# Whose better



## FarmboyBill (Aug 19, 2005)

Noirton or McAfee?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Neither. Use Avast or AVG.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

FarmboyBill said:


> Noirton or McAfee?


You really don't want either of those.

My advice for antimalware has been the same for some time; you can see it here.


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## SWTXRancher_1975 (8 mo ago)

I try not to be too rude about it but 95% of protection in the world of PCs these days is down to individual behavior when it comes to Windows. All the 3rd party active monitoring tools have periods of good protection and bad protection but none will save you from yourself.

I used to run a shop back years ago where people would bring in their broke/infected systems. Dude has a laptop “his son” infected browsing for porn. Whatever, wipe it out and back in his hands for 120 bucks. He comes back the next week… well I obliterated the file system and he’s got it reinfected… I feel bad and let him out the door with a freebie just feeling bad for him.

he comes in the next week. Infected again…I installed Mint Linux as the default boot OS with Windows as a secondary. He gets home and is a bit confused about how to connect to the WiFi in Linux. Me: “I thought this was your sons laptop?”


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## 012345 (6 mo ago)

Been in IT for 23 years. AVG is a great option and you can still get it free. Free version works well enough for me.


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## Backroad Acres (5 mo ago)

Honestly, I wouldn't bother paying for either these days. Since Windows now includes "Microsoft Defender" for free and it just so happens to be pretty good too.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Backroad Acres said:


> Windows now includes "Microsoft Defender" for free and it just so happens to be pretty good too.


Yes, I've heard that from several people I trust. I have my own reasons to avoid Defender, but it should be fine for most Windows users.


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## SWTXRancher_1975 (8 mo ago)

Nevada said:


> Yes, I've heard that from several people I trust. I have my own reasons to avoid Defender, but it should be fine for most Windows users.


It’s on par with the others and seems to have the least performance impact on the system.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

SWTXRancher_1975 said:


> I try not to be too rude about it but 95% of protection in the world of PCs these days is down to individual behavior when it comes to Windows. All the 3rd party active monitoring tools have periods of good protection and bad protection but none will save you from yourself.
> 
> I used to run a shop back years ago where people would bring in their broke/infected systems. Dude has a laptop “his son” infected browsing for porn. Whatever, wipe it out and back in his hands for 120 bucks. He comes back the next week… well I obliterated the file system and he’s got it reinfected… I feel bad and let him out the door with a freebie just feeling bad for him.
> 
> he comes in the next week. Infected again…I installed Mint Linux as the default boot OS with Windows as a secondary. He gets home and is a bit confused about how to connect to the WiFi in Linux. Me: “I thought this was your sons laptop?”


LOL, so only linux users should access porn.... 

Seriously you want a locked down computer, boot from a live dvd. Nothing can write to that dvd unless its a rewriteable dvd. Its fixated and locked forever. And yes some modern live linux dvds can boot on a uefi system (I had never tried that until recently, since usually use a thumb drive to install operating system on uefi computers) though you will most likely have to make sure windows is fully shut down (if windows is installed) and not hibernating, and that secure boot is off. I am not sure on secure boot, some linux like Ubuntu can handle secure boot. Not sure if their demo-install dvd can though.


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## CC Pereira (9 mo ago)

HermitJohn said:


> LOL, so only linux users should access porn....
> 
> Seriously you want a locked down computer, boot from a live dvd. Nothing can write to that dvd unless its a rewriteable dvd. Its fixated and locked forever. And yes some modern live linux dvds can boot on a uefi system (I had never tried that until recently, since usually use a thumb drive to install operating system on uefi computers) though you will most likely have to make sure windows is fully shut down (if windows is installed) and not hibernating, and that secure boot is off. I am not sure on secure boot, some linux like Ubuntu can handle secure boot. Not sure if their demo-install dvd can though.


A long time ago, I used a Windows OS (95, 97, XP, XP Pro, 7), but was always very disappointed within about 2 years ... crappy security (malware, viruses, worms, etc.), $ (for the OS, upgrades, crappy security, and Office programs), and slows down to almost a screeching halt within 2 years. So I ditched Windows for Linux some time before Windows 8 was available, and have been very happy with the results and impressed with the many positive differences. Currently though, I am using a new PC that I just started using today, which has Windows 11 installed ... I like it better than all previous versions, so I decided to give it a chance, before sidestepping security, wiping the HD, and replacing Windows with Linux ... I think I will probably end up going back to a Linux OS, because so far I think I would still prefer Linux, but I'll give it more time to decide. I don't think I would want to deal with both Windows and Linux on the same PC though.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

CC Pereira said:


> I don't think I would want to deal with both Windows and Linux on the same PC though.


Why not? Dual-boot installation is automatic, and you can just ignore Windoze unless you need it for something.


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## SWTXRancher_1975 (8 mo ago)

HermitJohn said:


> LOL, so only linux users should access porn....


I gave the forum a condensed version. I went over how to sandbox a browser inside of Windows to make it 99.9% safer to browse those shady sites they were going to... Probably just clicking on the links/ads that are on the sides/banner. Anyways, they ignored that or forgot about it. Much harder to forget when in Linux... It's not immune per say but virtually nobody is trying to write exploits to target linux users in the same way.


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## CC Pereira (9 mo ago)

backwoodsman7 said:


> Why not? Dual-boot installation is automatic, and you can just ignore Windoze unless you need it for something.


