antivirus free

[Bacon]

Yeah but can't people just program the virus to kill any a/v processes when it runs?

[+JuggerNaut+]

No computer is totally secure as long as it's powered up.

Let's move on.

[Tormentius]

Yeah but can't people just program the virus to kill any a/v processes when it runs?

Yes but if the infected process isn't started with administrative privileges then it can't shut down other processes. Some antivirus apps have also have additional safeguards in place to prevent their processes from being shut down. Its possible but not easy.

[quaker13]

Thanks for all the input.

I think I'll try Microsoft Security Essentials.

[Foo]

Been running it for a few days now. Verdict is positive. It's unintrusive and straightforwards. The only downside is that it's slightly slower than avast and scanning internet downloads through firefox. No big.

So that completes the OS package really... windows firewall + security essentials means I don't need any third party security stuff at all. Sweet.

[+JuggerNaut+]

[SoM]

can i still keep windows defender when i get MSE ? or is MSE mainly just a virus scanner ?

[Tormentius]

MSE includes both antivirus and antispyware protection.

[SoM]

so i should get rid of both AVG FREE and windows defender? cause the MSE install says just to uninstall my antivirus scanner...

[Tormentius]

Yeah, MSE includes antispyware and rootkit detection.

[SoM]

thx

[^Ghost]

MSE is horrible. doesnt protect from much, and it scans VERY slow, a normal scan that would take 30 minutes, would take at least an hour with MSE..

as for avast, it is supposed to be free, but i was dissappointed because my free trial ended which was kinda surpising, because its never happened to me b4.. so i 'bought' a license.

[obsidian]

It is free. You just have to register once a year (for free, as in no charge, as in not a cent).

[Tormentius]

Ghost, you say MSE doesn't "protect from much" yet it scores significantly higher than AVG and other leading AV apps in tests. Care to explain that? Saying a scan takes longer with one app or another depends entirely on the state of your machine, the products in question, how comprehensive the scan is, etc, etc.

As for Avast its still free with registration, as Obsidian pointed out. They simply require a two minute registration process.

[AmIdYfReAk]

on the topic of MSE, anyone have Stupidly Slow Network Browsing?

it takes ~45 seconds before i can click another folder on my nas with MSE installed, ~1 second with it uninstalled.

[Tormentius]

Nope, no problems here or on anyone's system else I installed it on.

[quaker13]

Installed MSE and it installs and updates and scans very quickly on my computer running Windows 7 Pro

Very happy with it. Thanks for the tip Tormentius

[+JuggerNaut+]

on the topic of MSE, anyone have Stupidly Slow Network Browsing?

it takes ~45 seconds before i can click another folder on my nas with MSE installed, ~1 second with it uninstalled.

nope.

[prince1000]

Yeah was using MSE in beta for a while at work. Haven't bothered to look into it but anyone know if there's a server end for deploy/management? Still using Symantec Corp 8.1 @ and need a leaner solution for outdated machines.

[Tormentius]

Yeah the client/server version is Forefront Security and I just finished rolling it out on a network. The server side ties heavily into SQL 2005 and installs a custom version of MOM so its anything but lean. With that said, the management interface, reporting, and client deployment is simple and efficient. You deploy the client to a GPO or an OU then the product and all updates are installed and kept up to date by WSUS.

IMO avoid upgrading Symantec if at all possible. Their product has gone from top notch to a steaming pile in the past couple of versions. Symantec 11 recently missed a trojan which spread across a good chunk of a client site before a colleague noticed it.

[SoM]

ukc symantec indeed, i've not used it since 96 or some $hit

[Foo]

I'm considering Forefront for our environment. We have Sophos at the moment it under the hood it's a total mess... even after careful, ground-up builds.

[Tormentius]

I'm considering Forefront for our environment. We have Sophos at the moment it under the hood it's a total mess... even after careful, ground-up builds.

Just an FYI, there is no MSI version for rollouts. The deployment agent basically adds a bunch of registry entries which trigger the download of the client app from the WSUS server. Much like Office, Microsoft has chosen to go away from simple and manageable MSI deployments with Forefront in favour of a mangled mess of scripts and answer based installs. Mind you, Symantec has done the same in recent years. Once the Forefront client is deployed the maintenance and management is a snap. Its the initial deployment that can take some time unless you have an image you can slipstream it into.