Anti-virus security software that’s right for you.

[vern]

14 minutes ago, Stavro said:

That was true during the public beta and first few months of release, but that hasn't been a problem for nearly two years.

it happened this summer. actually.

 

15 minutes ago, Stavro said:

porate environment is is typically best practice to keep auto-updates off, but this is countered by a very aggressive firewall and antivirus strategy. For any home user, any theoretical benefits of an errant driver upgrade is vastly outweighed by the protection against exploits that viruses and hackers are already using.

i guess some just want to be right about everything.  there's more then one way to view things.  I'm not wrong... if you want to view me as not right; i guess you have your opinion.

[Stavro]

14 minutes ago, vern said:

i guess some just want to be right about everything.  there's more then one way to view things.

 

The thread is about virus protection, and you advice is to disable the first line of defense against viruses...

 

If a particularly nasty virus comes along on your unpatched computer, your antivirus will do absolutely nothing, because the virus will work at the OS level rather than the software level where antivirus can detect problems.

[vern]

and i said not to install updates?  that's interesting.

 

[And_Ray]

On 10/7/2017 at 4:29 AM, vern said:

 

 

I'm not sure if you can tell microsoft to keep windows auto updated off other then keeping defender current.... if at all possible keeping windows not automaticlly installing stuff is nice;  but its kinda tough now adays....make sure your restore points are active.

 

7 hours ago, vern said:

and i said not to install updates?  that's interesting.

 

I'm pretty sure this was understood that it's better to not update your windows.

 

 

[vern]

sigh.

 

auto updates being turned off is not never updating.  its having control over your computer as to when it updates.  you all don't understand then i guess.  it use to be that you could choose optional installs.

 

why would you delay installing updates?  mostly for the bad driver issues that happen.

 

I'm really not prepared to have to defend myself every turn i make.  Its not bad advice.  just you all over react and don't understand.  besides it was said in passing and not really  an instruction of telling anyone what to do.

 

where in that sentence am i telling anyone what to do?  If you want auto updates on i'm not gonna go to your house and yell at you.

turning auto updates is like being apostate i guess.  church of microsoft....

[Stavro]

9 hours ago, vern said:

I'm really not prepared to have to defend myself every turn i make.  Its not bad advice.  just you all over react and don't understand.

 

I didn't say it was bad advice, it is indeed good advice when someone has intermittent driver issues, but it's not really the most relevant advice when looking for antivirus software.

 

Or to put it another way, if I asked about a more secure lock for my door because people were snooping around at night, and someone responded with advice to leave a spare key outside so I won't lock myself out, following that advice could potentially leave me less secure than I ever was with the old lock.

[EccentricM]

I use multiple anti viruses. Just to be safe. 

 

Windows Defender obviously comes with windows free. Avast free edition. I use the free version of Malwarebytes, Spybot search and destroy center free and C Cleaner free. 

 

WD and Avast are automatic. They defend on the go. Malwarebytes if paid is automatic, but I think the free version does defend automatically to a certain extent, but I do scans with it regularly. Spybot has no live protection if you use the free version, but it's very good at finding hard to spot problems and spyware and immunizing your browsers to them. I scan with it regularly and keep it updated.   C Cleaner deals with registry issues and fixes potential weaknesses in your browsers. 

Edited October 9, 2017 by EccentricM

[vern]

well. if you reread the original comment.  it was actually about leaving defender on auto updates as opposed to "microsoft" driver updates.

 

   and delaying a few hours or days for a security update probly in the long run won't hurt.

 

and those that have a hard time with the drivers were getting black screens where there was no video at all.  for a home user that would be pretty distressing.

[New World Explorer]

I have installed Malwarebytes and it made my computer unresponsive to the point that to open word document or email it took 20 min.

I removed Malwarebytes ... and immediately computer is back to normal fast response ...what I joke of a program (nobody will convince me otherwise)

STAY AWAY from it folks !

[And_Ray]

32 minutes ago, Gregexplore said:

I have installed Malwarebytes and it made my computer unresponsive to the point that to open word document or email it took 20 min.

I removed Malwarebytes ... and immediately computer is back to normal fast response ...what I joke of a program (nobody will convince me otherwise)

STAY AWAY from it folks !

Are you sure it wasn't scanning your computer? Because then it hits the CPU really hard.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

[New World Explorer]

2 minutes ago, And_Ray said:

Are you sure it wasn't scanning your computer? Because then it hits the CPU really hard.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

Hmmmm.. don't know but it is "exterminated" now ... too heavy for my taste. If that's the footprint then I don't want it

[And_Ray]

2 minutes ago, Gregexplore said:

Hmmmm.. don't know but it is "exterminated" now ... too heavy for my taste. If that's the footprint then I don't want it

100% CPU usage for about a minute to keep my computer user experience safe and pleasant? OH YEAH I'LL GO FOR IT!
And that's only when it scans your computer. With real-time protection, you don't even need a regular scan. Just once every few weeks... And real-time protection doesn't have any footprint at all.

 

P.S. I've seen more than enough real examples, in person, about what a malware can do to a computer. It basically blocks any normal usage of a computer. Black overlay on display, disabling internet connection by changing the proxy and disabling the option to change proxy for wan network, messing with the browser by opening dozen of tabs and ads.. and thats' just to name a few. 

All of those were brought back to normal by running a scan and clean with Malwarebytes.

Edited October 9, 2017 by And_Ray

[New World Explorer]

Just now, And_Ray said:

100% CPU usage for about a minute to keep my computer user experience safe and pleasant? OH YEAH I'LL GO FOR IT!

 

P.S. I've seen more than enough real examples, in person, about what a malware can do to a computer. It basically blocks any normal usage of a computer. Black overlay on display, disabling internet connection by changing the proxy and disabling the option to change proxy for wan network, messing with the browser by opening dozen of tabs and ads.. and thats' just to name a few. 

