Security in Windows 7: Setup

PC Labs Security Analyst Neil J. Rubenking takes a look at the early beta of Windows 7 in the first of a four-part series about the state of security in Microsoft's next OS.

by Neil J. Rubenking.

Microsoft tells us that "Windows 7 improves security, reliability, and performance while helping to optimize PC management." That sounds good! Of course, the early press about Vista included a lot of security hype, too, and much of that went by the wayside as actual code started to appear. Still, the goals for Windows 7 sound a little less pie-in-the-sky than the Three Magical Pillars of Trusted Computing, or whatever it was supposed to be with Vista. To see if Windows 7 looks likelier to live up to its own PR, I loaded up a pre-beta of the OS to take a look at its security features. Note: Before doing so, I carefully made an image backup of the existing Vista installation so that I could escape from Windows 7 when finished—just in case.

Windows 7 is an important step forward (hopefully) for Microsoft, and security is a big part of that, so I'm going to take my time with this survey. It'll be broken into four parts. Today I'm looking at installation. In part two, I'll consider the supposed improvements to the UAC. For part three, I'll give the Windows 7 firewall a hard look, and, in part four, I'll consider the OS various security odds and ends and wrap up my overview.

Setup

My initial experience was encouraging. Installation was a breeze—it was barely different from the process in Vista. To my surprise, the installer gave me a Vista-style choice on enabling Automatic Updates. Hey, Microsoft! You work hard to publish important security patches every month. Windows 7 has already had one of its own (see Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB958644). But you still allow any superstitious lout to disable automatic installation of these patches based on fear and rumors. Why not just turn it on and leave it to the user to figure out how to turn it off? People already think Microsoft is autocratic; this little change wouldn't cause much of a ripple. Switching this update model from opt-in to opt-out would, in one simple step, rid the world of the literally millions of unpatched machines that succumb to every Web-based exploit and drive-by download. Well, once they had been upgraded to Windows 7, anyhow.

Solution Center
My newly installed Windows 7 quickly started grumbling about security. Specifically, it red-flagged the absence of an antivirus program. I guess the improved security in Windows 7 doesn't extend so far as to build in antivirus protection. On the other hand, given the pallid performance of the built-in Windows Defender antispyware against non-virus malware, maybe that's not such a bad thing.I clicked the antivirus warning, thinking to open the Security Center—but wait! Security Center is no more. It's now Solution Center. The old Security Center just monitored firewall and antivirus protection plus automatic updates. The new Solution Center does all that but also reports problems with spyware protection, Internet security, User Account Control, system maintenance, and more. (full Story)