Security Suite

[Jeff Thoele]

What's the best security suite. I was going to try Avast but I read in a
review that other suites do a better job. Do I need a security suite? I do
bank online and I pay most of my bills online.
Jeff

 

[Bruce Hagen]

What's the best security suite. I was going to try Avast but I read in a
review that other suites do a better job. Do I need a security suite? I
do bank online and I pay most of my bills online.
Jeff

MSE works well and is not a resource hog.

Microsoft Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx

 

[Jeff Thoele]

MSE works well and is not a resource hog.

Microsoft Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx

I had a problem with MSE, I can't uninstall the present copy or install a
new one.
I tried to manually uninstall it but the registry key isn't there.
I had trouble with my computer and a tech uninstalled and reinstalled a
bunch of stuff and I think he did something wrong.
The security center in the control panel tells me that it's on but it's not
in Add/Remove Programs, when I do a search, it can't find it and it's not in
Revo Uninstaller.
Should I install another antivirus? I had Avast too for a while with no
problems.
Jeff

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I had a problem with MSE, I can't uninstall the present copy or install
a new one.
I tried to manually uninstall it but the registry key isn't there.
I had trouble with my computer and a tech uninstalled and reinstalled a
bunch of stuff and I think he did something wrong.
The security center in the control panel tells me that it's on but it's
not in Add/Remove Programs, when I do a search, it can't find it and
it's not in Revo Uninstaller.
Should I install another antivirus? I had Avast too for a while with no
problems.
Jeff

I don't know if this will help you or not.

How to manually uninstall MSE
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2435760

Or you may be able to clean up MSE with this.

App Remover
http://www.technibble.com/appremover-repair-tool-of-the-week/

AppRemover is a small, free and portable utility designed to be a single
removal tool for a huge list of security products. It can remove products
made by Avast!, AVG, Avira, BullGuard, CA, ClamWin, ESET, F-Secure,
Kaspersky, Lavasoft, McAfee, Microsoft, Norman, Panda, Sophos, Symantec,
TrendMicro, TrustPort, Webroot and many more.

AppRemover Supported Applications
http://www.appremover.com/supported-applications


IMO, Avast free along with Windows Defender is just fine.

Windows Defender:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

 

[VanguardLH]

What's the best security suite. I was going to try Avast but I read in
a review that other suites do a better job. Do I need a security
suite? I do bank online and I pay most of my bills online.

Well, how about one of the most important decision factors in choosing
software: whether you're going to pay for it or not. You never
mentioned if freeware was a requirement for selection or if you're
willing to pay for the software.

Comparisons between security products, particularly anti-virus products,
is almost always made against their payware versions. If you're going
to require a freeware solution then you need to consider what components
or features are missing in the freeware version. For example, Avira's
freeware version is missing components that exist in Avast's freeware
version, like the web guard, mail guard (but something you might end up
disabling anyway), the bootable CD (versus Avast's boot-time scan), and
behavioral analysis - all of which exist in the freeware version of
Avast. Avira's reputation is primarly based on its payware version as
its freeware version lacks coverage for several infection vectors.

Avira and Avast (for their freeware versions) are both adware. You only
see a static ad in Avast's config UI when you load it. With Avira you
get an adware splash banner when you login and an adware popup window on
every update unless you use the workarounds to get rid of the
in-your-face ads. While there are workarounds to get rid of the
nuisancesome adware in Avira, I prefer not to bother with workarounds if
another equivalent or better product is less in my face with their ads.
Avast recently introduced more features into their product one of which
is causing problems: script guard. It is interferring with scripts
internal to applications, like color theming in Windows Media Player.
Disabling it is not sufficient to alleviate the problem. You have to
uninstall and do a custom install (which is ALWAYS recommended anyway)
and deselect their script guard so it is not present at all. With
Avast, I would recommend a custom install that only included: File
System Shield, Web Shield, Network Shield, and Behavior Shield. The
rest (other than Script Shield but which currently has problems) are
somewhat superfluous - as they are in other AV products, too (like any
e-mail scanner, newsgroups/NNTP scanner, prattle client scanner, etc).

MSE has less coverage. It does better at disinfecting a host than does
Avira or Avast but remember that its disinfection is for fewer pests.
Also, many if not most users will complain of severe CPU consumption on
logging into their Windows account due to all of the interrogation that
MSE executes at that time. You'll probably have to wait longer after
logging in before you can start using your computer. I've yet to see
its scheduler actually run at the scheduled time even when the computer
is idle (it's not an accurate scheduler which can cause problems with
other scheduled events). While both Avira and Avast have convenient
methods to temporarily disable them, like during installation of a
trusted program where AV programs may screw up the install, you have to
drill through menus in MSE to disable its on-access (realtime) scanner.
There is no payware version of MSE, just the freeware version (so you
cannot improve its infection vector protection as you could with Avira
but of which many are already included in the freeware version of
Avast).

Rather than trying to ask a community that is focused on general topics
regarding a particular operating system, you might want to ask the folks
that are more focused on anti-virus software over in:

alt.comp.[anti-]virus

 

[Paul in Houston TX]

What's the best security suite. I was going to try Avast but I read in a
review that other suites do a better job. Do I need a security suite? I do
bank online and I pay most of my bills online.
Jeff

IMO, if you are not familiar with computers, then you may want
to get a security suite.
The company laptops have Symantec on them. However, that did not
protect us from one person in the office that clicked on a popup
and allowed several root kits to get on the servers.

I practice safe computing and don't have any active scanners
except an old, free zonealarm fire wall and two hardware fire walls.
Every few months I will d/l some free virus scanner and run it.
I like Avira Rescue Disk.

The last virus I had was in 1991 - Jerusalem virus from a floppy
my son brought home from somewhere.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

What's the best security suite. I was going to try Avast but I read in a
review that other suites do a better job. Do I need a security suite? I do
bank online and I pay most of my bills online.

My advice to avoid all security suites. In fact software suites of any
kind should be avoided.

You should pick and choose the best product of each category. As an
example, just because some company makes the best anti-virus program
doesn't mean it makes the best firewall.

For an anti-virus program, I recommend eSet NOD32, if you are willing
to pay for it. If you want a free anti-virus, I recommend one (do not
run more than one) of the following three:
š
Avira AntiVir
Avast
Microsoft Security Essentials
š
You also need anti-spyware software. I recommend that you download and
install (freeware) MalwareBytes AntiMalware.

And the built-in firewall in Windows is fine.

 

[Tester]

My advice to avoid all security suites. In fact software suites of any
kind should be avoided.

De toute e'vidence vous e^tes un maniaque du contro^le anal de re'tention.
Nous avons trolls aussi des sentiments.

 

[Tester]

Wow. How impressive.
/sarcasm off.

So you liked it then? You are a cleaver little monkey!