well i just reformatted my computer and guess what? my sister downloads a bunch of crap and i get a bunch of viruses and now the comp is running really slow. so what is the best virus scanner? another question i have is about memory, is there a way to "reformat" the memory after a fresh install or a clean up utility? i have run ad-aware se personal and spybot search and destroy and gotten rid of that stuff, but it is still running slow. if this should be in a different section my bad and thanks for the help any recommendations are welcomed. pillow
You might be able to get away with a system restore. Honestly, if you just reformatted, I'd say do it again and password protect your account. Create a guest account for her or something. Trend Micro provides decent antivirus protection. Also, Javacool Software's "Spyware Blaster" is on all my systems. While I'm not exactly sure about what it does, it's not like it's a system hog. What do you mean reformat the memory? Unless I'm mistaken, nothing remains in your ram after shutdown.
Symantec/Norton have the best definitions, but NOD32 is better at catching viruses in real-world situations. Anything else is just a waste of time. The best way to avoid them, though, is to get your sister to stop downloading crap. Have a look into ways of creating a limited account, and limiting what can be downloaded
Any PC expert will tell you that Norton is a pile of crap. McAffee is a really good anti virus, AVG free edition is rather good as well.
AVAST f-t-w, rock solid and it finds stuff Macfee never seems to come across. It has never once caused a problem and it always finds the viruses. It's active scanner is amazing. I would also recommend running windows deffender along side it, that *seems* to be very effective in my experience.
Symantec's virus definitions are the best in the business, the Norton software isnt great, and quite bloated, but the Symantec corporate software is excellent. McAffee has terrible in-the-wild detection Are you basing your post on what these "experts" have been telling you?
I had avast and swore by it until it let a nasty virus in. I've run free avg since and never had a problem. Horses for courses, I suppose.
Kaspersky! I'm so surprised that it hasn't been mentioned yet. Easily one of the best along with NOD32. Google a couple of reviews and you'll see.
Mr Tad, most people / "experts" find the home suit to be total bloatware that can in fact slow your PC down more than spyware etc... however I have to agree with you, SAV is awesome
Mcaffee isn't much better than Norton. Symantec, OTOH, is actually decent (not bloated to hell), but it's all corporate and expensive. I'd say NOD32 or AVG - the latter is free, but pretty good for free; the former has effectively zero negative impact on the system (whereas Norton and Mcaffee tend to slow systems by as much as 20%, if not more). Well, I'd say just don't do stupid things, or let other people do them. I haven't run an AV on my own system since the free trial expired on my old gateway laptop (and didn't run one before that) and it's never been an issue for me. What the heck is it that people always download to get this crap in the first place? I pir^H^H^Hacquire arguably-legal content all the time and don't have these problems, but then again if she's downloading stuff from limewire or something, well, that tends to be full of fake crap (bit-torrent for the win). I'd say reformat though before doing anything else. Once you get a virus, you really have no way of knowing what traces are left... AVs are only good to not get them in the first place, not so much getting rid of them. And then stick your sister in a limited-user account or something to that effect. Basically, change your [sister's] behavior, and it won't be a huge issue. But a lightweight AV such as NOD32 would probably be your best choice.
well i read some reviews and the best u can buy is F-secure but it costs a fair amount of money. i have used norton ever since my first computer but mcafee is quite nice too. nothing gives you full protection when you've got a little sister ( i can know). Limit her account agrassively. only let her do what u know is 100% safe and even then they screw things up so badly i can't even begin to repair the damage. i have become desperate over time. luckyly now she has her own computer so on less problem for me to worry about
I use both Trend Micro, and Antivir, and they dont slow my pc down, and again, not one virus, i made a simpler diagram to a freind of mine about virus scanners, ile do the basic basic version here today Worst: Norton McAfee Best: Trend Micro AVG Panda Antivir and others i cant be bothered to list Glad to be of service Sam This table was a simple simple simple diagram, and reflects my thoughts and the thoughts off all the students and leactures in my college class, (all 15 of them)
yea she claims its from itunes which is bull. ill look at nod 32 and a couple of others. and stuey u answered my second question. yes she has her own laptop but doesn't get that you can download itunes to it so she has to use mine and then download crap from limewire and random websites because shes not smart enough to realize that some things are viruses. ill talk to her more about it. thanks
I'm not trying to cause any arguements or anything, but I have been building, repairing and upgrading pc's for 11 years now. Everyone has their own opinions, I was mearly voicing mine. I've always found the McAfee scanner to be good if using p2p networks.
Come on now, smile... Your postcount tells you are still very new here... If you read a bit more, you'll start to appriciate Mister_Tad's jokes
