www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Geek Hall Free Microsoft AV software

I am one that is curious about this "free" Microsoft anti-virus software that is to be released. I personally use Avast Home Edition on my Windows computer after some bad experiences with Norton in the past. Since anti-virus software has become a must nowadays for those that run Windows, I am wondering how well Microsoft's version will do compared to others. Could this possibly be the beginning of a price/service feature war of the anti-virus titans?

BBC Technology story [news.bbc.co.uk]

Amazon enduser blog entry [enduserblog.com]

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Hmmm

Since I'm being forced to have a PC deskop for the time being < shiver and shudder > we were looking at it's security last week while taking stuff off it.

Discovered that Avast had expired and we were having problems downloading it - so free AVG went on and the pooter then scanned - was clean.

The PC Laapy does have working Avast on it - and I know that Raymond liked it - it just worked

Is it my Mac background that says I just, on priniciple, do not like anything that comes out of M$S ?


I'll look round here and see what's being said about it

Avast Home Edition has to have its license reapplied for every 18 months. My suggestion is that you ask for a new license from their website. Downloading multiple AV programs on the same machine can cause issues with the computer in speed and interference of certain programs running properly. My advice, keep one and get rid of all others.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Avast was thoroughly removed - so should be OK

Daughter #1 set up AVG - she uses it so dealt with it after removing Avast .

I'll keep Avast on the lappy till we know what's being done with it

I really like AVG, I've yet to have a problem with it. When I start working again I hope to actually by the license and get rid of the free edition.

I am with Earthlink and they use Kaspersky. The thing with the Earthlink protection center that I subscribe to, is that it deletes any other antivirus and shuts off the Windows firewall and uses its own. So not much choice is possible.

I had Kaspersky on my iMac (Parallels using Windows XP Home) within the past year. It came with Parallels 4.0 as part of that program as a "free (obligatory)" add-in. I absolutely hated it! Between the constant downloads and waiting for it to finish whatever it was doing, I literally had time to make dinner and serve it. Needless to say that AV program went within a week or so and was replaced by Avast Home Edition again, which I have also on my netbook. I don't know how effective Kaspersky was, since it never seemed to be finished with whatever it was doing constantly. It also brought the speed on the computer down to a slow crawl. I never had an AV program do that before, even with all the issues I had with Norton before I ditched that program on the iMac's predecessor (a HP Desktop). With Norton, all I kept on getting was the inability to update properly (which is a common complaint I hear about Norton) and the load time at start-up for the computer. I used MacAfee once on another desktop, and had no opinion of it one way or the other.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

not having used it I can't say from my own experiences - but I have heard similar things about it , and the dreaded Norton [ Symantec ] and MacaFee.

OH - have also heard plenty of folk commenting on the difficulty of removing these programmes - official methods of removal still seem to leave things behind - which can then react with other programmes that are later installed .

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed till I can remove the PCs

Earthlink used Norton until recently. I haven't noticed any slowdowns because of Kaspersky. Earthlink DSL can bog down at peak times anyway, so I suspect they are a bit overloaded. I want to change, but it would be quite a bit of trouble to do so.

I just acquired a used laptop (HP ze5500 with Windows Home Edition) about a month ago in a trade, for my guest room and its occupants from time to time (keeps them off my machines and out of my studio and room). I did some research because it had an expired version of Norton on it. Norton now allows its software to be removed through the control panel (no official removal tool necessary or available anymore), and surprisingly it worked removing everything completely. I was then able to download and install a copy of Avast Home Edition on it with a different license I acquired from the website. I know this was not always the case, since I remember three years ago when I ditched Norton of then having to acquire some sort of removal software tool through them. I have no problems to report since I have done that.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

It can go beyond that, Father.

They're known to attack and try to remove one another, and other vicious behavior.

Such problems also tend to take, umm, shortcuts, seizing resources that aren't permitted to programs. When two take the same shortcut, the situation you describe is almost inevitable.

hawk

Doc,

I wish I can tell you the number of times I had someone have an issue because they put a second AV program on for "extra" protection, only to find out their PC almost completely seized up.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

When I first got the Linux Ubuntu, I was trying to install AV software on it. Then I remembered that I didn't need it.

I use AVG at work and for Vista at home.

I believe you, Father. I've encountered it on other people's machine.

I pretty much haven't used a machine that needed one since Macintosh System 7 broke the existing ones . . . I completely over went to various Unix in 1996.

Interestingly, there are purported anti-virus programs for Linux. Some are actually just to scan email destined for windows machines, while there are a couple that claim to somehow scan for something that noone has yet figured out how to do . . . .

Getting back to the original post, I see Microsoft has released the Beta version of what they are calling "Microsoft Security Essentials". The following link [microsoft.com] has how to download it. I, along with possibly some others would be interested if anyone tries it and how it compares to other AV software.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+