Good ole McAfee missed another one.

[SrDriver]

We have had good luck here both on our desktop and both laptops using the free Microsoft Windows Security Essentials anti-virus software.

It caught something on the wife's laptop that others missed.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
It's a decent balance of resource usage, ease-of-use, and thoroughness.


Not in my experience. My ex-girlfriend installed it after we broke up, since she didn't have anyone to fix her computer if something happened, and her computer went from being very fast - I had cleaned it up so nothing ran in the background - to frustratingly slow. I'm sure I'd end up physically destroying my computer if I had to put up with McAfee. Maybe it was her strategy to keep me off her computer whenever I'm visiting her dog. If so, it worked very well!

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: rpn453
Not in my experience. My ex-girlfriend installed it after we broke up, since she didn't have anyone to fix her computer if something happened, and her computer went from being very fast - I had cleaned it up so nothing ran in the background - to frustratingly slow. I'm sure I'd end up physically destroying my computer if I had to put up with McAfee. Maybe it was her strategy to keep me off her computer whenever I'm visiting her dog. If so, it worked very well!

Are you sure there wasn't some other antivirus program or Windows Defender or something installed as well?

 

[SrDriver]

My understanding that once you install Microsoft Security Essentials that it disables Windows Defender as it is part of Microsoft Security Essentials from spending some time reading on their web site.

No anti-virus, anti-Trojan, etc., will stop infection if you get a warning and go ahead and install the Trojan that is going around the internet like the one mentioned above.

Actually Microsoft Security Essentials gets good reviews if one will spend a bit of time reading about it.

Another + it is free for home use - home small business.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Are you sure there wasn't some other antivirus program or Windows Defender or something installed as well?


Yes. The only other process running in the background is a Garmin one. All the processes that are using significant resources are from McAfee. Maybe her laptop is just too old for modern McAfee. It's a Celeron running XP with only 1 GB of RAM.

 

[SrDriver]

I understand that McAfee uses a lot of resources but the latest versions of Norton are an improvement.

Windows Security Essentials uses less.

There is a small program on McAfee's web site to completely remove it from the computer.

Same goes for Norton.

 

[sprintman]

"An improvement" That's the biggest understatement I've probably ever read.

 

[Mystic]

In the past 2 years Norton has been greatly improved in every way. There is no comparison with where Norton was in say 2006. Norton scans much faster, uses less system resources, and has a lot of interesting new technology. There is every indication that the 2011 version will be even better. But Norton has a perception problem. Some people hate Norton like some hate Microsoft. I was almost ready to give up on Norton myself a few years ago. I guess you can say I did give up on Norton because I started using Kaspersky and NOD32.

I actually think McAfee could be a good program but there is some kind of problem apparently with the corporate culture there. Witness the recent bad update McAfee came out with. They did redesign the UI and improve the scanning speen somewhat. But they are going to have to do a lot more than that before I am willing to ever again use McAfee.

 

[Mystic]

In my personal opinion based on what I know Norton is the way to go.

 

[sprintman]

NIS 2011 and dump the other junk! Use MBAM as a backup check.

 

[Drew99GT]

Dump all blacklisting forms of antimalware and put up a permanent shield around your computer with sandboxing/virtualization.

 

[DragRace]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Dump all blacklisting forms of antimalware and put up a permanent shield around your computer with sandboxing/virtualization.



This ^^^^^