PC anti-virus

[Big Aura]

Apols, but there's no proper sub-forum for this, so I think it sits best here (notwithstanding it's hardly a hi-fi or a/v issue!).

I bought my laptop with a McAfee package, which recently expired. Rather than spend £50 to renew it, I installed AVG 8 (for free) and had both software running in tandem (two anti-viruses are better than none being the logic). AVG recently up-graded to AVG 9, and as part of that it said "I see you have a rival programme - having two could cause problems and slow you computer down". Separately, every time I turn on the lappy McAfee pops up and warns me that it's out of date and needs urgent action (the action being to spend £50, which I'd rather not do!).

In short, should I put up with (and ignore) the pop-ups from McAfee or just delete it?
Cheers

 

[russ74]

Yep just uninstall McAfee & keep AVG, should resolve the "I see you have a rival programme" pop up too.

 

[Anonymous]

AVG is right, having two lots of antivirus running can cause problems though with McAfee having expired it won't be fully running so that's probably not an issue. I would think that a better reason for uninstalling McAfee would simply be that it's another background process eating up memory and processor time.

 

[Big Aura]

thanks - looks like it's goodbye McAfee

 

[manicm]

Just setup my aunt's new netbook - came with McAfee which is the most horrid thing under the sun - it chews memory.

I'm using Norton's plain AV 2009 (not the suites) - worth every cent - simple, effective and does not hog resources - their past few versions have been excellent.

 

[aliEnRIK]

make sure you use the MCAFEE REMOVAL TOOL else yull be leaving bits behind (And possibly creating more problems)

Id advise against AVG as version 9 has caused a lot of problems on some computers too

Free ones are AVAST or AVIRA (Or microsofts security essentials, but until I see concrete results I personally cant recommend it)

Kasperskys one of the best ones to pay for

Malwarebytes as a secondary scanner regardless of your main AV package

 

[Anonymous]

totally agree kaspersky is the one to go for and doesnt use up too much in the way of resources on your computer

i wouldnt compromise on antivirus software so would buy rather than use the free ones

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

Big Aura:thanks - looks like it's goodbye McAfee

The full Internet/AV package (3 users) for Kaspersky is half price at Play.com £25.00.

I also recommend it.

 

[Anonymous]

Ravey Gravey Davy:

Big Aura:thanks - looks like it's goodbye McAfee

The full Internet/AV package (3 users) for Kaspersky is half price at Play.com £25.00.

I also recommend it.

I'd second or third that. Every year I happen to buy the latest one which is normally much cheaper than renewing the existing licence. I also find Kaspersky to be much more resource-friendly that the Norton Internet Security package I used to run.

 

[RodhasGibson]

momo72:Ravey Gravey Davy:

Big Aura:thanks - looks like it's goodbye McAfee

The full Internet/AV package (3 users) for Kaspersky is half price at Play.com £25.00.

I also recommend it. I'd second or third that. Every year I happen to buy the latest one which is normally much cheaper than renewing the existing licence. I also find Kaspersky to be much more resource-friendly that the Norton Internet Security package I used to run.

Yep I do the same Kaspersky does it for me too.

 

[bigboss]

It's Norton Internet Security for me. Never had a virus in my computer in the past 13 years, & I've always used Norton. The latest version is lightning quick & does not eat your resources. It automatically scans your PC when idle, so you don't have to worry about remembering to scan. It's only £22.97 for 3 licenses on Amazon.

 

[margetti]

Another vote here for Kaspersky - £20 for 3 user license at amazon. Was previously running AVG but found it very resource hungry - had to kill any scans on older pc's if I wanted to use them at the same time the scan was running.

I did have to manually configure Kaspersky's firewall for remote desktop to work, which wasn't immediately intuitive, but that apart it works well - it also picked up a few things that AVG had missed over the past year or so.

 

[the record spot]

I'd watch out for AVG - I found it to be resource hungry and it had a detrimental affect on my laptop's performance which was restored once AVG was booted off. Used to be good, but not impressed with it now.

I use a firewall, check it out with Steve Gibson's Shields Up, Spybot, Ad-Aware, a couple of decent registry checkers, an "always on" registry scanner that detects any attempt to update it, Immunet Protect and Registry mechanic. Try out the free Microsoft Security Pack which you can download from their site. Never had a problem yet.

 

[bretty]

aliEnRIK:
make sure you use the MCAFEE REMOVAL TOOL else yull be leaving bits behind (And possibly creating more problems)

Id advise against AVG as version 9 has caused a lot of problems on some computers too

Free ones are AVAST or AVIRA (Or microsofts security essentials, but until I see concrete results I personally cant recommend it)

Kasperskys one of the best ones to pay for

Malwarebytes as a secondary scanner regardless of your main AV package

Hi,

I had a virus on my laptop recently. I knew I had one because when I went on google, when I clicked on a site, i was re-routed to about ten sites in less than a second.

