Strickland, Jonathan. “How to Remove a Computer Virus.” 06 April 2009. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/how-to-tech/how-to-remove-computer-virus.htm> 11 May 2009.
it doesn’t specifically say that you are less likely to get viri if you run mac or linux, but at the same time, all of the instructions for removing computer viri from your system are specifically directed at windows users… 😉
if you run mac or linux, the probability that you’re going to have problems with viri are almost non-existent…
to me, it’s a clear choice: either run windoesn’t and keep backups and a PE disk around because you’re going to get infected, or run linux and don’t worry about it.
You can’t seriously scan a potentially infected machine except from a clean boot disk (i.e. PE, i.e. boot a fully-functional graphic-interface XP, with the most recent antivirus software and definitions and antimalware tools, from a CD). If the process of making PE disks was clear and well known, the whole malware thing would be one-tenth as IMPORTANT as it is right now.
A good PE disk will find MBR infectors, boot-sector infectors, rootkits and drivers as well as ordinary executable malware, and will remove everything that can be removed without reinstalling – and for that matter, you can fix registries and reinstall critical files from a PE disk without doing a complete reinstall… lots of stuff you couldn’t do from an infected Windows install.