I've never run any anti-virus in my life too (>10 years of computing). I do agree that the user (human) is always the weakest link in security (and also in any other things). Even the best security feature can't prevent someone who doesn't have the basic security awareness and good computing habits from ruining their system (e.g. installing a program on the web from a porn site which says it can help you boost your internet to lightspeed).

What an OS can do is just to make it real hard for users to do stupid things and I believe Vista has done enough of it. There's a balance between flexibility and protection; many people have complained about the over-zealous method that Vista use to prevent users from doing things that potentially may harm their computer. However, although majority of us who read this blog finds it a hassle, it does help those who just started out and it sure make people more conscious about security (provided they don’t disable the feature).

Running an anti-virus software doesn’t mean you will be 100% safe. Based on Murphy’s Law, even the best anti-virus software in the world cannot covers all aspect of preventing something harmful from infesting your machine (especially in this world where “zero-day vulnerability” exist). Only by having good computing habits and being security conscious along with some hints/protection from the OS, you can win this game.

i stopped running anti-virus years ago so that i could get the speed. yes, i'm the "optimisation" kind of person. viruses are not really a problem to me as i do my ghost image every fortnightly. security wise as in leaked passwords won't really affect me much as i prefer not to do internet banking services.

most of the people who approach me to help them has the problem of spyware, startup items clutter. l

many of my friends complain to me saying "microsoft windows sucks" ( this is a quote, not my personal opinion ) because they always have to do a reinstallation every now and then due to spywares/slowdowns/errors. as stanley always emphasizes, its not microsoft fault that you download something using internet explorer and installed a virus/spyware

i personally have not done a clean install since sp2? i do my patching, registry cleaning, defrag, and other maintenance stuff reguarly. yes, the problem usually lies between the chair and the keyboard.

according to http://virus.gr, no anti-virus has 100% detection rate. there are so many bias reviews of anti-virus out there but i do trust this source.

I myself have only ever had 1 virus, and that was the CIH.W32 virus which was accidently included with the original Back Orifice 2K CD produced by CDC.   Luckily, they alerted everyone to the Virus and it was easily removed from my system.

I currently run Windows Live OneCare as an antivirus, but, I don't really use that functionality.  I mostly use OneCare for its other Backup and Performance Tuning, which saves me the hassle of manually scheduling each function.

And, although there are all those security prompts in Vista, I don't seem to mind them as much.  I also have to say, they have greatly improved since Beta 1 where you were prompted by Explorer every time you accessed stuff on the Desktop, or on the root drive.

I am also starting to educate people on the reasons to switch over to Vista, and currently the #1 selling point is the Parental Controls, especially for parents of Pre-teens who love the Web Tracking functionality.

I hope to have a copy of the RTM Version soon after release.