| Author | Message | ||
     Mr_grumpy |
I've got 2 computers, an old Acer laptop running xp & this one running Vista, I had Avast installed on both but it was slowing the laptop so much, I've taken it out. I'm going to upgrade the RAM on it but wondered what you guys think. A PC doctor here says all the antivirus software is a total waste of time & money. I'm not going to buy a Mac or install linux or whatever, I'll be sticking with windows & probably upgrade this one to W7. Thoughts? | ||
| Froggy |
I don't run AV on most of my systems anymore, but on my main machine I run Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free and from Microsoft, and actually is pretty damn good. The best thing you can do for your security is to change your account from having administrative rights to a standard account. You can still use a separate administrator account for installing and removing programs, but for the other 99% of the time the standard account is fantastic, and will prevent you from getting infected. Infact, 86% of all security vulnerabilities are rendered null when you do this. | ||
| Hootowl |
"The best thing you can do for your security is to change your account from having administrative rights to a standard account" +1 | ||
| Fahren |
AVG free works well. Antimalwarebytes is a good, free download program that you should keep up-to-date and can root out pesky trojans and any such stuff that finds its way in. I, too, have heard good things about the free MS security package. Another good option is to have one machine that runs on the web, and another that never, I mean never, goes online, that you keep your work and other essential stuff on. It takes some jockeying of data back and forth sometimes with a flash stick, but takes the worries out of having your main work computer get infected. | ||
| Daggar |
MS Security Essentials is a great AV program. I use it at home, and have begun to switch the Windows boxes at work over to it. | ||
| Fahren |
At your suggestion, Froggy, I just went in and created an admin account on my pooter, and then went back and set my account as "limited user." I guess this means I have to switch users from time to time to do things like installing programs, but that sounds like no big deal. I have not been hit very often (knock on wood), but the last time was a trojan thingie that created "attacks" and then offered to sell me anti-virus software to "fix" the "attacks." Sly, viscious faulkers. The antimalwarebytes program cleaned it right up, though. | ||
| Rwven |
Microsoft Security Essentials http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ works great. It's free, it doesn't bog your system down, and it catches stuff that Norton and others miss including AdWare and SpyWare. I've paid for and used Norton, Computer Associates and McAfee but MSE is by far the best. | ||
| Froggy |
Not really, depending on your OS. In Windows XP, you can right click on a installer and pick "Run As", it will prompt you for the username/password of an admin account and then install like normal. On Vista and Win7, if you have the UAC prompts set to default, it will automatically ask for the admin credentials whenever you try and do something that needs rights, whether its deleting a system file, doing advanced stuff in the control panel, or installing a program. It is very rare that I ever need to hop into the real admin account. What I recommend is if you get a new computer or reinstall Windows, leave your account as an Admin account for a few days till you get settled in and get everything setup, then switch it to a standard account. This way its less of an inconvenience, as you will need the admin rights the most right at the beginning. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
I like Kaspersky, but I'm not very computer savvy. It catches a lot of crap from my junk emails that would have otherwise infected my pc with a keylogger, trojan, etc.. It's also designed to be low-pri when it scans, so you don't notice a decrease in performance when you're tryinig to do other stuff and it's doing a full scan in the background. It's like $50/year IIRC and comes with licenses for 3 different 'puters. | ||
| Josh_ |
Kaspersky is $15 for 3-user license pack from Amazon right now. | ||
| Aesquire |
The only one I can suggest is Eset. It's the only one I've found that can catch the last virus I had, it's easy to use, and has little impact on performance. It's not free after the trial, but it's worth it. Microsofts Essentials has good reviews. | ||
| Sirvait |
Microsoft is good for most things, Just remember to keep it updated. If you get a self propagating (adds an .exe file to the registry) trojan, then antiMalwareBytes is hard to beat. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Sounds like roughly the same thing I have with Ubuntu. If anything in the operating system is to be changed, there is a password dialog. So you can't accidentally mess up the system when you're intoxicated  It's a good general policy to use the computer as a non-admin. | ||
| Kyrocket |
+1 for MS Essentials. Haven't had any problems with it yet. | ||
| Froggy |
Yep, that is exactly what it is. Only difference is that on Linux you don't have the full admin rights by default. Windows is slowly getting there. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Thanks for the input. I'll give MSE a shot in place of the Avast to see how it goes. I'll keep you updated. Ta muchly. | ||
| Reepicheep |
MSE and AVG Free are both fairly effective and minimally disruptive. Running not as an admin helps also. |
