Fully scanned for everything with adaware. Nothing on my PC other than a bunch of tracking cookies, which doesn't bother me one bit. If that's all I picked up in 5 years of unprotected web browsing, I'm pretty sure the threat is almost entirely imagined. By all means run your virus programs if they make you feel safe or if you engage in risky behavior, but please don't tell me I don't know what I'm doing. Now to uninstall adaware... I refuse to have anything sitting in my tray and/or running at startup other than system critical operations.

I go to those and I never get a virus because I have a mind. Did also you know that you can disable programs like adaware in MSCONFIG?

I'm not really sure what "I have a mind" means? I'm also sure you can go to shady sites and come out just fine. I have no interest in those sorts of sites and I have found from helping others with PC trouble that they tend to pick up problematic stuff much more often if they use those sorts of sites, especially those who frequent porn sites.

Anyway, sure I know how to disable programs, but if I'm not running the program I might as well just uninstall it. I just deleted a bunch of tracking cookies that will all be back in a few days anyway, so unless I intend to run the program all of the time to block them there is no point in keeping the program around (and I don't mind the tracking cookies one bit). By the time I choose to run it again it will be a new version anyway and I'll have to reinstall. I just ran it out of curiosity and to see if I was sitting here deluding myself into thinking my happy PC wasn't virus riddled and about to implode.

My only point with any of this is to say, mind your own PC. When someone asks for OS advice or upgrade advice feel free to offer, but don't ridicule people for the choices they make or the preferences they have. Plus I get really annoyed about fear-mongering. So, once again, everyone enjoy the PC setup that makes you happy. I hope that Yunipuma is able to run the game that he/she meets the minimum specs for without significant issues. I can say for certain that it's not an XP issue as I play the game for hours at a time and never once has it crashed on me. It also runs well on average settings on my older computer. If you meet the minimum specs on the package and you pay for the game you should be able to expect to run it without having to spend additional money on hardware upgrades.

That is because they do not know what they are doing. They agree to install X bullshit that pops up, because they are suggestible, possibly because they do not have a mind. What we have in your case is an example of "people who eat tend to have the possibility of gaining weight, therefore eating is bad." This is what may be called the idiot's solution to dieting. "I never get fat because I don't eat." and "I don't use the internet, therefore I don't get viruses." Very novel. I am sure they gave you top grade for that one in school.

It does not say on the meat package that I need to brush my teeth, therefore I should be able to eat without spending additional money on a toothbrush.

By your logic I could buy a Playstation 2 game and take it home to play it and find that it gives a message saying I actually need a PS3 to play it and that would be just fine. Just because it says it works on PS2 is obviously no reason for it to actually run without a hardware upgrade, right?

I'm not even really sure why you are arguing with me. My posts were in response to those who said that you need to "upgrade" XP asap as it's super unsafe and those who said that you can't avoid viruses if you are connected to the internet. I listed some things that could reduce the chance of getting viruses for the average user. I'm glad you aren't dumb enough to click on that stuff, but some people are. I never said you should not go to those sites or that you don't know how to use them safely. I simply stated that it helps that I never go to those sites. I don't avoid them because I'm afraid of them, I don't use them because I have no interest in those sorts of sites. Torrent downloads are inherently suspect if not virus scanned as anyone could add a virus to any executable you download there. Sure, it's not common, but it does happen.

What's wrong with torrent sites and emulation sites?
I'm using torrents in particular for getting the images of a new release of my OS, but also for other files if available. It saves traffic of the server, which is very nice imho.
Even if wine is no emulator... winehq.org is an emulation site I think. I don't see why using this should be a problem.

And NO, I didn't say that you have to upgrade. Read my post again if you want. I explained a way how to avoid most problems in using XP, even if the support just ended.