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[Data]

If you don’t know already Microsoft now have a free Anti Virus and Anti Spywear for Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Its called Microsoft Security Essentials

Somehow I think if anyone knows about windows and how to protect it its Microsoft. It runs very fast and takes little resources. Ive used it since I installed windows 7 on my PC. (Must be about 6 months)

Recently I had a call out to a PC that had a virus, it was using AVG but had got infected, normally I would spend a while finding the virus and use various tools to remove it but this time I thought I would try a new approach and it worked.

Uninstalled AVG, re-started the PC downloaded and installed Microsoft security essentials, scanned the computer, yes it found the virus and dealt with it.

I’m not saying its perfect because I don’t think any anti virus is but its free, fast and worth a try if you’re after a new anti virus.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/products/security-essentials

[Freddy]

Thanks, I am sure that will come in useful 

[Carl2]

  Thanks for putting the link in.  My experience with anti virus in the past has been they were poor.  One claimed this was malware not a virus therefore it's your problem,  Kaplisky, however spelled, seemed to be a hog, even windows Vista complained about it, little annoying to use.
  I'm using Norton 360 now and it seems pretty good, reasonably priced when on sale.
Carl2

[Data]

I notice on the MSE site it does say for your home PC, so business might not be aloud to use it, needs more looking in to.

A friend of mine that has his own IT Company will only use Norton 360, there was a time that Norton got very hungry for recourses and would choke a PC but 360 has improved a lot in that area.

When I build a PC for anyone these days I put MSE on them, to date nothing has got through. 

[Snowcrash]

I concur with Datahopa, have used a fair few and seen loads of anti virus/malware.
Though it does annoy me that I have to have it anyway. Ho-hum  >

I was using Norton a few years back but it got too clunky. The last 2 ver have been good though.
I then used AVG but now that has got clunky.
I now use MSE and it gets virus' and malware. Anything that annoys the user really. You must have legal ver. of windoze to DL it.
I still hate McAffee but haven't seen latest ver. and prob never will. 
I used to use Spybot but no longer need it with MSE and I really am not bothered with tracking cookies and I like the ones that allow me to log on without putting username/password in every time.
And failing the virus software not catching the virus, I manually rip 'em out. It takes hours and lots of checking the 'system32' folder and windoze settings. Seems to be my male friends clicking dodgy porn sites mostly.
What do you hate/love in the anti virus/malware world?

[Data]

Earlier in this topic I said that a friend was using Norton 360 for his IT company, well he was but has now ditched it and moved over to MSE, as the word spreads more and more are going to start using it.

I actually feel quite sad for the anti virus companies  , hmmm no maybe not.    

[Freddy]

I am using it now too, I think I already said.  My boot time has gone down as a result.  A lot of people reported that AVG slowed their boot time down, and I tend to agree.

MES is very simple to use too.

 

[Diesel]

Just swapped now, you're right, very simple to use.  I did find AVG "clunky" but off-set this due to the initial out-lay.

Let's hope that the software manufacturers take note!!!.

Spot on Data, many thanks .

[Data]

I edited your post Diesel and mended the broken emoticon, it wasn’t your fault that it didn’t work, was something to do with the site.

I do like the easy of use and the speed it runs at this MSE for that its excellent, and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration, I guess the real test is going to be how good it is at catching those nasties.

So far on the computers I’ve put it on, not just my own, its been pretty good, but I can report that one PC got some adware on somehow, really I blame the user for that he tends to click before he’s reads what’s on screen.

To stay well protected does take some common sense too. I’m sure you lot agree with that.   

[Diesel]

As I have teenagers who have access to my machine, whom know more now than I will ever know in my lifetime, apparantly, common sense doesn't rate very highly in thier dailey routine. Therefore, I need solid, dependable tools. Lets see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

[Data]

I had to fit a new hard drive to an XP machine for someone yesterday, while I was there I removed AVG, it was starting to nag the owner to buy it, so I put on MSE instead.

Then while I was copying 38GB of documents to the new drive MSE found 4 viruses, I wasn’t scanning the PC just copying files but it found the viruses and deleted them, they were all trojans that had sneaked in somehow.

Thumbs up to MSE 

[Freddy]

Nice 

[Data]

Something I have noticed about MSE, maybe you have too.

For some reason it doesn’t always up-date its self, every now and then I look through the windows up-dates and sitting in optional is “new definitions for MSE” why they are coming in as “optional” and not “important” I’m not sure.

I’ve seen this happen on more than one PC too, so if you haven’t already you might want to have a look in your windows up-dates under optional, see If you have any MSE ones waiting for you. 

[Freddy]

Thanks for the heads up, mine appear to be updating itself okay though.   

[Diesel]

No probs here either, however, when I open MSE I'm shown "up to date", if I then click manual update, it always seems to find a nice new shiny update. Overall, very pleased, MSE just gets on with the job quietly in the back-ground.

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