Help please, new Anti-virus (& anti anything else harmful!)

[AES]

Thanks for pointing that out Fatboy. I didn't realise at the time but now understand that what you've said is factual.

So I'm sure that while what you say is quite correct, the reason for my disgust with McAfee's marketing method was the fact that they didn't make that point clear in the promotional "offers" they kept on sending me before my trial expired.

Yes, as I posted to Devonwoody a while back, I'm sure that these facts are there "hidden" somewhere in the fine print, but quite honestly I don't usually bother to wade through all that stuff before agreeing to down load their stuff - Do you? Does anybody? My understanding is that VERY few people do actually bother.

So one could quite reasonably say that it's my own fault for getting tricked, and I do agree with that. But I'm pretty sure that these "sharp" marketing practices do depend very much on most (all?) vendors assuming that most people are not bothering to read the Ts & Cs properly.

So "caveat emptor"? Yes certainly.

But there are other sayings too - to quote just one: "Make a fool of me once, shame on you. Make a fool of me twice, shame on me".

In short I still regard such practices (without making it clear exactly what's happening) as "sharp". Hence my decision to stop dealing with McAfee, and never to deal with them again.

Over-reaction on my part? Probably, but I'm the customer, and if I had not (eventually) found out about that "trick" I would have happily renewed again with McAfee.

Even better now, the MS Defender seems to be working fine and it's free! So once again, "up yours McAfee"! Who's really "won" here I wonder?

AES

 

[Rhossydd]

I don't usually bother to wade through all that stuff before agreeing to down load their stuff - Do you? Does anybody? My understanding is that VERY few people do actually bother.

You should. Failure to read what's going on is one primary cause of virus/malware infections in the first place.
I wonder how much the UK would have saved if people had bothered to read small print before getting caught for PPI ?

The key thing is not to get infected in the first place.
Never open unsolicited attachments.
Only download software from the publisher's/author's sites.
Don't visit dodgy web sites.

 

[mseries]

The key thing is not to get infected in the first place.
Never open unsolicited attachments.
Only download software from the publisher's/author's sites.
Don't visit dodgy web sites.

^^^^ This is great advice and not very difficult to do.

 

[cutting42]

Some excellent advice on here. My PC safety and maintenance routine:

Wndows Defender Win 10/Microsoft Essentials on Win7 - on all the time
Mayware Bytes free - manual check every couple of weeks
CCleaner free version- Set to automatic reminder to clear out every week or so
Auslogic DiskDefrag free version run every few weeks to defrag files and improve performance.

The only paid for software is Acronis True Image software for my backup routine which is a topic in its own right but essentially all my files and documents are kept on a central RAID10 file store and backed up weekly to another external drive which is also mirrored to the cloud.

 

[Racers]

Doesn't Win 7 have its own defragmenter that runs in the background?


Just checked my work PC defragmenter last ran yesterday.


Pete

 

[transatlantic]

With all due respect to the "I run x, never had a problem".

Have you actually seen the software pick anything up? .. I'm going to guess that you haven't had a problem because you're using the internet cautiously.

It's a bit like saying ... I use a SawStop, never had it trigger, but have had no problems with losing fingers.

 

[mseries]

Doesn't Win 7 have its own defragmenter that runs in the background?


Just checked my work PC defragmenter last ran yesterday.


Pete

as did mine. I don't know what schedule defaults are, maybe people don't have it scheduled

 

[Rhossydd]

With all due respect to the "I run x, never had a problem".
Have you actually seen the software pick anything up? .. I'm going to guess that you haven't had a problem because you're using the internet cautiously.
It's a bit like saying ... I use a SawStop, never had it trigger, but have had no problems with losing fingers.

Problems aren't just down to infections though.
It's useful to know if the anti-malware/virus software itself causes any problems.
In the past some brands were well known for causing slow downs, conflicts or crashes, the problems often being very difficult to diagnose and recognise what was the culprit.
So hearing "I use xxx and have no problems" can be a useful report.

 

[Bm101]

Word of warning about defragging if you have an SSD (solid state drive) rather than HDD (hard disc drive). You probably shouldn't be defragging at all.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047513/ ... r-ssd.html

 

[cutting42]

I am a bit of a geek and prefer the Auslogics defrag software to the native windows version, It also has a SSD defrag setting to address what Bm101 mentioned

 

[Rhossydd]

From the link bm101 posted;
"I’m firmly convinced that the tiny difference that even the best SSD defragger makes is not worth reducing the life span of your SSD."

Just don't do it.