recommendation for antivirus software

[esantoro]

i have antimalware software installed but it is not enough. i need antivirus software. any recommendations? Kaspersky is a no go. killed comp two times in a row. Computer is barely working as.....i.....t..y..p..e....

thanks for the help

ed

[electrathon]

AVG is good, will not slow your computer like many more famous name programs and is free in the basic version.

[rdb]

My latest favorite is the free version of Avast. Auto updates itself, and has caught lots of stuff AVG didn't. Upgrading to the paid version wouldn't hoit, but not necessary. Integrates with email, and web browsers. (www. avast.com).

For a firewall, I use Comodo. Has heavy duty stuff for the nerds, and simple enough to run for those that ain't.

[Jordan]

If you are using microsoft products it has been my experience it will be a never ending ordeal and that changing to an open source operating system like Linux (free) will take care of 90% of the virus problems. Ubuntu Linux works pretty good for me, is easy to use and if you run it off the dvd you can try most of it out without installing it on your computer to see if you like it. Avast is an addon superduper virus killer (free). I don't use it though as avclam seems to work ok for now. There are copious amounts of software (free) available that will do everything ms and other windows programs will do and sometimes better after the learning curve. Then of course there is always a mac. which also has much less viral issues. Seems like ms attracts virus attacks like flies to the proverbial pile, guess it is the challenge of taking down the man!

[TwinOaks]

I'm running AVG8 on xp, and also have spybot (Search and Destroy). Between the two, I haven't had many problems.....except when I forgot to update and turn them on......don't ask.

[Luke Hatley]

I have had "PANDA" FOR THE PAST YEAR AND IT HAS WORKED PERFECT FOR ME.

[Suze]

I have the free Advast running on mine (just remember if you use this one you get to re-register every year - still free though)

Spyware guard

and Ad-Aware

works for me

[TwinOaks]

Something else occurred to me...

Several times I've had to 'clean out' all the files, cookies, etc. from the cache. (tools->internet options->delete browsing history.) This computer seems to get a little sluggish if I let it all build up too much. But before you do, make sure you remember all your passwords, b/c this will delete the cookies that say "here's my password".

Another thing to do is open the task manager and see what programs and processes are running. If you've got one or two programs using a huge amount of memory (that shouldn't be) those would be the place to start.

Possibly run a registry cleaner.

Maybe throw in a defrag once you get everything else done.

Edited June 1, 2009 by TwinOaks

[Denise]

Another thing to do is open the task manager and see what programs and processes are running. If you've got one or two programs using a huge amount of memory (that shouldn't be) those would be the place to start.

Possibly run a registry cleaner.

Could I have a step by step on what this means please? And please type s l o w l y.... Thanks!

[Spence]

I'm running XP with Avast and Adaware with the new Google Chrome browser. I love 'em all.

The Google Chrome has an option to remember all passwords and this is the first time I've used the option in any browser. I like it and Chrome is much faster than IE and a bit faster and much more stable than Firefox.

I used AVG for years and when it started missing stuff last year, I switched to Avast.

I'm a firm believer in "nothing is fully automatic" and Avast is no exception except for the multiple upgrades daily. I still run a full scan once a week, along with a defrag, whether I need it or not.

[MADMAX22]

Linux as mentioned is great if you know how to use it and it fits your requirements but alot of stuff is not supported on linux and running a vertual machine is not what I call support. Anyways as mentioned

STAY AWAY from the pron sites (spelled wrong for a reason), these are like floating std's when it comes to computers among other things.

Use avg/avast as these are great freeware programs but are not gonna be the only thing you need to do. A computer needs regular maintenance.

Get spy bot search and destroy, malware bytes, and CCleaner. These are great for removing junk, becareful with CCleaner as its a registry cleaner and you can fubar stuff. The others I run once a week on top of my avg that runs daily.

Clean out your old stuff occasionally, for windows its Disk Cleanup. Once you have done that defrag your harddrive once in a while also. The windows one works ok but there are others available that work better.

Also honestly yes you can run a windows install for a very long time but nothing runs fresher then a fresh install. I do it about once a year or so but I also have my operating system on its own segment of the harddrive which is a good idea if you can. I understand if you bought a premade computer this may be more difficult.

[esantoro]

Thanks for all the help. I had to do a fresh install of XP. Am currently running unprotected. Avast is installed but seems to be freezing my comp. I believe I need to upgrade to SP2.

