Is Windows 8 a very vulnerable OS?

[solkeher]

Hello, I recently installed Windows 8 on my custom built PC. I use it for gaming mostly, and installed my steam games along with software I have used in my windows 7 machine. Recently my windows 8 PC was giving me a lot of performance issues, it would suddenly freeze, slow down, and missing drivers.

I decided to do a virus scan with Norton Internet Security and the first startup files that were being scanned had interesting names such as "infostealer.snifula.b" and "backdoor.rustock.a" anyways, I have a bunch of screenshots of the "files" below. I did some research and most of this are viruses from the XP era.

They are old viruses prominent in that time... what I'm curious is as to why Norton is not detecting them as threats? I also used Windows Malicious Software removal tool and found nothing. I did the same with malwarebytes antimalware as well as AVG free... all of them found nothing.

Is windows 8 immune to this kind of viruses or the viruses are bypassing the anti-virus software? I'm very disappointed, my windows 7 machine has never been infected like my windows 8 machine... I'm thinking that windows 8 is just a very exploitable OS. I'm considering to downgrade to windows 7...

But it's interesting that most of this spyware and adware do things like change desktop background, and display crazy pop-up messages... something that has not happened. Everything seems normal in my windows 8 machine.

Below are the ridiculous amount of viruses in my windows 8 machine, all which go undetected by any antivirus software I install.

Any ideas on how to remove them without re-installing OS?

 

[jnewegger23]

Is it actually finding these? I believe it's just listing what the name of the virus being checked for is. Not that the virus is actually there. Where's you're screen shot showing how many threats found?
The number in the top line is the number of items scanned not the number of viruses found. I feel like I must really be misunderstanding you or you are stressing yourself out over a small misread which happens to some of even the smartest of us.


I have Windows 8.1 (originally 8 but now 8.1 after the free upgrade) with no problems and am running Norton with Malwarebytes (lifetime account)

 

[AznGOD]

I dont think norton internet security found a file named that. when norton runs scans, it shows names of viruses that it is searching for, THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT WAS FOUND

 

[solkeher]

Is it actually finding these? I believe it's just listing what the name of the virus being checked for is. Not that the virus is actually there. Where's you're screen shot showing how many threats found?
The number in the top line is the number of items scanned not the number of viruses found. I feel like I must really be misunderstanding you or you are stressing yourself out over a small misread which happens to some of even the smartest of us.


I have Windows 8.1 (originally 8 but now 8.1 after the free upgrade) with no problems and am running Norton with Malwarebytes (lifetime account)

I rerun Malware Bytes and found some adware program, just one with a very weird name... Anyways, you are right...!!

Thank you, lol... It is indeed checking for all of those viruses. I thought it was scanning those "files"

I freaked out because I saw the infostealer malware and I recently received an email from my bank telling me that my debit card had been compromised so I was being issued a new one. So I freaked out badly. Likewise my PC was just going crazy (which I still don't know what caused it to become unstable).

Thanks for the clarification, and excuse my ignorance! lol

 

[jnewegger23]

When we get stressed out we all are more prone to making mistakes. No worries here man. Glad we could help!

 

[unplanned bacon]

Your machine is fine, that's just what Norton is looking for, it's not what it's actually found. Norton does the exact same on my Windows 7 laptop