Anti Virus Software......

[Bestwifeever]

We have McAfee through cable provider and it slows down our system unbelievably imho. Seems to use a ton of RAM and runs several processes when it's updating its definitions, looking to update, telling me it's updating, reminding me it needs to update, advising me that it's running a scheduled update, etc.--all of these all the time.

 

[Dawg52]

I
But if you're interested, for a small fee I'll update you weekly on whether or not it's safe to look at your portfolio balance...

I already know the answer to this.

 

[target2019]

AVG. Every system I've maintained that had Norton or McAffee eventually became a problem. Other a/v software mentioned in the thread all deserve a look.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Since I use Apple products , I have nothing to say about anti-virus software so I’ll go off-topic here and mention I knew the late George Norton when he was a family lawyer in Silicon Valley. Not sure if he retired early but his sideline really took off!

 

[Buckeye]

I like my Webroot.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

IIRC, Kaspersky is the AV in the ZoneAlarm security package

 

[kumquat]

Since I use Apple products , I have nothing to say about anti-virus software so I’ll go off-topic here and mention I knew the late George Norton when he was a family lawyer in Silicon Valley. Not sure if he retired early but his sideline really took off!

IIRC, the 'Norton' name comes from Peter Norton, an early developer for DOS who sold his company to Symantec. I'm sure he is FI, if not ER.

 

[charlie]

I started using Kapersky a couple of years ago after studying the
subject. It may be a case of the fox watching the hen house, however,
as this is a Russian based company.

Cheers,

charlie

 

[ziggy29]

AVG. Every system I've maintained that had Norton or McAffee eventually became a problem. Other a/v software mentioned in the thread all deserve a look.

Actually, the 2009 Norton products are pretty solid. They had been producing bloated junk that hogged the CPU until this year. But what I've seen of this year's product is pretty impressive.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Every system I've maintained that had Norton or McAffee eventually became a problem.

Me too.

 

[wallygator69]

crap cleaner

I highly recommend anyone with a PC look at ccleaner. It's not AV but I've used it for years helping friends and family with slow computers.

I've cleaned out more than 1 gig of crap (registry entries, temp files etc) on more than one occasion. It also will remove programs better than windows as it gets everything...

I've always downloaded it from file hippo without incident. Upper right hand corner has newest free version.

Download CCleaner 2.19.889 - FileHippo.com

ccleaner, Adaware SE and AVG and you pretty much have your bases covered.

W

 

[CuppaJoe]

IIRC, the 'Norton' name comes from Peter Norton, an early developer for DOS who sold his company to Symantec. I'm sure he is FI, if not ER.

No doubt Peter is FI! You're probably right, the program George developed was called "SupportTax" which is still going strong at West. I thought the guy at Symantec was his son, but I'm not so sure of that now.

 

[cantlogin]

I use Avast and Spybot. My experience with McAfee is that it's as bad as any virus I ever had. Norton isn't much better. I liked them more when they were still making Commandos.

You people are all delusional if you think any of this software will protect you from the swine flu.

 

[socca]

I use one computer as a dirty, always-connected, assumed compromised internet interface, and another computer as clean, never-connected, assumed uncompromised machine for getting work done. The two machines are connected by "sneakernet". Since my dirty machine is a Mac, I don't spend much time worrying about viruses, trojan horses, etc....

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

ccleaner is said to have been developed by a guy who was upset with all the crap that HP loaded onto their machines. My landlord has an HP and has been pulling his hair out. I wouldn't have one as a gift. I use ccleaner, too, by the way.

 

[CoolChange]

Just one more vote for AVG (free version). I have been using it years on my personal machines and have had much less trouble with it than with the Norton and McAffee nonsense on most of the corporate owned/maintained PC's that I have had.

AVG scans do take longer; but, I just schedule them for a time that I am not likely to be using my PC.

 

[Dawg52]

Just one more vote for AVG (free version). I have been using it years on my personal machines and have had much less trouble with it than with the Norton and McAffee nonsense on most of the corporate owned/maintained PC's that I have had.

AVG scans do take longer; but, I just schedule them for a time that I am not likely to be using my PC.

Dumb question. I have a laptop and when it's not in use, I simply close the top and it goes into a safe/sleep mode.(I think) I don't turn pc off. It won't run during this period, will it? I thought if you did have it scheduled during one of these periods, it would kick off when you opened it back up.

 

[KennyM]

This is a little off the subject, but is computor related. Recently, a break-in occurred and thieves using pass keys entered several offices in the L.A. area. Security cameras were disconnected, alarms bypassed, and pass keys used (inside job). The only items taken were computor hard drives. The story, www.dailynews.com/business/ci-1227643 has some interesting cautions for users to undertake. Just thought I'd pass it on. Hope someone might benefit. I, might also note, the security guard was called away when this occurred last weekend.

 

[KennyM]

The article is located in the business section.

 

[kumquat]

Dumb question. I have a laptop and when it's not in use, I simply close the top and it goes into a safe/sleep mode.(I think) I don't turn pc off. It won't run during this period, will it? I thought if you did have it scheduled during one of these periods, it would kick off when you opened it back up.

Just change your Power Options (in Control Panel) so that your computer never goes on standby or hibernates. Then it will run closed. You don't want it running on battery during this time, though.

 

[Dawg52]

Just change your Power Options (in Control Panel) so that your computer never goes on standby or hibernates. Then it will run closed. You don't want it running on battery during this time, though.

I looked and it does have 'never' flagged on system hibernate, but it shows hard disk is turned off after 20 minutes. Should that be 'never' as well? And I reset system standby for never as it was set for 25 minutes.

 

[Dawg52]

I looked and it does have 'never' flagged on system hibernate, but it shows hard disk is turned off after 20 minutes. Should that be 'never' as well? And I reset system standby for never as it was set for 25 minutes.

Well I set the scan for 3:00a.m. but it didn't run. And it started the scan as soon as I opened my laptop. I guess the hard disk needs to be set to never turned off. Any downside to doing this?

 

[kumquat]

Here are mine:

 

[Dawg52]

Here are mine:

Thanks. I'll change the hard disk to never and see what happens.

 

[CoolChange]

AVG Scans - Powering Down

Just an FYI: You can set up AVG (even the free version) to power down your PC after its scan completes. Here are the abbreviated instructions for doing this in the free version:

1) Edit your Scheduled scan
2) Click the How to scan tab
3) Click the Additional scan settings ... link
4) Check both the Shutdown computer upon scan completion and the Force shutdown if computer is locked boxes.

I no longer use this feature on any of my PC's; but, if I remember correctly, it does give you a warning message allowing you to skip the shutdown if you are actually working on the PC at the end of the scan. But, realistically, I generally stop or pause the scan while I am working anyway.