# Anti virus software



## KandCfamilyfarm (Nov 4, 2017)

So what is the best free computer protection software for 2018?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

I use Avast Free, but I haven't tried alternative products recently. What I can say is that I'm satisfied with Avast.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

https://www.av-comparatives.org/

Avast consistently rates at or very near the top of this outfit's real-world tests. There are some other things I like about it as well, like the Boot-Time Scan, the ability to make a bootable rescue disk, and the fact that it's relatively light on resource use.

Whatever you use, don't use Norton. All the worst-infected machines I've ever seen were running Norton.


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## KandCfamilyfarm (Nov 4, 2017)

does Avast Free protect you from malware spyware and junk


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

KandCfamilyfarm said:


> does Avast Free protect you from malware spyware and junk


Yes. It's the only protection I use.


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## KandCfamilyfarm (Nov 4, 2017)

Nevada said:


> Yes. It's the only protection I use.


Thank you!!!!


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

AVAST is good, so is AVG - be careful though, they try to get you to use their paid version.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

KandCfamilyfarm said:


> does Avast Free protect you from malware spyware and junk


To verify that I have good malware coverage with Avast, I downloaded and installed Adaware to see what it finds. As you can see, after running with only Avast the Adaware scan came up clean.


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## KandCfamilyfarm (Nov 4, 2017)

Nevada said:


> To verify that I have good malware coverage with Avast, I downloaded and installed Adaware to see what it finds. As you can see, after running with only Avast the Adaware scan came up clean.


My system would fail if I tried to run two antivirus at the same time


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

KandCfamilyfarm said:


> My system would fail if I tried to run two antivirus at the same time


I just installed Adaware for a little while to test the effectiveness of Avast.


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## Pschmidt (Dec 31, 2017)

I have Avast, as well, almost 2 years now, no problems so far. Have also used Avira, free, before that since '08, and never had an issue, either. Not sure why I downloaded Avast over Avira on this pc, new pc and the names were similar maybe? Never had a problem with either program.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

I use VirusBarrier PLUS Malwarebytes even having a Mac there is bad things out there even for Macs. Ands after 10 years I am still nice and clean and just as fast as ever. LOL VirusBarrier I PAY for, and MB I use the Free version.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

I would like your opinion, Nevada and A Knight, on Malwarebytes. I had an old computer cleaned up lately and the fellows at the shop told me all I needed was Malwarebytes, which they installed for me. I have had AVG on this computer, and Norton---

Paid Norton for 4 computers, was able to install only three, would not sign up with them again. Especially since Kim K. wrote that the free versions of AVG, and one or two others I cannot recall, were all that were needed for email and simple web surfing. (old folks computing)


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Oxankle said:


> I would like your opinion, Nevada and A Knight, on Malwarebytes. I had an old computer cleaned up lately and the fellows at the shop told me all I needed was Malwarebytes, which they installed for me. I have had AVG on this computer, and Norton---
> 
> Paid Norton for 4 computers, was able to install only three, would not sign up with them again. Especially since Kim K. wrote that the free versions of AVG, and one or two others I cannot recall, were all that were needed for email and simple web surfing. (old folks computing)


Malwarebytes is good software. I use it to scan for malware sometimes.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

You didn't ask for my opinion but I'm going to chime in anyway. Keep in mind Malwarebytes is for malware, its not virus protection. It's very good at what it does.
Norton works, but why pay for something that you can get for free - either AVG or AVast that is just as good. Both will try to get you to use the pay version (so be careful when downloading) - its not needed for the average home user.

BTW Kim Kommando knows almost nothing about computers, she has a team that does the actual work and she just reads it. I have seen her team throw in something totally wrong in the past on her.


