jefs7 said:
vista home basic. is windows defender and windows firewall enough
protection?
Not even close. While Vista's built-in firewall is usually quite
satisfactory for most home consumer's needs, Windows Defender is only a
"less-than-stellar" anti-adware and anti-spyware product. It has no
anti-virus capabilities, whatsoever. You should consider adding both
Ad-Aware from
www.lavasoft.de and SpyBot Search & Destroy from
www.safer-networking.org/. Both have free versions. It's even possible
to use SpyBot Search & Destroy to "immunize" your system against most
future intrusions. You'll also need some sort of anti-virus application.
mcafee came with the system but many people say it slows down the
system immensely.
It does.
You'll get nearly as many differing opinions as you will responses.
I'll start by saying that I don't think any security "suite" is a
good choice. It'd be better to use smaller, less-resource-draining
stand-alone products. And, having had personal experience with
Verizon's business practices, I certainly wouldn't trust anything they
offer. Even if the product/service itself is fine, there'll be hidden
costs and "unadvertised" conditions and limitations associated with it.
I used, and recommended, Norton Antivirus and then Norton Internet
Security, for many years, on Win98, WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP, all without
any significant problems. I had used McAfee prior to that. But it's
been several years since I've been tempted to try McAfee products. Their
quality seemed to take a steep nose-dive after they were acquired by
Network Associates.
However, when my subscription to Symantec's updates for Norton
Internet Security 2002 came up for renewal (at a cost substantially
higher than the preceding year's subscription), I decided to try less
expensive solutions. I downloaded and installed the free version of
GriSoft's AVG (
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php ). It proved
to be easily installed, easy to use, and quite effective. Additionally,
I was pleasantly surprised to see a small but very noticeable
improvement in my PC's performance, once I'd replaced the Symantec
product. Another free (for personal use) anti-virus product is AVAST! 4
Home Edition (
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html), which is what
I'm currently using without problems on Vista Business.
For a recent comparison of anti-virus products:
Retrospective / ProActive Test
http://www.av-comparatives.org/
this system is already very slow, i despise vista.
Why blame Vista?
bought
a toshiba satellite a135 laptop for my 11 year old child and even my child is
dissapointed.
What are the system's hardware specifications? Does it have at least
2GB of RAM? Bear in mind that the A135 is pretty much from the lowest
end of the scale; it can't be expected to have outstanding performance.
just wondering if uninstalling mcafee would help ....
Yes, as long as you replace it with another anti-virus application.
... and if defender
is suitable protection ....
Definitely not.
... or if there is a more suitable software protection out
there. thank you
As above.
--
Bruce Chambers
Help us help you:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot
