The minute you start expecting MS to start securing things is the minute that MS loses the one thing that got them where they are: ease of use. You can't expect people who bought their brand new blow-paq from Best Buy to understand how anything works. For them, it's to "surf the web" a bit and to email their college kids or some **** like that. Antivirus comes on the machine and it'll protect me forever, right? That's what they think. Updates are a foreign concept and the fact that MS integrates every ****ing thing into IE and OE/Outlook, that just makes it all the more easier for "virus writers" to globally **** companies and others by these ILOVEYOU and MyLife and others...

1: Set the autoupdate feature on the antivirus software so it does it transparently.
2: Use the scheduler, if not savvy enough, to schedule a weekly full scan and have it set so that it scans all incoming mail through OE/Outlook.
3: Have a software firewall installed and have someone who knows what they're doing set it up so that way nothing is missed.
4: Switch to Opera for the browser, and switch to Eudora or something else for email.

Or:

Switch to linux, woo!

Either way, all it would take is half a freaking hour for these dumbasses who claim "they don't have the time to learn all this stuff" when it's basic principles like "Don't open **** you didn't request and don't open **** that looks like it might be addressed to you". I've told my parents, both of which who know nothing but think they do, that the minute they get a virus, they get to take it to Best Buy for 85 bucks an hour for it to be fixed because I won't do it.