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## RoBlaine (Mar 24, 2015)

When I used Microsoft, I used ZoneAlarm for the firewall control, AVG free for antivirus and Malwarebytes for adware. Had very little trouble.
Since 2007 I've used Linux. Started with Ubuntu, then in '12 switched to Linux-Mint with the Mate desktop environment (style). My wife has looked over my shoulder the whole way and followed along. She also started with Vista and Ubuntu in a dual boot. After about two months she noticed that she hadn't used Vista for weeks, so I removed it. In just over 10 years using nothing but Linux, we haven't had one virus problem. The only maintenance chore we put up with are backups. There's no extended and troublesome updating, there's no defragging, there's no registry trouble and we haven't had any trouble outside of hardware. Trouble free!
My wife and I were both officers with a local chapter of the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind and had no problems doing our chores and keeping up with everyone else. We shared files, joined in video conferences, the whole deal. As for day to day use, again every bit better than Microsoft.
My honest recommendation, toss Microsoft unless there's some program you can't do without and there's no Linux alternative and check into Linux. There are the ones I've mentioned as well as several others like Elementary, Zorin and a few other user friendly distributions.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

mnn2501 said:


> BTW Kim Kommando knows almost nothing about computers, she has a team that does the actual work and she just reads it. I have seen her team throw in something totally wrong in the past on her.


The face of the message often enjoys the reputation.

This gives IT managers the reputation of being the person to ask about PC problems, and even about server problems. After all, the IT manager is in charge of the entire IT department, so he or she must know a lot about it. We're used to that, since the foreman in a welding shop typically knows more about welding than anyone else in the shop. But the attributes required of an IT manager don't necessarily require knowledge of PCs or servers.

IT managers often coordinate the largest budget in the building. The IT department not only owns the servers and network infrastructure, but also all of the PCs in the building and the phone system. To manage that magnitude of a budget, companies prefer someone with an advanced degree, but not necessarily in computer science. An MBA will do nicely, and any experience with computers is also helpful but not required.

But IT managers enjoy a reputation of being knowledgeable about computers. They usually know more computer jargon than most people from hanging around the computer technicians, so they often sound like they know about computers. People will even bring problem computers to IT managers directly. To cover up their lack of knowledge, the IT manager will claim that he is too busy to look it it right now, but if it's left win him he'll look at it when he has a chance. That gives the IT manager an opportunity to take the broken computer to a technician who knows how to diagnose and fix the problem. But the IT manager will eventually take credit for finding and fixing the problem.

Of course, an IT manager who knows virtually nothing about IT is fertile ground for a TV sitcom, and British TV jumped on it with a TV show called _The IT Crowd_. In that show the IT manager, Jen, manages computer techs Roy & Moss. Roy & Moss know what they're doing, but Jen is completely out of her element and has no patience to learn. Here's a clip of that show to illustrate what I mean.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

I use linux, take a lot of virus off the table.


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## RoBlaine (Mar 24, 2015)

I'm with 'Gary in Ohio'. My wife and I use Linux as I mentioned above, as well as some friends who've had their fill of Microsoft. No problems, no viruses with knowledgeable use, and it really is user friendly if you get the right distributions. You can't beat it.


Gary in ohio said:


> I use linux, take a lot of virus off the table.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

RoBlaine said:


> I'm with 'Gary in Ohio'. My wife and I use Linux as I mentioned above, as well as some friends who've had their fill of Microsoft. No problems, no viruses with knowledgeable use, and it really is user friendly if you get the right distributions. You can't beat it.


I just moved my 80 year old mom off of an windows and onto linux, Aside from a 5 minute tutorial on changes, task bar at side instead of bottom, she is very happy with linux. Saves me a lot of time cleanup and reloading your PC because of virus,malware.


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## RoBlaine (Mar 24, 2015)

Gary in ohio said:


> I just moved my 80 year old mom off of an windows and onto linux, Aside from a 5 minute tutorial on changes, task bar at side instead of bottom, she is very happy with linux. Saves me a lot of time cleanup and reloading your PC because of virus,malware.


