[strew1221]

Thank you so much for all of your help. I really appreciate it. One last thing, is Microsoft Security Essentials good enough for antivirus or is there a better one?

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One last thing, is Microsoft Security Essentials good enough for antivirus or is there a better one

For what it's worth here are my thoughts on anti-virus and firewall programs.

Most of the well known anti-virus products are good. Some perform better in some aspects than others but if you were to look at the overall picture they are mostly good.

Sometimes one will be on top of the pops one month and another on another month. Of course there are some rogue programs out there too that you must steer clear of because they bring infection with them.

Some of the free ones are good but you do not get the full service. The sound "pay for products" out there have packages which include anti-spyware, anti-phishing, firewalls and adware blocking so you get the whole lot in one go.

This link will take you to an independant site showing comparatives for Anti-virus products. Look at comparatives with caution because one month a program may do well and in another not so well.

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

All of the ones shown there are good products. Sometimes it comes down to your personal taste. In other words you like a particular product because to you it is user friendly or looks good.

Ones I personally like at the moment are Avast, ESET and Kaspersky but that is only a personal preference and my preferences do change as products undergo improvement.

Of the free ones, I recommend Avast, and MSE. Despite current reservations about MSE I believe they are both good.

If you are looking at free products such as Avast I would look at combining the anti-virus, with a free firewall and also look at and anti-spyware product (say the free versions of) Malwarebytes or SuperAntiSpyware) and update and run it once a week.

Note: Currently SuperAntiSpyware will install foistware along with the program. Last time I looked it was Google Chrome Browser at installation. This is fine if you use Chrome but not so good if you don't. It will do this even if you use Custom Install and uncheck Chrome (at least on my machine) so the best option is to allow it and uninstall Chrome afterwards (unless of course you want it).

Microsoft Security Essentials together with Windows Firewall (which comes with Windows) is probably a good choice for the run of the mill user. This because it is light on resources, it is unobtrusive (it works away in the background without interrupting) and you don't have to be an expert. Firewalls have a habit of flagging suspicious files and asking the user to decide whether to accept the file or not. Often the run of the mill user has no idea about what a particular file does and just says no to everything... down the track they wonder why programs they use regularly suddenly stop working or maybe they try and download something they frequently downloaded in the past but now find they can't.

Here are two good, free for personal, use antivirus :

• Avast
• Microsoft Security Essentials

Here are two good firewalls free for personal use:

• OnLine-Armour Note: By default Emsisoft Online Armor installs as a free fully functional 30 day trial version. After the trial period you can either choose to buy a full version license or switch to the limited freeware mode.
• Agnitum - Outpost free Note: Scroll down to Free Outpost Products and Outpost Firewall Free.

Note: Do not use more than one anti-virus or firewall. Running two or more real-time anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall monitors at the same time can cause a conflict. That conflict can result in slow computer performance, error messages, crashes of the programs or other types of failure. You will very likely end up with little or no protection.

Thank you so much for all of your help.

You are very welcome.

I will keep this topic open for a day or two in case any issues arise.

[emeraldnzl]

One last thing, is Microsoft Security Essentials good enough for antivirus or is there a better one

For what it's worth here are my thoughts on anti-virus and firewall programs.

Most of the well known anti-virus products are good. Some perform better in some aspects than others but if you were to look at the overall picture they are mostly good.

Sometimes one will be on top of the pops one month and another on another month. Of course there are some rogue programs out there too that you must steer clear of because they bring infection with them.

Some of the free ones are good but you do not get the full service. The sound "pay for products" out there have packages which include anti-spyware, anti-phishing, firewalls and adware blocking so you get the whole lot in one go.

This link will take you to an independant site showing comparatives for Anti-virus products. Look at comparatives with caution because one month a program may do well and in another not so well.

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

All of the ones shown there are good products. Sometimes it comes down to your personal taste. In other words you like a particular product because to you it is user friendly or looks good.

Ones I personally like at the moment are Avast, ESET and Kaspersky but that is only a personal preference and my preferences do change as products undergo improvement.

Of the free ones, I recommend Avast, and MSE. Despite current reservations about MSE I believe they are both good.

If you are looking at free products such as Avast I would look at combining the anti-virus, with a free firewall and also look at and anti-spyware product (say the free versions of) Malwarebytes or SuperAntiSpyware) and update and run it once a week.

Note: Currently SuperAntiSpyware will install foistware along with the program. Last time I looked it was Google Chrome Browser at installation. This is fine if you use Chrome but not so good if you don't. It will do this even if you use Custom Install and uncheck Chrome (at least on my machine) so the best option is to allow it and uninstall Chrome afterwards (unless of course you want it).

Microsoft Security Essentials together with Windows Firewall (which comes with Windows) is probably a good choice for the run of the mill user. This because it is light on resources, it is unobtrusive (it works away in the background without interrupting) and you don't have to be an expert. Firewalls have a habit of flagging suspicious files and asking the user to decide whether to accept the file or not. Often the run of the mill user has no idea about what a particular file does and just says no to everything... down the track they wonder why programs they use regularly suddenly stop working or maybe they try and download something they frequently downloaded in the past but now find they can't.

Here are two good, free for personal, use antivirus :

• Avast
• Microsoft Security Essentials

Here are two good firewalls free for personal use:

• OnLine-Armour Note: By default Emsisoft Online Armor installs as a free fully functional 30 day trial version. After the trial period you can either choose to buy a full version license or switch to the limited freeware mode.
• Agnitum - Outpost free Note: Scroll down to Free Outpost Products and Outpost Firewall Free.

Note: Do not use more than one anti-virus or firewall. Running two or more real-time anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall monitors at the same time can cause a conflict. That conflict can result in slow computer performance, error messages, crashes of the programs or other types of failure. You will very likely end up with little or no protection.

Thank you so much for all of your help.

You are very welcome.

I will keep this topic open for a day or two in case any issues arise.

[emeraldnzl]

Since this issue appears to be resolved ... this Topic has been closed. Glad we could help.

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