Does anyone know if Pushed data is any more difficult for a security application to monitor and deal with than the more normal Pulled data?

After all we get advertising pushed at us all the time so if as Windows Secrets seems to say it is the Push technology that is the weak spot ......

[Calls]

for what its worth, I ran the fix it last night. was a quick process. After restart sidebat gadgets were gone.
For me only had 5 Gadgets
Sticky pad
Clock
Calander
Local Weather
Norton Status

Bottom Icon tray has Norton Status and clock
Have a calander on the wall of the room we have PC in
Rarely used the "sticky note pad"
And always hot anyway where I live.

So disabling gadgets has really no impact for me.
Guess we'll find out what all the fuss is about on Friday

[Calls]

Just one other question related to this that I hope folks can enlighten me on.

so I ran the fix it to disable gadget.
1. Went to the microsoft page that had the fix it to disable gadgets/side bar
2. Clicked on the appropriate fixit

3. SAVED the fixit toll to my desktop

4. Scanned it with Norton just to be safe

5. Clicked it and THEN selected run (since I use a limited user account, I was required to put in the admin password)

But when I go back and read the intructions for the disable gadgets fix it tool, it says to click the tool, then select run, nothing saing you can save it to desktop first
My question, Since I saved it to the desktop first BEFORE running the tool, does that mess anything up as far as the function of the fix it to disable gadgets? I mean do I maybe miss some function of the fix it process because I saved it the desktop first rather than running it directly?

Also after running the fix it (and after rebooting), I deleted the fix it from my desktop. Is that ok?

[Lexus2456]

If your Gadgets are gone, you should be fine.

Almost all programs give the option to download or simply run at the time.  If you look under the Fix-IT buttons in the Notes section it gives the option to download the fix to a flash drive and use it on other computers.

FMI, What Windows version are you running - Vista or Win7?

[huwyngr Norton Fighter]

Calls,

If you like the analog clock, as I do, then since it gets its data from the system clock I can not envisage any reason why it should be any more of a risk to you than the system clock itself! I know that's where it gets its information from since the toolbox for it says so!

I would suspect the same to be true for the calendar which I also like since I don't have a day at a time one within view.

Other gadgets, like weather and exchange rates which I use, do take data pushed at them by the sources and my understanding of the potential weakness -- if the Windows Secrets article is correct -- is that pushed data is what concerns them (although why more than advertising I don't know) and that you could be persuaded to download an attractive gadget that was in fact a trojan .... just like anything else you might be persuaded to click on.

I think this is one big fuss about nothing .... andthe real ltruthmay be in what Microsoft says on their Gadgets page .... in preparation for Windows 8 we are not offering gadgets any more.

[Calls]

To Lexus-

So saving it to desktop first shouldn't be a problen, eh?

Also I use Vista Home premium 32 bit wth Vista SP 2

Besides the fact that side bar gadgets no longer load when I reboot, is there another easy way to check and make sure it is disabled?

[Calls]

huwyngr-
Thanks

Actually we ten to use the clock in the icon tray more. As I said, none of the gadgets we use were that important to us. so that made no real difference to disable them.
I do agree that this is probably more of a marketing ploy than a security issue though

[Lexus2456]

Calls,

I think you are being overly cautious - but

You could use the other Fit-It button to restore your Gadgets and Sidebar, then after ensuring that they work, use the Fix-It button to disable it in whatever way will ease your mind.

[huwyngr Norton Fighter]

I like an analog clock since it is much quicker to read!

There's been a lot of research on that but I ran into it head on many years ago when I got a Citroen GS car that had a digital speedometer and I hated the speedometer. You had to actually read and digest the numbers to know your speed whereas with an analog speedometer a flash glance and you know that if the needle is in a certain position you are OK!

Strange but true ... <g>