My wife and I are in our 60s, so of course 10 years ago when we started our Linux journey in our 50s, we still weren't 'nerds'. I'd had to reinstall my XP several times during the summer of 07 so I got used to wasting several hours for those installs. When I installed Ubuntu for the first time it knocked my socks off! 20 minutes to install and another 5+ for all the updates. WHAT?? I just installed an operating system in 1/2 hour! And it was so easy!
Since then several friends have decided to switch and one of them is a semi-retired auctioneer in his mid 70s! He's also not a nerd by any stretch! BTW, he also prefers Linux-Mint, but he uses the Cinnamon desktop ... maybe he is a bit of a nerd after all.
Our co-grandmother (son's mother-in-law) also used Linux-Mint Mate for a few years but gave it up after she dropped her internet service. Retirement - fixed income - all that crap. Why do they call it fixed income when its so badly broken?
There's the issue of accessibility too. Several years ago a blind friend of ours was doing a restore on her Win-7 laptop when we lost power all over town. Her battery didn't last of course and her Win-7 was toast. She called me up in a panic because there wasn't a thing she could do other than sit in front of a silent computer and wonder what was going on, plus she had one important file that she hadn't backed up and figured it was lost. I'd just discovered another Linux build called Vinux which is based on Ubuntu and made especially for blind and deaf users. I downloaded the ISO, burned it to a DVD and headed over. I plugged the DVD in and rebooted and we both were pleasantly surprised as it booted up talking to us. It directed us to the file browser and then to the file she needed. We copied it to a USB and then, we reinstalled her Win-7. Before I left, she demanded I leave the DVD and that Vinux had to also be installed beside Win-7. We did that and she's been a happy Vinux user since then! Oh, BTW, she happens to be an actual nerd. She teaches computer use to other blind users, so she knows her way around computers!


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

RoBlaine said:


> Why do they call it fixed income when its so badly broken?


Maybe for the same reason we get our pets fixed when they didn't know they were broken? 

All my machines have run Linux for 10+ years now. I've switched a dozen or so friends to Linux, most of them after a catastrophic virus problem, most of them average users, i.e. know essentially nothing except where to click to do the 2-3 things they want to do on a computer. Some do just fine after a 5-minute learning curve, and some I've had to switch back to Windoze, for reasons that usually boil down to them not wanting to have to think about their computer being a little different than everyone else's, like when buying a printer, or asking a random friend for help, or installing software.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

You do need to think about peripherals, but now a days with so many people using laptops and wireless devices its usually not an issue. Printers need a little attention but cups has come a long way since the early floppy based Linux. Been managing Unix systems since the 1980 just jumped on the Linux band wagon right after it came out. Had a number of "UNIX" based system at home before Linux. I professionally manage several thousand linux servers so I fit the nerd side of things but with the plop in the disk and follow the instructions install that linux does now a days can be installed and managed by anyone.


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## RoBlaine (Mar 24, 2015)

The only problems any of my friends ran into both came from my semi-retired auctioneer friend. Shortly after he started using Linux-Mint Cinnamon, his main 'Menu' button disappeared. I'm assuming he was playing around! He called me and asked me what to do. My reply was "Crap"! Anyway, dealing with blind friends I was fairly familiar with keyboard shortcuts so I told him that until I could find the answer, just hit the 'Windows' key. That would bring up the menu. A couple days later I had the answer from the Mint forum and he got his 'Menu' button back. In the meantime, he got to prefer hitting the 'Windows' key! Who needs the 'Menu' button!
Next time was, being a business man, that he bought a brand new fancy HP business office printer and he couldn't get it to work. He called and again, my reply was "Crap"! I got into figuring out how to install HP drivers ... seemed to be not hard at all! I headed over and we sat down and the two of us old fogies downloaded the driver and installed it. We finished up, got his printer configured and he said "Nothing to it"!
Yep, Linux is too hard for the average Joe ... PFFT!


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