IDK. I've never done it that way, and I don't like to waste HD space if I don't have to. Not saying there's anything really wrong with a dual boot thing, I just prefer not to. I've only been using Windows 11 for a couple of days now, and although I do like some features, there are some things I really don't like about it (such as for example, how nosy it is about my personal information, how much HD space it uses, etc.) ... I still prefer just Linux. Maybe it's just a personal preference thing.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

Most "virus" people get now are not virus but are malware and come in via the browsers. Browser defense is your best bet and staying away from bad sites. Clicking willy nilly on an ad, link or visiting sites a friends, friends, friend said was good. Blocking "ads" on your browser will help also as a lot of malware comes in on ads. 

The best defense to mailware/virus/ransome ware are good backups. FULL PC level backups, Offsite backup copies. Non connected disk to house your backups. 

Corporations as spending millions and millions to stop hackers from getting on your office PC and most are doing it by watching patters on the network. Patching systems EVERY month when patches come out (windows) or even more often on linux/chrome. We have a team of people that patch 50000 devices a month and still there are vulnerabilities that exist in systems. Corporations have teams of people who jobs are to watch for vulnerabilities, Test system for vulnerabilities.he biggest growing deptartments in IT are in information security. blocking ports except those that are needed for a function. block ports and only opening them when they are needed. I.E. only send a file from one computer to another at 3am, dont allow the port to be open any other time. 

Now much of that is hard to do in a home system and requires some technologies most people dont have the skill sets for but start with the easy things. Put a different password on every website. every function you use should have a different password. If your using the same password on more than a couple of services then your part of the problem. If you do any financial transactions on the web, make sure your using 2 factor authentication, make sure your going to the correct web site. I never save my financial web sites URLs. I type them in my hand every time to make sure they are the correct ones. Never click on links from financial web site emails. Always type the name in outside the email. 

Make sure you have your PC patched. If your running anything older than windows 10 upgrade it. Your just asking fro trouble.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

CC Pereira said:


> IDK. I've never done it that way, and I don't like to waste HD space if I don't have to. Not saying there's anything really wrong with a dual boot thing, I just prefer not to. I've only been using Windows 11 for a couple of days now, and although I do like some features, there are some things I really don't like about it (such as for example, how nosy it is about my personal information, how much HD space it uses, etc.) ... I still prefer just Linux. Maybe it's just a personal preference thing.


I rarely use windows and if you are same and dont want dual boot, go onto ebay and look for used SSD or even hard drive and move current windows install to that. There is freeware app called wintousb that can do this as usual versions windows cant natively, think now only the commercial version can do this natively. Once this is done you can boot windows from that usb drive. Put it in drawer and plug it in when you need windows. 

Though for linux still say live dvd way to go for maximum security. Some of current crop Puppy Linux give you the option to custom create your own bootable iso that is burnable to dvd. Meaning you choose the apps and even settings and they are there when you boot the dvd. Just saying, NOTHING can write to a fixated dvd. At very best it can make dvd unusable, but it cant write to it. Ultimate security.

And yea browser and email client (if you use one) probably usual weak points for virus or malware. Though downloading software etc from untrustworthy site, also not good. Nice thing about linux, most software available from an official repository without creating some special accout, though sometimes unfortunately you have add a third party repository. USE COMMON SENSE. Suppose compiling your own from source be the best but few people going to do that unless not available any other way.


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## RoBlaine (Mar 24, 2015)

I haven't used Windows since 2007 except for at work we used it with our building and machinery maintenance and refrigeration system access at a refrigerated food warehouse. What a joke! For accessing a large ammonia refrigeration system you'd think a company would nail security the best they could. They got infected at least twice where the IT crew had to shut the systems down for cleanup and who knows how many times when they handled the problems quietly.
Anyway, I got so fed up with an XP security update that wouldn't 'take' and repeatedly crashed my system and switched to Ubuntu cold turkey. I imported all my personal files from a MS backup and inside of two days I was back on a project of hardcoding a website for a blind association. If you make up your mind this is the way things are going to work, that's what's going to happen.
Now my wife was a different story. She's blind in one eye and has distorted vision in the other so her visual desktop settings are critical for her comfort. Well, she'd bought a brand new Vista in 2007 and wonderful MS updates reset her settings to default with nearly every update because MS knows best ... OK, she watched over my shoulder as I used Ubuntu because mainly my vocabulary had improved so much! She wanted to try that Linux 'stuff' too. I dual-booted her Vista with Ubuntu and set up her screen settings. That took some playing around because Ubuntu was brand new for both of us, but we got it nailed to her perfection. I showed her how to get to her personal files on the MS partition and away she went. MS updates messed up her Vista repeatedly and Ubuntu never changed one thing. Just about the turn of 2008 she told me that she hadn't used Vista for quite some time and didn't want it any more. I moved all her files from the MS partition to the Linux partition then gleefully removed the MS partition, updated grub and we haven't used MS in this house since.
In 2012 Ubuntu decided to use the Unity desktop and neither one of us liked it. We both shopped around and settled on Linux Mint Mate then later on we switched to Linux Mint Cinnamon. About a year ago my wife wanted to try Debian and she likes it. I was still on Linux Mint Cinnamon and updated to the new release a few weeks ago. It didn't set well on my Asus laptop so I tried Debian and I've stuck with it so far. It's good.
From everything I've heard lately about Windows Defender it's probably the way to go unless you use the hosts file to block ads and other unwanted websites, which I do since the hosts file works the same on MS, Linux, Mac and other OSs. Defender apparently throws a hissy fit because some viruses alter the hosts files and it sees ANY alteration of the hosts file as a violation. There seems to be no way to whitelist the hosts file in Defender. There seems to be no other problems using Defender.


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