Windows computers should never be used on any network without some kind of anti-virus protection. In the last few years, the worst exploits have been Javascript "drive-by" types which do not require any action on your part. You get infected simply by viewing the page. They primarily exploit flaws in Adobe products like Flash and Acrobat.
Personally, I deleted Acrobat a long time ago and started using Foxit reader instead. It's tough to get by on the modern web without Flash, but if you are not going to run AV protection, you need to delete Flash completely or you WILL be compromised eventually.
Most importantly, everyone (protected or not) needs to remember this:
YOUR HARD DRIVE IS FAILING RIGHT NOW!!! Hard drives are mechanical devices. They fail 100% of the time. It's just a matter of WHEN. In any batch from any manufacturer there is a certain percentage that fails within a few days or weeks. Another larger percent fail within 2-3 years. After that, you start approaching the point where you have a 50/50 chance of waking up on any given morning with a dead drive. Outboard drives are ridiculously cheap now and there is simply no excuse to not have one.
If you backup all your important data (and downloaded video files
) on a regular basis, you will certainly be inconvenienced by a hard drive failure or one of the many modern viruses that simply cannot be removed by normal methods, but you will not suffer catastrophic losses.
In summation, it's a nasty world out there on the world-wide-web and the inside of your computer is no picnic for your hardware either. BACKUP, BACKUP, AND BACKUP AGAIN!!!
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