Gew wrote:
Mr. Arnold;1682503 Wrote:
If it's not broke, then you don't fix it.
I think we both know that is not always the case.

The saying above means you should leave the O/S alone in the area you're
messing with and not touch it, because it's not broke to begin with in
this case. So if it's not broke to begin with, then why are you trying
to fix it?

Eg. Windows XP was
most definitely not broken. It worked perfectly as landmark "Microsoft
standard OS", but _still_ the company started making modifications in
its behavior, thus the "new" Vista, hence the new W7. Not a perfect
symmetric comparison, but still, enthusiasts will always be aiming for
personal customizations et cetera.

You're mixing apples and oranges here. Windows XP was/is an open by
default O/S wide open to attack and lacking means of protecting itself,
until MS started hardening it somewhat with SP(s). One could and can do
anything he or she wants as an administrator or a program could do
anything it wanted running under the context of the user account on XP,
which was usually administrator.

Sure, one can harden XP to attack, but one had to know how to harden it
to attack, one must have the expertise to do so and most users the vast
majority of users don't have the expertise.

Many things implemented in Vista and Win 7 center around security and
the hardening of those O/S(s) to attack, to not allow anything to just
happen to the O/S based on user account permissions, not even the user
using the admin account or a program running under the context of a user
account can do what it wants with Vista or Win 7, not so with XP.
However, nothing is bulletproof either.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/11/nsa_microsoft_windows_7.html

You want to customized something, then further figure out how to harden
the Vista O/S to attack.

http://www.datasecuritypolicies.com/category/security-standards/windows-hardening-standard

You messing around with the Program Files directory, which is a
protected area on Vista and Win 7, unlike XP and is wide open on XP, is
suspect to say the least about it.