*Gosh *what an awful computer night I had–first trying to work remotely; we have two remote-access programs at my office, and neither of them was working, so Patricia Medina’s obit went unsent to the media.
But I have a different aggravation to ask about. I have Avast anti-virus, and it’s always been pretty good. But it is expiring, and I cannot reinstall it! I paid for it, downloaded the little desk icon, and it keeps asking me to “insert license file,” which they are *supposed *to have e-mailed me but never did. Avast has no support: no telephone number to call, just an e-mail address (my two e-mails have gone unanswered), or “ask on Twitter or Facebook!” Fuck *that *noise.
So some guy on my commuter train told me Microsoft has a good anti-virus program, easy to install (I have a p.c., not a Mac). *Are *they any good, and installable by dim-witted little old ladies like myself?
Microsoft’s Security Essentials is very good, free, and unobtrusive (no annoying “Buy the full version!” messages, advertising, or promotional messages inserted into your emails). It performs at least as well as any other free security app. Here are some reviews.
Thanks–that’s what my commuter friend told me, but I wanted to hear it from you guys, too. I guess I go into my “start” system and uninstall any crap that’s already there first, and hope the evil viruses don’t attack me in that five-minute window?
Also gotta tell my credit-card company *not *to pay Avast. Bastards.
I can second the vote for MSE. I installed it when I was fighting an infestation, and it found things other programs did not. It runs unobtrusively now that my system is clean.
You can get it free here. It’ll clean all the random crap out of your computer, and the registry cleaner will take out bits left behind after programs are uninstalled. It might even make your computer run a wee bit faster.
Use Revo Uninstaller to do that uninstalling. It’s more effective, gets more of the leftovers, than you can do by manually uninstalling things. And it’s a free download. (Don’t buy their paid version. It’s not worth it for an average computer user. In fact, don’t pay for any security/anti-virus/protection software – the free ones are just as good for the average users.)
And about that five-minute window: download the stuff you want and save the files (don’t install). Then disconnect from the Internet entirely – physically unplug from your modem/router/whatever – and install those downloaded files. Only when you have your security programs installed & working should you re-connect to the Internet.
(During installing them, you may get warnings like ‘unable to check for latest version’ or ‘unable to connect to server’, etc. – ignore them for now, and complete the installation. Once your system is protected & connected back to the Internet, you can update them. Some will do it automatically, others you will have to find a ‘check for update’ function & manually start that.)
It seems that these recommendations are only for Windows. As it seems that the OP’s question has been answered, what good anti-virus programs are there for macs?
There are some great (and FREE) antivirus programs out there, but the notion that having just one (any one) is enough, is utter crap. Malware removal was almost exclusively what I did for a couple years.
I used to like Avast, until it became too annoying with upgrade requests. I have it on my Droid, but it never asks for shit. People used to tout AVG Free as a great anti-malware, but they also got really annoying for the free users. I have only once paid for an anti-vir software. That was when I saw a lifetime license for “Super Anti-spyware” for $20, Yes that is a legit program, and effective too.
That program runs nightly, and I keep up to date on Spybot immunization updates. I run Glary utilities once a week or so, and Win ASO reg optimizer too.
Malwarebytes is mainly there for a just in case. It’s VERY rare for it to find something that other software didn’t already. Combofix is there in case of a really big root kit emergency, as is GMER.
Norton, Trend Micro, and McAfee may have some clout, but I’ve seen every stinkin’ one of them miss something HUGE, which to me = FAIL.
CCleaner and Auslogics defrag are always on my PC cleanup list too, unless you have an SSD, in which case no defragging allowed.
My AVG subscription ran out yesterday. I had gotten rid of Norton a year ago because it was sucking so much CPU and IO that even the simplest task were stalling. AVG was supposed to be better and seemed to be, for a while, but sometimes my PC would stall for a few seconds. I suspected one of the dozen or so AVG processes that were running at all times but could not be sure. They sure did use a lot a IO, far more than all other work I did combined.
So I uninstalled AVG and installed Microsoft Security last night. Very, very simple and it seems to be much less intrusive. Everything runs noticable faster, better than when I doubled my RAM. Its only been one day of course.
Looking at my AVG history, in a year it never found anything of any kind that it identified as a problem. So $60 (I think it was), hours of scanning and a year of headaches is what I got from AVG. The antivirus software WAS the virus.