Protecting a new PC...
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Depends on your AV suite - However I use Miscrosoft security essentials, regularly updated and some common sense.
Avg 2015 anti virus is free and decent just be aware to much security and you'll start having firewall problems
Sent from NSA HQ
Sent from NSA HQ
Indeed, Microsoft's own solution is good and you won't have to suffer the adverts and sales push from other vendors trying to up sell their free solution to their paid one.
Here's the link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/security-essentials-download
Another vote for Microsoft Security Essentials, never had a problem with it. I'm looking forward to W10.
Rob you miss the W7 start button use this
http://www.classicshell.net/
Rob you miss the W7 start button use this
http://www.classicshell.net/
The best protection you can get is a good backup. Backup onto a removable hard drive and the cloud. If all goes catawhumpus you simply restore the PC to factory build and then restore data and applications. This protects you from more than just virus caused data loss but also hw failure and theft.
I'd go further than that and say make sure your're only backing up data and application installs files - don't use windows restore points - restoring a windows backup can also restore viruses that were active when you made a system restore point. Try and become hardware agnostic - work "in the cloud" as much as possible.
Of course this all depends on your internet speed and availability.
Cloud storage is great so long as the internet is working so use it but never rely on it; back up your backups.
I use Avast, and periodically run Malwarebytes. I also use an adblocker. On the other hand Microsoft's own protection is now a lot better than it used to be.
Try Aviva anti virus and Comodo firewall both free. Also worth a Google is Spybot software. Virus free for years with this system.
Very mixed opinions re MSE in the industry at the moment, mostly the consensus is it's barely worth what you pay for it... MSE is also not available for MS Windows 8 or 8.1 - it's been rolled into Windows Defender. It's definitely better than nothing, don't get me wrong. Avast on the other hand, is excellent AND the same price if you choose the free version. Malwarebytes is an excellent second line of defence and EVERYONE needs a backup.
Sorry to burst the bubble a little British Red, but a backup is only as good as the restore you can make from it - the vast majority of people never make one, the vast majority of those who do never make any attempt to test they can restore from the backup. Additionally there's plenty of malware which will survive a factory reset by writing either itself or persistence code to the restore partition having infected the bootloader of Windows or, less commonly the boot sector of the disc. A Google search for the terms 'Alureon' or 'TDSS' (both now a couple of years old, but the concept still holds) will demonstrate what I mean.
I could go on for hours and hours, I've even done it at partys (because I'm so interesting - 23 years in front line IT support will do that to you y'know), instead here are 5 basics that most people don't realize, or don't care to hear:
1. Make a backup copy of anything you cannot afford to lose. Do it now and test that you can restore from it. Then keep it disconnected (and remote) from your computer until such time as you need it. This is your disaster recovery point. Periodically update it by making another one when you've made some more stuff you cannot afford to lose. Rinse and repeat. Having more than one disaster recovery point is a good thing, not a waste of space - if you need advice on what to buy to use as disaster recovery media, drop me a pm.
2. Don't rely on security software to keep you safe. It's not the first line of defence, it's the safety net. See point 3 below.
3. The most important security setting IS NOT on the computer, it's in your head. Turn up the paranoia a notch, they're not out to get YOU, they're out to get ANYONE.
4. When you go scrumping, you don't carry a ladder to climb to the top of the tree. You grab what you can before parky sees you and run like hell. The same is true of most malware - don't be the low hanging fruit and you remove a significant portion of the risk. Essentially this boils down to keeping your software up to date - if the computer says there are updates available, do them straight away, it is trying to keep you safe.
5. If it, whatever it is, looks even slightly suspicious, avoid it. Verify attachments or links sent to you by email contacts or friends or family VIA ANOTHER MEDIUM (e.g. phone mum up when her Yahoo! account sends you a .zip file in the email 'I found this photo of you') before... wait I've not over stated this, ahem BEFORE you try to open it. Why via another medium? If you email them back and their account has been compromised then you're emailing the person who compromised the account, not the person you think you're emailing.
SOURCE: Err... me. I remove malware from people's computers for a living and have done so for a very long time.
Sorry to burst the bubble a little British Red, but a backup is only as good as the restore you can make from it - the vast majority of people never make one, the vast majority of those who do never make any attempt to test they can restore from the backup. Additionally there's plenty of malware which will survive a factory reset by writing either itself or persistence code to the restore partition having infected the bootloader of Windows or, less commonly the boot sector of the disc. A Google search for the terms 'Alureon' or 'TDSS' (both now a couple of years old, but the concept still holds) will demonstrate what I mean.
I could go on for hours and hours, I've even done it at partys (because I'm so interesting - 23 years in front line IT support will do that to you y'know), instead here are 5 basics that most people don't realize, or don't care to hear:
1. Make a backup copy of anything you cannot afford to lose. Do it now and test that you can restore from it. Then keep it disconnected (and remote) from your computer until such time as you need it. This is your disaster recovery point. Periodically update it by making another one when you've made some more stuff you cannot afford to lose. Rinse and repeat. Having more than one disaster recovery point is a good thing, not a waste of space - if you need advice on what to buy to use as disaster recovery media, drop me a pm.
2. Don't rely on security software to keep you safe. It's not the first line of defence, it's the safety net. See point 3 below.
3. The most important security setting IS NOT on the computer, it's in your head. Turn up the paranoia a notch, they're not out to get YOU, they're out to get ANYONE.
4. When you go scrumping, you don't carry a ladder to climb to the top of the tree. You grab what you can before parky sees you and run like hell. The same is true of most malware - don't be the low hanging fruit and you remove a significant portion of the risk. Essentially this boils down to keeping your software up to date - if the computer says there are updates available, do them straight away, it is trying to keep you safe.
5. If it, whatever it is, looks even slightly suspicious, avoid it. Verify attachments or links sent to you by email contacts or friends or family VIA ANOTHER MEDIUM (e.g. phone mum up when her Yahoo! account sends you a .zip file in the email 'I found this photo of you') before... wait I've not over stated this, ahem BEFORE you try to open it. Why via another medium? If you email them back and their account has been compromised then you're emailing the person who compromised the account, not the person you think you're emailing.
SOURCE: Err... me. I remove malware from people's computers for a living and have done so for a very long time.
A very good reply Adze,
Just had to replace the hard drive in my folks laptop as the old one was riddled with viruses and then they paid some cowboy to fix it. all he did was replace a 330gb hard drive with an 80gb one and reloaded XP (they had w7).
So, in addition to Adzes advice, if you do have problems, make sure you use a reputable repair person and not someone who 'can fix it for a decent price!'
Just had to replace the hard drive in my folks laptop as the old one was riddled with viruses and then they paid some cowboy to fix it. all he did was replace a 330gb hard drive with an 80gb one and reloaded XP (they had w7).
So, in addition to Adzes advice, if you do have problems, make sure you use a reputable repair person and not someone who 'can fix it for a decent price!'
This is what I have done for years now - solid performance as long as you update regularly.
- ESET Smart Security (Main Security Suite that comes with personal firewall)
- FULL (Not free version) of Malware Bytes or Super Anti Spyware (Secondary Malware protection)
- Adblock Edge (Fork from Adblock Plus, same but without the "acceptable" ads that have been paid for and let through).
- Unchecky (Automatically unchecks added crap in installers)
- CCleaner (Cleans temp files and other crap)
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I've turned off 'on demand' scanning for Windows defender (W7).
It had created huge files in windows/temp and was constantly reading/writing them. I reckon it uses some cheapass hash comparison to see if files have been changed. Absolutely hammered the performance on my computer.
Nod32 (eset, mentioned above) is good. When I was self employed I used it, as I couldn't afford downtime.
Good backups so you can wipe your system are great.
Nothing wrong with system restore points, but create your own at points when you know the system is ok.
It had created huge files in windows/temp and was constantly reading/writing them. I reckon it uses some cheapass hash comparison to see if files have been changed. Absolutely hammered the performance on my computer.
Nod32 (eset, mentioned above) is good. When I was self employed I used it, as I couldn't afford downtime.
Good backups so you can wipe your system are great.
Nothing wrong with system restore points, but create your own at points when you know the system is ok.
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