Antivirus recommendations? My fear of the computer is holding me back!

[MormonGuitarGirl]

Hi guys,

Anybody have a good free antivirus to recommend? I'm fed up with AVG.

Also, I'm constantly paranoid about my computer; I worry all the time that something bad will happen to it. Long story short, I'm a novelist, so I have to use it to type, but sometimes I avoid the computer for weeks because of fear, and I don't want to waste this talent Heavenly Father's given me. How can I overcome this?

Thanks!

[Silhouette]

There are several free anti-virus programs that work well. My husband is an engineer and works on a computer all day every day.

Two free ones he recommends are Avast and Avira.

If you end up deciding to pay for one in order to get higher quality, Kaspersky is the highest rated one. I don't know what it costs, but I'm sure you can Google it and get lots of information.

Where I live in California, if you purchase a computer from Costco, it comes with a full year of Kaspersky free.

Hope this helps, at least insofar as your anti-virus issue goes. As for your fear of the computer, I'm afraid I don't have any advice for you in that regard.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Silhouette

[Crypto]

Buy an external hardisk, or flash drive and store a copy of any files you wish to preserve. Then to your great relief you won't have to worry about losing your files.

If you don't like AVG and you want something free Windows Security essentials is also free. There is also Avast.

If you have some money Bitdefender will do a good job. Most of the popular brands you can buy will be nearly equivalent and functional.

If you can, use windows 7 or 8. The construction of the operating system is inherently more secure and less prone to get a nasty cold... or deathly illness.

I would suggest learning more about computers, if you have a fear breaking something, or something happening to it.

[jerome1232]

Crypro hit on something important. Keep backups of your files. Far more important that any security suite, is the peace of mind in knowing you will only be set back as far as your last backup.

In regards to security software, I'm partial to bitdefender. I've used their live CD to scan badly infected computers of friends and family.

[Mahone]

Buy an external hardisk, or flash drive and store a copy of any files you wish to preserve. Then to your great relief you won't have to worry about losing your files.

Good advice to backup the files, but I personally would do more than just backup to an external drive.

There is quite a lot of malware that will encrypt or otherwise destroy personal files installed on any computers that it infects. In these situations, the average user upon realizing their files are inaccessible will usually do the very thing they shouldn't... plug in the external storage drive in an attempt to recover their backed up files that are located on it. As soon as they connect it, the malware destroys the files on that too, leaving the user with two sets of corrupt or otherwise irrecoverable files.

Therefore I'd recommend cloud storage as a tertiary backup. Many free cloud storage providers offer the ability to revert files back to previous versions and recovery of deleted files.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Mahone

[MormonGuitarGirl]

I read that Bitdefender got horrible ratings, so I went to switch to Avast and was told by Bitdefender that the download link (from Avast's official website, linking to cnet) was infected with malware.

What do I do? Should I ignore this and download Avast anyway? I have a hard time believing it's really infected. I don't want to go back to AVG and when I use Panda antivirus, the icons always disappear.

I'm not sure what to use...

I feel really stuck. Thanks in advance!

[The Folk Prophet]

Ha ha! I love it when virus softwares fight with each other.

 

The meaning "malware" is a pretty broad definition. Avast is a fairly well known well used piece of software. What Bitdefender considers malware is Bitdefender's opinion. Whether that opinion is valid or not depends on YOUR idea of what malware is. Some people (and software) consider anything with any sort of ad in it malware.

 

At any rate, I'd stick with Windows Defender and forget the rest. Just me though.

[Crypto]

Many times the virus definitions (What the anti-virus program uses to detect a computer virus) of the competing anti-malware suites will show up as infected. This is because they contain patterns that also show up in actual malware. 

Before you install any new anti-virus you should uninstall any other anti-virus program. This will prevent various problems that can occur when multiple anti-virus products are installed along side each other. Such as causing internet access to be inaccessible, literally fighting against each other when malware is detected, etc... (I've seen and have had to deal on multiple occasions with this)
Since most anti-virus products look for malware as you use your computer, using multiple products will slow your computer down.

Best bet is to uninstall what you won't be using.

As for ratings, there are various organizations that assess different aspects of each vendors program, and the result is determined by not only score, but in what they think should be most important. (If you value ease of use the most, you might choose it over another that has superior malware removing abilities etc...) Ratings only tell you what someone else values most. It will be a good skill to learn, that you need to look at what was assessed, to see if you agree. I can point to assessments where bit defender will win. I can also point to assessments where Avira does well. Or even PCmatic. 



I'll PM you with clean links to several of the products people have suggested. (Of course from a security stand point you probably shouldn't trust me. Simply because you don't know me.)

[Crypto]

I'd only recommend using windows defender exclusively if your computer has windows 8.

[jerome1232]

I read that Bitdefender got horrible ratings, so I went to switch to Avast and was told by Bitdefender that the download link (from Avast's official website, linking to cnet) was infected with malware.

What do I do? Should I ignore this and download Avast anyway? I have a hard time believing it's really infected. I don't want to go back to AVG and when I use Panda antivirus, the icons always disappear.

I'm not sure what to use...

I feel really stuck. Thanks in advance!

*remembers why his windows partition is getting dusty from disuse*

I suspect bitdefender throws that warning because avast is rather advert heavy from what I hear. For many, including me, that's just unacceptable. I don't personally run an a/v suite... you can throw large grains of salt my way if you wish.

Edited November 22, 2014 by jerome1232

[The Folk Prophet]

I'd only recommend using windows defender exclusively if your computer has windows 8.

 

Good point. Thanks.