Does the BIOS Virus Protection & Win XP really help?

[M. B.]

I am running Windows XP SP2 on a ASUS P4C800 Deluxe motherboard (Intel 875
Chipset with Award BIOS dated November 2004). My software virus protection
software is Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 5.0.

My question is this: I have have the Boot Sector Virus Protection inside my
motherboard's BIOS turned OFF. Will turning it ON give me any "further"
protection in general? Or might it actually have conflict problems with
Kaspersky and/or Windows XP SP2?

If turning it ON has benefits, what might they be? Will this only help to
protect the boot sector of the hard drive or will it do something else?

Thanks for the advice!

If anyone wants to see the motherboard and its features, its this one.
Please see pages 4-35 and 4-37 for the related material of this message:

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/P4C800/e1286_p4c800.pdf

 

[beb]

Boot sector virus protection enabled means you get a warning if it detects a
virus attempting to write to the boot sector. Enabling it won't protect you.
But it could cause some problems with certain software.

 

[Guest]

I would leave this option OFF. You'll forget about it, format the hard disk,
try to reinstall windows. The installation process will start failing
sending your brain to think of many evil thoughts. People may see this
option as an advantage. I believe it is more troublesome. Causes many
problems. I am waiting to see the advatages, maybe some1 can tell me

hope this kinda helps

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

My question is this: I have have the Boot Sector Virus Protection
inside my motherboard's BIOS turned OFF. Will turning it ON give me
any "further" protection in general? Or might it actually have
conflict problems with Kaspersky and/or Windows XP SP2?

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/set/advVirus-c.html

 

[Jonny]

There's two types. When enabled, older version simply won't allow writes to
the boot sector. Newer version senses "normal" writes and allows those.
Its okay to enable either after the OS is installed.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=125480&sd=RMVP

Am a little confused as some Award bios indicate mbr protection. Yet, some
say boot sector protection.

 

[Plato]

Boot sector virus protection enabled means you get a warning if it detects a
virus attempting to write to the boot sector. Enabling it won't protect you.

True. But "boot sector virus protection" has no idea what a virus is. It
only alerts you if ANYTHING is about to write to the boot sector. Which
includes a virus, among many other legitimate things.