Don’t Buy Antivirus Software for Your Windows 8 Computer

[WalksWithChrist]

I had a problem last week with a virus. I have free AVG on my PC running with XP.

I had an email from my statutory regulator saying my firm had a serious complaint made against me.

It said see attachment for the complaint details. The attachment was a word template doc that asked me to disable the macro to read. I could not read the attachment so I contacted the regulator.

You guessed it, they told me the email was from a spammer and had a virus attached. A scan by AVG did not find it.

It took about an hour to find the .exe file. Then I could not delete it. So I had to download unlocker to clear it.

You live and learn.

Be aware that all support and updates for XP end in April. That means no security updates.

 

[paul1149]

My preliminary on Panda Cloud Free is good. I was very impressed with its lightness. I'm not convinced this is due to cloud computing, but however they do it it's a good thing.

The prog seems to have a nice balance between lightness and configurability, unlike Bitdefender Free.

There is one glaring omission for my purposes, however: lack of scheduling ability. Presumably the prog has some kind of automatic scanning other than event-reactive, but if so I don't know what it is. I think proactive scans are a must. The good news is that the coming beta, due out soon, will include scheduling.

Bottom line, I think it's going to be a keeper. I'm going to watch it for a while, and I may switch to it as my go-to.


Regarding XP, I had one buyer who was afraid her netbook was going to stop working in April! I assured her that it would continue just fine. MS will still provide existing updates, and most probably will offer severe security updates, but normal fare is off the table. I think with an adequate firewall and anti-malware XP will continue to be safe for almost all normal use.

 

[Christian Networking]

Regarding XP, I had one buyer who was afraid her netbook was going to stop working in April! I assured her that it would continue just fine. MS will still provide existing updates, and most probably will offer severe security updates, but normal fare is off the table. I think with an adequate firewall and anti-malware XP will continue to be safe for almost all normal use.

As far as I know nothing will be offered for xp after April 8th. I'm offering to install Ubuntu into xp computers. It's a smaller footprint and an open source up to date operating system gaining in popularity.

Regular nongeek speak: Smaller foot print folks means the operating system itself takes up less resources, therefore more resources are left to run programs which helps an older computer run faster.

Rick

 

[paul1149]

Support for Windows XP is ending

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Support for Windows XP is ending

Ah, the end of the world is nigh...

Well, all's not lost, you can go out and buy a new Windows 8(.1,2...) machine.

The end of the world is nigh...

 

[High Fidelity]

I don't know about other countries, but pretty much every bank here gives you free subscriptions to anti-virus software when you register for online banking (Which is free).

I use Kaspersky and I love it.

So it may be worth checking out whether or not your bank offers it for free with online banking.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

I don't know about other countries, but pretty much every bank here gives you free subscriptions to anti-virus software when you register for online banking (Which is free).

Hmm, free, I bet the banks still have to pay for the software which means they will pass the cost onto you in user charges so i very much doubt it will be truly free.

Also, quite dangerous in a way for banks to be saying use XYZ brand of anti-virus whilst doing online banking. What if there is a major flaw in the software that allows a compromise of your PC whilst banking online - who's to blame?

And bad hackers would, in my mind, be looking to exploit a certain brand of anti-virus software that a particular bank might endorse to compromise a machine of a customer. A case of good intentions gone bad...