Mary Landesman, About.com's Guide to antivirus software, blogs about the incredibly dumb decision by Apple to make Windows 7 less secure by reimplementing a feature called autorun within iTunes. Autorun allows viruses to spread quickly over a network. Mary quite properly cautions anyone using Windows 7 to keep iTunes off their computer.

Come on Apple, change this immediately. You're constantly touting Mac's superiority over Windows in the security department -- yet you implement a change in Windows 7 that makes it less secure! Can you say hypocrisy?

Antivirus vendor Sophos writes in a blog entry that Windows 7 was vulnerable to eight out of 10 viruses it downloaded onto a computer.

The blogger's conclusion?

"Lesson learned? You still need to run anti-virus on Windows 7.

That's good advice. Although Windows 7 does come with Windows Firewall turned on by default, and User Account Control is set to a reasonable level, it's not enough in today's connected environment.

Microsoft, in its blog response to the findings, disagreed with some of Sophos' testing, and defended Windows 7's security:

"Windows 7 retains and refines the development processes, including going through the Security Development Lifecycle, and technologies that made Windows Vista the most secure Windows operating system ever released."

I think both companies make good points. The key thing to remember here is to use antivirus software on any version of Windows.

More good advice: bookmark About.com's antivirus site. Guide Mary Landesman is a true expert in this field, and will help you keep your computer safe from the bad guys.

If you're the type that likes to keep up with news on Windows 7 (my hand raised high in the air!), there's nothing like going directly to the source: Microsoft.

Fortunately, Microsoft is a very open company (yes, it's true) when it comes to releasing information on blogs. If you want to hear it from the horse's mouth, check out Microsoft's Windows 7 Team Blog. It's frequently updated, and has all kinds of interesting tidbits on various pieces of Windows 7, including what's coming in the near, and far, future.

Bookmark it if you want to follow it every day.

My mom asked me a question about Windows 7 the other day, and I imagine many folks are asking the same question, so I thought I'd reprint my answer.

She has a friend who's buying a new computer, and is wondering about whether or not to buy one with Windows 7 preinstalled. It's a legitimate question, since there are often problems with brand-new programs, especially something as complex as an operating system. And Microsoft has a reputation, deserved or not (in my opinion, partially deserved), for turning out buggy Version 1 software.  Here's what I told mom:

"Tell your friend that Windows 7 is a very good operating system. Even though it's only been out a couple of weeks, it's stable and easy to use. There's no need for her to fear about problems with it. It's better than the previous operating system, Windows Vista. In my opinion, she can order it with complete confidence."

I would offer you the same advice. Yes, there are some kinks that will have to be worked out. But buying  a new computer with Windows 7 on it is an easy choice. It works very well.