All of those were brought back to normal by running a scan and clean with Malwarebytes.

It wasn't a minute .. but 30 min of total "lock-down" of my computer... and this is the part that I don't understand. (I understand your point)

[And_Ray]

1 minute ago, Gregexplore said:

It wasn't a minute .. but 30 min of total "lock-down" of my computer... and this is the part that I don't understand. (I understand your point)

May i ask you your computer configuration? CPU and HDD would interest me the most. Do you have SSD?
It is weird behavior tho... It shouldn't be like this 

[New World Explorer]

Just now, And_Ray said:

May i ask you your computer configuration? CPU and HDD would interest me the most. Do you have SSD?
It is weird behavior tho... It shouldn't be like this 

Windows 7 64bit

SSD as primary drive

i7 intel processor (1 year old) dont know which generation etc

16gb RAM

I am too scared to re-install Malwarebytes now.

[And_Ray]

3 minutes ago, Gregexplore said:

Windows 7 64bit

SSD as primary drive

i7 intel processor (1 year old) dont know which generation etc

16gb RAM

I am too scared to re-install Malwarebytes now.

Your system is even better than mine. I Have i5 processor with 16 ram and an ssd. Just that i run on windows 10.
Wanna give it another try and we'll closely monitor whats happening?
I can connect with you via teamviewer or skype.

[New World Explorer]

12 minutes ago, And_Ray said:

Your system is even better than mine. I Have i5 processor with 16 ram and an ssd. Just that i run on windows 10.
Wanna give it another try and we'll closely monitor whats happening?
I can connect with you via teamviewer or skype.

Thanks for help ..but for now I'll give a rest (do not have time to play with computer..)

[vern]

Greg-  malwarebytes works great. 

1)   are your hard disks near full?  if they are near full there may not be a lot of space to work with and will makes things take longer.

2)  run a cleaner first to clear out temp folders.  Ccleaner or Wisecare365---- you could also use windows disk cleaner in Accessaries/systemtools/diskcleanup.  That should erase the fragmented 100's of thousands of bits from internet surfing that collects over time.

3)  You could be having a hardrive issue slowing things down:  try Crystaldiskinfo to see if your SMART has logged some issues.  also Hard Disk Sentinel has a short self-test that can check your mechanical drives function.  The SSD to my knowledge usually fails pretty suddenly if it goes like that.

4)  do a memory diagnostics test to see if your throwing out errors.  If you are then you want to do a memtest on one module at a time to see which one it is.

5) start/run: msconfig (press enter)  goto the startup tab and turn off every program you can run manually and know what it is.  will free up resources.
6) Adware Cleaner from bleeping.com can do a quick search.

7)  Norton Power eraser rootkit scan can do a quick check for viruses.

8)  after all that i would think malwarebytes would work a little faster.  try not doing a full system scan.  go into custom settings and try to ratchet down what it does in stages.

9) Revo uninstaller can find things aswell.  It can help you uninstall things and scans for left overs after.  just remember to check the boxes and delete them before going to the next page.

Edited October 9, 2017 by vern

[Qapla]

With almost any credible anti-virus software you install, the first thing it will/should do is a complete/total scan of your entire system - all drives and files. This can take some time, perhaps even an hour or two, depending on how many files it has to scan.

 

MalwareBytes does this - and it does it well. Whenever I install MB on a machine for the first time, I let it do that initial scan and walk away.

 

After the initial scan (and any cleaning it has to do), I have never seen MB drag a system performance down.

 

This initial scan that takes over the computer has been my experience with any good anti-virus software I have ever tried. If it didn't do an initial complete scan, I don't think I would trust such a program.

[Qapla]

 

My PC has

• AMD E-300 APU with Radeon(tn) HD Graphics 1.3 GHz
• 64-bit OS operating System, x64-based processor
• 4GB Ram (3.6 GB usable)
• 4 Hard Drives (one of them a 1TB USB drive)
• Windows 10 Home Edition

I have Malwarebytes installed on this PC and it does not drag it down. Believe me, if it did, I would know it. This is not the fastest PC for running Windows 10.

[New World Explorer]

I think I will give another try 

[NSSewer]

How can I increase the RAM on my computer? John I have about the same RAM and specs as you but want to increase to at least four RAM, how can this be done?

[EccentricM]

30 minutes ago, NSSewer said:

How can I increase the RAM on my computer? John I have about the same RAM and specs as you but want to increase to at least four RAM, how can this be done?

If you want more RAM on your PC you need to physically install it. RAM comes from RAM sticks. But you need to make sire your motherboard can handle it or even has the required slots. 

 

 

 

 

However, you may want to look into programs that will "free up RAM" so it can be put to better use in other areas and not used up by other processes. However there are some programs that "claim" to do this, but don't. 

 

I always go through my installed programs and make sure I uninstall ones that I never use and for boosting performance I use Razor Game Booster. It's free. When you enable it it disables all "unnecessary" programs to free up RAM. It's usually used by people who play games as they don't need all those other processes going on when they play. (Things like automatic updates,  miscellaneous processes and so on.) So if you're going to do something "RAM intensive" (playing games, watching HD videos and so on) and you don't want to lose performance, it's a great program. 

Edited October 28, 2017 by EccentricM

[New World Explorer]

35 minutes ago, NSSewer said:

How can I increase the RAM on my computer? John I have about the same RAM and specs as you but want to increase to at least four RAM, how can this be done?

It's the "slot" on your motherboard where you simply stick/insert compatible ram memory

[Qapla]

You need to check the stats on your MB. I would love to have more ram and I know how to do it - but, my MB cannot use any more than it currently has.