Microsoft’s free antivirus program changes game

Boston Globe ^ | October 1, 2009 | Hiawatha Bray

[ConservativeStatement]

You paid for your antivirus software? Why?

Good free options have been available for years, mainly from no-name companies. Nervous consumers figure they’re better off buying major brands, like Norton security software from Symantec Corp. Well, here’s a major brand for you: Microsoft Corp.

[ShadowAce]

[Loud Mime]

Is this like the Taliban selling anthrax vaccines?

[yarddog]

To read later.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I just switched to VIPRE and it seems to be the best, I have used.

[newfreep]

Calm down Loud Mouth. I downloaded MSE and it seems to be working just fine.

Waaaay to many MAC-heads are sounding like Taliban these daze.

[hoagy62]

I have AVG Free (by recommendation of a Freeper). Should I be dumping that for the Microsoft AV?

[arthurus]

I have been using AVG for a couple of years now and have not had any virus since I started using it. Previously I had McAfee for 4 years and had occasional viruses. I think I will stay with a demonstrated effective product. And it is free.

[Izzy Dunne]

Is this like the Taliban selling anthrax vaccines?

Or ObamaCo selling tax software...

[musicman]

bookmark

[reegs]

I have noticed that while AVG is scanning, my PC seems to come to a crawl.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I’d stick with AVG-—it ROCKS!

[TangoLimaSierra]

I’d certainly wait for Service Pack 1 before using anything MS.

[DocRock]

anti-virus bookmark

[ConservativeStatement]

I don’t know but there is a related comment or two following yours.

[Dr. Sivana]

A column written by Hiawatha Bray. I met him in Chicago years ago. A great character, and certainly no liberal. And yes, that is his real name.

[Justa]

"I have noticed that while AVG is scanning, my PC seems to come to a crawl."

I used AVG and noticed the same thing. I switched to Avast! and problem solved. Been using the Avast! free version for over a year now and I am very satisfied.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Of course, no antimalware product is perfect, especially not against the latest attack programs. George Ledin, a computer science professor at Sonoma State University in California, pointed out that dozens of new malware programs appear daily, and it takes a long time to tag these new threats so the software can defeat them. “By the time they put it in the catalog, it is months old,’’ Ledin said. As a result, thousands of computers with the latest antivirus software are compromised anyway.

If they need this, I guess Win7 will still be a high-vulnerability sys to viri. That's a shame, hope springs eternal . . .

Still, it's a step up. And at least now Microsoft is paying some of the cost of the egregious vulnerability of the OS it sells. That still leaves the societal cost of the botnets of Windows machines, tho.

[techcor]

bump

[Rebelbase]

Does anyone have a link to 100% pure and unadulterated free AVG? Every link I come across has a “free” version using trail pay which requires you to buy some other company’s product.

[Gorzaloon]

I have been using AVG for a couple of years now and have not had any virus since I started using it. Previously I had McAfee for 4 years and had occasional viruses. I think I will stay with a demonstrated effective product. And it is free.

I use AVG on some of the machines. In my past experience (They may have improved it) McAfeee may as well be a virus. That's why schools and GIVE it away free. The bloated mess of Norton, which was once a good name, is not much better, in our experience.

[MayflowerMadam]

Since this is a tech thread, two things:

1. With our Time Warner internet we get free “CA Security Suite”, and it’s been very good. However, I bought a 64-bit HP laptop and the free CA Suite isn’t compatible with it. HP recommended AVG and it’s been good. I like that there are checkmarks next to the sites to indicate whether they’re safe or not BEFORE you click on the link.

2. Does anyone know if it’s an easy and/or inexpensive to transition from Vista to Windows 7? Would it be worth it?

[maryz]

I’ve used Avast! free for two years with no problems — I’m very happy with it!

[luckybogey]

Best line so far............

Related Note: A neighbor called me last night. He decided to save $5 and not renew his McAfee. He purchased Cyber Defender.

Well, guess what, Cyber Defender found something like 8 virus programs and said his computer had been hacked.

Next, my cheap neighbor called their customer support and allowed the tech on-line access to his PC.

You know what came next. The only way to fix this was to buy a $250 package which includes a Microsoft “expert” Technician. They were going to give him a $40 gas car however.

He decided to hold off and that is when he called me. It took me about 10 seconds with a google search to figure out this was a scam. It took me over an hour to remove all of their programs including their hidden files.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/cyberdefender-c95821.html

Moral of the Story: You get what you pay for!