I also like fresh installs of XP, but is there a way to do it without having to reinstall all your other programs, which is my current state?

Thanks again for the help.

ed

[Johanna]

Nope, if you do a clean install, you must put all your programs and customizations back. I run Kapersky on one computer, and the other two I run bare. You don't really need AV if you're a careful clicker and use webmail.

I do not think CCleaner is a good idea for less experienced users because you can really break things if you make a mistake. I don't dump temp files regularly, either. I do turn down the amount of space Vista and XP allocate for them, which makes them overwrite themselves sooner. 50MB seems to work fine. (Internet Tools> Options) I also reduce the space available for System Restore points, which leaves me with less of them, but remember they are cumulative so it's not necessary to have more than a couple dates.

You may want to consider finishing your install, adjusting all your settings and personalizations, add your programs then CLONE the drive. Next time you want to do clean up, back up your data and use your clone for a "clean install" without the bother of redoing everything.

Johanna

[TwinOaks]

Could I have a step by step on what this means please? And please type s l o w l y.... Thanks!

With XP, it's as simple as 'ctrl+alt+del' which brings up a prompt with several options such as 'shutdown', 'log off', lock computer, etc. One of the options is "task manager"; click on it. That will open a small window that shows tabs for Applications, Processes, Performance, and Networking. Selecting a tab shows what's going on, in real time. Selecting Apps. shows the currently running applications. Select Processes shows all the stuff that runs in the back ground, and the memory usage for each. For example: I'm currently using IE7 (on purpose for this explanation) and it's using 91,678K. SYSTEM is using a bit over 66K, and there's several things using mid-20sK- those are the security progs., and other little things that make the computer.....umm....compute. A few times (when I had a crisis because I'd forgotten to turn on the protection) I've had some nasties get in the system. Everything bogged down so I checked the task mgr. By checking what was running, I found a prog. I'd never seen using up a HUGE amount of mem. So I ended the process. It came back. Aha! There was the problem, so I shut down, fired it back up on a live disk (linux), found the file(s) aka BUG, removed a few lines from it to keep it from running, then restarted windows and ran the security progs. That cleaned it out.

Back on point....the task mgr. can let you see if something is eating up all the memory, whether it's a bug, or whether you forgot that you were compiling 3 million lines of code.... It's just a useful and easy way to see what's using memory, and how much of it.

Yes, this could have easily been typed at the beginning, but what fun would that be?

btw, after my little adventure, I found that I went around my elbow to get to my thumb. I know just enough about programming code to seriously wreck a computer on accident, so it's best to just get some good (free!) programs and have them run in the background, with daily scans, auto-updates, and make sure you have backups for your files in case you ever do what I did lose important data.

Edited June 3, 2009 by TwinOaks

[Johanna]

Go to the task manager by right clicking in the task bar and choosing "Task Manager" from the menu. If you are not sure what something is, you can Google it. Or, if you suspect you are infected, go to http://geekstogo.com and post on their forum. They have experts there who can look at your logs and tell you exactly what to do and why. Yes, I'm the "Johanna" there, too, and so is dsenette (the monkey).

Johanna

[TwinOaks]

"Go to the task manager by right clicking in the task bar and choosing "Task Manager" from the menu"

see, I told you I went around my elbow to get to my thumb.

[dickf]

I believe I need to upgrade to SP2.

You're right.

Just about any piece of updated software will require SP2. You should do this before you install anything - and, while you're at it, you may as well just get SP3, instead.

AVG is a decent free av program that's been around for a while. The people that say they have massive amounts of protection apps and that lots of antivirus programs didn't 'catch' certain things, are doing something wrong. You should never need more than a decent antivirus program with updates, and some routine monthly maintenance.

If I were to direct someone with little PC experience, I'd suggest AVG Free (http://www.avg.com/ ) and CCleaner ( http://www.ccleaner.com/ ). I'd also tell them to READ the readme's before tinkering with them. Bottom line is, if you don't go where you shouldn't, you won't have anything to worry about.

Or you could forget all of this crap and come over to the dark side with us Mac folks - we'd be happy to have ya!

[Denise]

Thanks Mike and Johanna. I did that and have 56 things running. Hmmm. I think I best follow the last advice given:

if you don't go where you shouldn't, you won't have anything to worry about.

[mooshi]

Best thing to do is go to www.download.com and look at the top ten. Most of the stuff there is free and I use those programs to fix problems all the time.

Mooshi

Edited October 21, 2009 by mooshi