I had 'Bullguard V8.5' (subscription), which i've had for years. It couldn't remove the virus, even with tech support.

I tried AVG (free) last week. It found 4 viruses, but couldn't remove them.

Then I tried 'Microsoft Security essentials' (Free) . A full scan found all four viruses and deleted them, no fuss. It slows the PC less than Bullguard too. Seriously easy to use, too.

I've previously paid for Norton, Mcaffee and most recently, Bullguard. I've found problems with them all. I'd defo recommend the Microsoft. Give it a go, it's free!

 

[GazzyP]

I would also recommend 'Microsoft Security Essentials' - I replaced AVG with it and it picked up a Trojan which hadnt been spotted before. It doesnt keep popping up like some of the others do - it just sits there and you can fortget about it.

I wouldnt recommend running two Anti-Virus programmes - they will interfere with each other and cause problems.

 

[ElectroMan]

If you're a Barclays customer, and use online banking, you can get Kaspersky with a year's licence, free!

 

[Anonymous]

we have 5 pc's/laptops in our home ... have been using the free Avast home edition for several years with no probs whatsoever ...

used to have Nortons, Then Kapersky (which is better than Nortons) ... they all do the same thing ....

Avast works well (and is for free) ... have never had a virus on any of our home pc's

 

[Anonymous]

I use Steganos and can't say I've had problems but then I am certainly no PC expert. Now that I've finished college the PC is just for i-Tunes and a bit of surfing. I was told Steganos is the online version of Kapersky can anyone confirm this.

It's up for renewal very soon. Should I ditch it and get one of the others mentioned?

 

[Anonymous]

ive tried a few , but settled on eset nod32 , you wouldnt even know it was there , and never had a virus , plus the computer runs very fast ...

 

[aliEnRIK]

maxflinn:ive tried a few , but settled on eset nod32 , you wouldnt even know it was there , and never had a virus , plus the computer runs very fast ...

Just so your aware ~ if you have the full suite the firewall is VERY bad. Youd be better switching it off and using the inbuilt windows one

If just the av then its fine

 

[Anonymous]

I have just taken a full version of avast off and am trying MSE as well.

Its free, it has better rating than paid for programs, and I think it placed number 2 for security.

Cant go wrong, most places are giving 4-5 stars.

 

[Anonymous]

Two tips for the price of one: slow boot up fix and disabling unwanted start-up programs (like McAfee or Norton):

If your Windoze PC is a bit, well, dozy, when booting up, try this:

Hit the start button.
Hit run
Type in MSCONFIG
A window will come up
Hit the Boot tab
Hit the Advanced Options tab
There's a tick box for Number of Processors
Make sure this is set to the number of processors in your PC, i.e. 1, 2 (dual core) or 4 (quad core)
Keep hitting the OK button until you're asked to reboot, then do that

By default Windoze only uses one core to boot up. This allows you to force it to use all the processors you have, speeding up the boot time.

You can also disable all the nasty pop-ups like Yahoo messenger, Microsoft NetMeeting, etc. that also slow the boot time using the Startup tab and unchecking all the appropriate boxes. Suggest you do this one at a time if you're unsure about which ones to switch off and not to switch off.

 

[scene]

Darren Heal:

You can also disable all the nasty pop-ups like Yahoo messenger, Microsoft NetMeeting, etc. that also slow the boot time using the Startup tab and unchecking all the appropriate boxes. Suggest you do this one at a time if you're unsure about which ones to switch off and not to switch off.

To further that, if you know what you're doing (or good at checking on the interweb) I would recommend SpybotSD (Spybot Search & Destroy) as well as a good Virus scanner. This will help keep your browser of choice free of unwanted garbage and it has an option (under Tools:System Startup) that allows you to disable update reminders, "Fast" launchers, etc. from any point in the startup.

BTW: I use Kaspersky as I found McAfee killed my machines and Norton was a nightmare, never had a problem.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Darren Heal:

Two tips for the price of one: slow boot up fix and disabling unwanted start-up programs (like McAfee or Norton):

Personally I detest Mcafee, and im certainly no fan of Norton either. But your advocating stopping the av's from starting up with windows? If there was a trojan trying to spread at boot up then that would pretty much guarantee it would be successful!

Not to mention the computers wide open to infection at ANY time

 

[Anonymous]

aliEnRIK:
maxflinn:ive tried a few , but settled on eset nod32 , you wouldnt even know it was there , and never had a virus , plus the computer runs very fast ...

Just so your aware ~ if you have the full suite the firewall is VERY bad. Youd be better switching it off and using the inbuilt windows one

If just the av then its fine
yea just the av , and its fine , cheers....