Quote Originally Posted by Akrion View Post
That's what happens when you make poor and/or uninformed decisions on what you download, install, and run on your computer. Neither your antivirus nor your browser will stand much of a chance from stopping a virus caused by you downloading and running an exe (though the antivirus may catch on at some point afterwards).
Dunno what antivirus you've been using, but mine (AVG) alerts me if something has a virus as soon as I download it (but before I run it).

Very first thing it does is it scans the whole file before I can even run it. If there was a virus/trojan/malware/adware in that, it'd warn me before I even have a chance to execute the file.

Not to mention, downloading a file is not the only way you can get viruses -- scripts on webpages are another popular source of infections. Even popular/trusted sites get hacked now-and-then; there was a couple days where a popular gaming forum site (ZAM.com) was hacked into, and scripts were loaded on their webpages to try and steal FFXI and WoW accounts from the users that frequented there. The virus was quickly discovered and gotten rid of in a few hours, and they had multiple "Seriously guys, get Firefox and AdBlock/NoScript, you'll be a lot safer against these kinds of attacks".

Me? I didn't get hit with the virus because my AdBlock/NoScript blocked it.

This leads me to....

The whole browser war with telling people which one they should use is completely detrimental to a user's -actual- safety, in my opinion. When most people say "IE sucks, Firefox is -much- safer!" they usually say it because that's what other people are saying, they don't actually have any understanding over exactly why it might be safer so it very well could be false or to nowhere near the extent that they're hyping it. The people that listen to this advice will likely not research it and simply assume the browser will keep them safe and thus relinquish responsibilty to their browser (and antivirus), unaware that their computer's security starts with them being able to make well informed decisions over what links they click or what they download. A great antivirus, browser, and firewall isn't going to do much to stop a password phishing scam, for example.
Some of the reasons why people love Firefox...

1). AdBlock/NoScript: These have got to be two of the most powerful tools for keeping you safe online. Last I checked (IE7-8), IE doesn't have anything like this. Or at least, I've never seen it. *shrug* But then I stopped using IE a long time ago.

2). Its installers/updaters are a lot faster/more stable. I remember last time my computer wanted to auto-install IE9. It took 5x longer for IE9 to download and install than installing Firefox straight out-of-the-box from scratch. Downloading and installing Firefox takes ~3min even on an older laptop. Downloading and installing IE9 takes much longer than that.

3). Last I checked (IE7-8), IE uses up a lot more system resources than Firefox.

And yes, when I tell people about IE vs Firefox, I tend to list these reasons. I also make it clear that they have to keep IE on their computer, as Windowsupdate.com requires it for some stupid reason. There are a few other websites that -require- it, but that's the only essential one I've ever come across.

In latest browser security tests IE9 scores highest. Also it's a good thing that it is automatically updated with system updates. Of course firefox has a good autoupdate now, too.
Is that with or without AdBlock/NoScript? Does IE allow plugins like that now too and/or have a similar function? If the answer is no, then IE isn't anywhere near Firefox in terms of security.

Of course Akrion is 100% right, that safety is an user issue and can only be helped by software, never solved.
Considering that this computer is meant for a teenage kid, having an antivirus and a browser set up properly by someone more knowledgeable means that the kid is less likely to come across a virus, especially when he downloads something and a big red "DON'T DO THIS" comes up on the screen as soon as he downloads it.

Now, obviously he could choose to ignore the AV warnings, but surely after this little episode, he will learn first-hand about viruses and stuff. I'll talk to his mother and tell her what happened to the computer (nasty virus infection, etc, etc) and politely tell her that she should teach her son about not downloading random crap from the internet.