Msg: Re: WARNING! Re: DOS printing under VMware (v-DOS)

Many have said that Norton itself became malware years ago, in terms of how officious and intrusive it is, and other questionable behavior. (Like having to go to great tech lengths to pull it out by the roots when you want to remove or replace it, which is unacceptable.) I got off that train a long time ago. This reputation-based stuff seems bogus or ill-conceived to me: it would place under a cloud a whole lot of software I routinely use, which happens to be niche, much less well-known, or falling into certain categories. A lot of harmless things get flagged with false positives, too, such as video capture modules, network sniffers, etc. I'm talking about software I use regularly, with no ill effects.

I was using AVG free until they started having some issues, then, a couple years ago, switched to AVAST! Free, supplemented with a second program, Malwarebytes. (There is a new version of the latter out now, and I have not formed an opinion of it as yet.) AVAST! has a WebRep plugin that gives you info on site reputations, but it does not force your hand; you are free to assess it as you will.

  Jordan

   From: Harry Binswanger 
 To: xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 Sent: Tuesday, April 8, 2014 4:50 PM
 Subject: WARNING! Re: DOS printing under VMware (v-DOS)
  

Norton decided that VdosSetup.exe was malware and summarily deleted it.

More info from Norton:


Behavior

WS.Reputation.1 is a detection for files that have a low reputation score
based on analyzing data from Symantec's community of users and therefore
are
 likely to be security risks. Detections of this type are based on
Symantec's reputation-based security technology. Because this detection is
based on a reputation score, it does not represent a specific class of
threat like adware or spyware, but instead applies to all threat categories.

The reputation-based system uses "the wisdom of crowds" (Symantec's tens of
millions of end users) connected to cloud-based intelligence to compute a
reputation score for an application, and in the process identify malicious
software in an entirely new way beyond traditional signatures and
behavior-based detection techniques.

Antivirus Protection Dates

    * Initial Rapid Release version March 27, 2009
    * Latest Rapid
 Release version April 20, 2010 revision 025
    * Initial Daily Certified version March 27, 2009 revision 005
    * Latest Daily Certified version April 20, 2010 revision 024
    * Initial Weekly Certified release date April 1, 2009

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>In reply to my post to the VMware forums complaining about the
>inability (or at least the yet-to-be-solved difficulty) of printing
>from DOS under recent VMware, I got this reply:
>
> >If you want to run DOS (text mode) applications under Windows (32 or 64
> bit).
> >
> >Try the more direct and convenient way with
 vDos:
> >https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdos/?source=navbarhttp://sourceforge./http://sourceforge
> net/projects/vdos/.
> >
> >It won't take minutes to start a virtual XP with your application
> >ready to start..
> >
> >Less than a second, better experience and integration with the WIndows host.
>
>Apparently this system has been created for the benefit of
>WordPerfect/DOS users, and I don't see why it shouldn't work with
>Xy4, though perhaps not in graphics mode. The reported speed sounds
>interesting, and the author seems to know all about TAME:
>
>http://www.wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?35978-vDos-a-new-system-for-running-WPDOS-under-Windows
>
>I will definitely give this a try. And though I find that waiting for
>a VM to boot up is not onerous on recent fast hardware (a few seconds
>rather than a few minutes), it would be nice not to have go through
>the whole VM experience just for a DOS program.
>
>One thing that is cheering about this is though we have the feeling
>that there are very few of us out there, there appears to be a
>substantial community of diehard WordPerfect DOS users, and what
>benefits them will presumably
 benefit us.
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>
>In reply to my post to the VMware forums complaining about the inability
>(or at least the yet-to-be-solved difficulty) of printing from DOS under
>recent VMware, I got this reply:
>
>>If you want to run DOS (text mode) applications under Windows (32 or 64 bit).
>>
>>Try the more direct and convenient way with vDos:
>>https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdos/?source=navbarhttp://sourceforge.net/projects/vdos/.
>>
>>It won't take minutes to start a
 virtual XP with your application ready
>>to start..
>>
>>Less than a second, better experience and integration with the WIndows host.
>
>Apparently this system has been created for the benefit of WordPerfect/DOS
>users, and I don't see why it shouldn't work with Xy4, though perhaps not
>in graphics mode. The reported speed sounds interesting, and the author
>seems to know all about TAME:
>
>http://www.wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?35978-vDos-a-new-system-for-running-WPDOS-under-Windows
>
>
>I will definitely give this a try. And though I find that
 waiting for a VM
>to boot up is not onerous on recent fast hardware (a few seconds rather
>than a few minutes), it would be nice not to have go through the whole VM
>experience just for a DOS program.
>
>One thing that is cheering about this is though we have the feeling that
>there are very few of us out there, there appears to be a substantial
>community of diehard WordPerfect DOS users, and what benefits them will
>presumably benefit us.

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