[ConservativeStatement]

Maybe you should direct your question to the second post.

[FRactional]

Does anyone have a link to 100% pure and unadulterated free AVG? Every link I come across has a “free” version using trail pay which requires you to buy some other company’s product.

Try this link directly to MS' Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/support.aspx

[grey_whiskers]

Microsoft selling antivirus software?

Sounds like a classic "protection racket" to me! /sarc>

Mac or UNIX is generally preferable.

Cheers!

[FRactional]

Whoops, sorry I misread your post and sent you to MS site.

[Rebelbase]

Thanks for the link but I took Maryz’s advice and downloaded Avast.

Does anyone have a freebie link for an anti-spyware download. AVG and Spybot have gone to the Trialpay crap also.

[TChris]

Does anyone have a freebie link for an anti-spyware download.

AVG does both anti-virus and anti-spyware.

[TChris]

Is this like the Taliban selling anthrax vaccines?

The tool which has been part of Windows Update for a long time, Malicious Software Removal Tool (MRT.exe) is quite good. It has cleaned out malware for me that other tools could not.

Windows Defender is quite good also.

I would expect this to be a decent bit of anti-virus software.

[TChris]

Until I have a problem with AVG Free, I'll stick with it.

It's been the best anti-virus product I've ever used. ...and I've used most of them.

[US_MilitaryRules]

Use Avast. It is free.

[TChris]

EVERY anti-virus program will slow down your computer while it's scanning; it's impossible NOT to.

I turn off the automatic scanning, or set it to scan in the middle of the night.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Be informed and make a choice
I will wait to see if MS can break the top 10 on either of these sites...

[Bernard Marx]

I think this will get you to AVG's free download:

AVG Free

[Loud Mime]

I’m just having fun.

I have three Windows machines and NO Macs. I abhor MS marketing their own anti-virus program; it should be part of the OS. Hence the joke.

[newfreep]

Thanks for your clarification - much appreciated!

[dglang]

http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

It’s the product in the left column.

[Chances Are]

This is rich, coming from the Boston Globe (whose exit from publishing cannot transpire soon enough!).

This past weekend on their Patriots’ page of their sports section they featured a banner that contained the pescanner1 trojan virus.

Download that to your machine and you'll have hours of entertainment trying to get rid of it and it's effects!

In my case, Avast anti-virus stopped it. It wasn't until I checked my open Web pages that I saw it was the Globe.

Just so you'll know, when you see these Lib rags expounding on anything of consequence.

CA....

[Doug Loss]

Yup, been using the ultimate free AVG for years. It's called Linux. :) Here's your link: Ubuntu Linux. You can of course choose from many other varieties of this world-class AVG (and much more!) program. :D

[GovernmentShrinker]

No thanks. I want my antivirus software to notify me of Microsoft’s evil tricks.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

Yup, been using the ultimate free AVG for years. It's called Linux. :) Here's your link: Ubuntu Linux. You can of course choose from many other varieties of this world-class AVG (and much more!) program. :D

OpenSuSE 11.1 user here.

AVG does make a version for Linux. You have to insert the Dazuko module to get resident scanning.

The neat thing is that in a dual boot situation, you can scan your Windows Partition from Linux.

[Heavyrunner]

Proof you don’t have to be a liberal to be ignorant.

This software is free. How is that racket exactly?

[Heavyrunner]

Oops, missed the /sarc tag. Sorry.

[Justa]

Avast! has the lowest footprint for active scans I’ve seen. I think it runs at lower disk priority than User during scans, unlike SAV which runs higher than User. Avast! also has many configuration options and features.

[Deagle]

For the best free software - all catagories go to Gizmo...

http://www.techsupportalert.com/

[Crolis]

Thanks for the link. This may prove to be a better deal in the long run for Microsoft if over time it generates the perception that PCs are more virus resistant.

[TomGuy]

I used AVG for a couple of years.

Recently, I switched to Avast! (free Home ed)

I like it better. It seems to use less system resources. Also, I have most of the background features shut off for better performance.

[ansel12]

Moral of the Story: You get what you pay for!

No you don't, I have never paid for a program yet and I am the guy with the perfectly clean computer that steers my friends to free avast, free malwarebytes antimalware, free superantispyware, free windows defender, free glary utilities, free everything.