Anti-Virus... General Protection Software

Kensho

New Member
Hi everyone... This is my first of many posts to come... About two months ago I switched from Vipre to TotalAV. Within several weeks my system began to slow down significantly and eventually began to lock up completely to the point I needed to unplug my computer in order to restart. Over time this occurred more and more often. I did a search on google of the problem and one highly visited website highly recommended to install and run a program called "ReImage". Without looking into it further I installed and ran ReImage on a "Run one time" subscription. Everything seemed to be ok at first but days later the program began warning me I had this multiple problems and TotalAV began to have constant issues trying to get through the Firewall, when I never had the problem before... On and on... So like a fool, I paid for a one year subscription... Within minutes I received an email from TotalAV asking me for private information in order to activate my "ID Protection"... I contacted them and eventually discovered that TotalAV and ReImage are interconnected. When I did a further search on the problems I was experiencing with ReImage (excess system resources being used and annoying pop ups) I discovered dozens upon dozens of web pages warning to never use ReImage under any circumstances. I presented TotalAV with the information I discovered and they finally refunded my money... I'm sorry for the rant, I tried to make it short... Right now I'm without anti-virus and general resource and system utilities( I removed TotalAV and ReImage) Would anyone be willing to recommend dependable, comparable software? Something that will protect me and keep my system operating optimally? Thanks in advance... PeaCe...
 

_Pete_

Active Member
First and foremost stay away from dodgy websites. If you are a gamer you will be party to lots and lots of dodgy websites that put up patches, cheats etc etc. I am not a gamer and I only use Windows Defender, part of Windows 10 and Malwarebytes Free. I don't get viri and malware that cause me any problems that I know of. I run malwarebytes once a month and let it delete everything it picks up. Windows Defender is automatic. I also reinstall my computers once every six months. I only ever do a clean install. I never back up my whole hard drives only my personal files. Also do not think that any anti-virus software is 100 effective in spite of the sales hype. They are not and if you think about it how can they be. Unless the anti-virus writers are psychic, which they most definetly are not, they cannot possibly predict what the next virus will be. They can use predictive methods, or heurisitics as they call it, but we all know how innacurate predictions can be.
 

Kensho

New Member
First and foremost stay away from dodgy websites. If you are a gamer you will be party to lots and lots of dodgy websites that put up patches, cheats etc etc. I am not a gamer and I only use Windows Defender, part of Windows 10 and Malwarebytes Free. I don't get viri and malware that cause me any problems that I know of. I run malwarebytes once a month and let it delete everything it picks up. Windows Defender is automatic. I also reinstall my computers once every six months. I only ever do a clean install. I never back up my whole hard drives only my personal files. Also do not think that any anti-virus software is 100 effective in spite of the sales hype. They are not and if you think about it how can they be. Unless the anti-virus writers are psychic, which they most definetly are not, they cannot possibly predict what the next virus will be. They can use predictive methods, or heurisitics as they call it, but we all know how innacurate predictions can be.

Hi _Pete_.... Thanks for responding so quickly. I'm not a gamer... I'm using Windows 10 too, I'm sorry for not mentioning that. Years ago I became friends with a guy who did computer repair. At the time he had warned me that Windows Virus Protection and Fire Wall weren't reliable. He claimed that that was what caused my problems at the time.If you feel it's protecting you then I'll give it a shot and see what happens... I'm going to look into Malwarebytes right now... Thank You so much...
 

_Pete_

Active Member
Microsoft Security Essentials wasn't very good and Windows Defender was Microsft's anti malware effort back in the day. But Windows Defender is now Microsoft's Windows 10 anti virus program and is much improved. There is no viable anti malware program bundled with 10 so I use the free version of Malwarebytes. I think also my stratedgy of reinstalling my computers and not making full back ups helps as well but doing that does take time. Anyway it's the way I do it and it works for me but jjst because it works for me doesn't mean it will neccessarily work for you so if do try my way and it doesn't work don't come back and bite me.:D Good luck.
 

Kensho

New Member
Microsoft Security Essentials wasn't very good and Windows Defender was Microsft's anti malware effort back in the day. But Windows Defender is now Microsoft's Windows 10 anti virus program and is much improved. There is no viable anti malware program bundled with 10 so I use the free version of Malwarebytes. I think also my stratedgy of reinstalling my computers and not making full back ups helps as well but doing that does take time. Anyway it's the way I do it and it works for me but jjst because it works for me doesn't mean it will neccessarily work for you so if do try my way and it doesn't work don't come back and bite me.:D Good luck.

I'm going to give it a shot... I've already loaded Malwarebytes... Thanks so much for your help... Talk to U soon... Have a great week.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Any antivirus program will never catch 100 percent of things. Besides most are actually considered malware and virus programs won't catch it. Thats why you use Malwarebytes and Adwcleaner. I run the free version of Avast. I don't trust any MS antivirus software. You can also try Bitdefender free.
 

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
No signature-based anti-virus will catch polymorphic malware like ransomware. You need a sandbox environment for your browser. I highly recommend you check out Sandboxie for your browser. It's free and after about 30 days you'll get a nag screen every time you launch your browser. But it's a very small price to pay for free and great protection. I would then consider pairing that with Bitdefender Free. Yes, it's FREE! And has excellent protection. In fact, I've had it stop me from visiting malware laden sites and it will catch phish attacks. Bitdefender free is cloud-based and light wight. It won't use a crap ton of resources and isn't full of asinine useless bells and whistles. So far, Bitdefender is my anti-virus of choice. Malwarebytes is great for scanning your system, but I don't believe in EVER paying for malware protection. To me, that's like paying the mafia for a juice loan. Screw all that crap and forgetaboutit.

But I have to say that I've heard with Windows asinine 10, it seems to not like third-party malware protection. So if you run into issues it may be best just to use Microsoft's crap Defender and run Sandboxie.

I would always scan your downloads at Virus Total as well. And to create a backup plan. Buy yourself an external USB hard drive that is equal or greater in capacity then the HDD you have in your computer now. Then use AOMEI Backupper (which is also free) and clone your hard drive in your computer to the external hard drive. I do this on a periodic basis and store the external hard drive in a fire proof safe. Better safe than sorry. I'd hate to loss all my data. Happend to me once before when my drive kicked the bucket and I vowed never to have that happen ever again.

So there you go. Heed my advice.

Edit-

Let me also state that with E-mail you need to be extra careful with any E-mail that contains attachments and never click links in an E-mail you suspect as being spam or phish or speer E-mail. In fact, I report the few spam E-mails I get to the website spamcop and they will look at the source data and report it to the proper channels. You may be interested in this forum: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/
 
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