They’re called “essential” for a reason, Bill.
I’m not sure making the world a worse place for everyone just because some loser didn’t pay for Windows is a good idea… This is like a law that if someone steals they are no longer allowed to get vaccinations. Only in this alternate world, 80% of people steal, and so disease runs rampant.
I mean I feel Microsoft’s pain here. They experience more software theft than anyone else by a long shot. But in my opinion, every copy of windows should have up-to-date malware protection, period, because unprotected machines hurt everyone, not just the one using the machine. (Often, not the one using the machine at all really. Conficker, for instance, actually makes your computer more secure if I remember correctly. And then uses it to attack everyone else.)
This was in Vista. Is this still how it works in Windows 7?