Are purchased anti-virus/spyware programs better than free computer downloads?

Question

If so, why and which security software do you recommend for home PC general use?

Answer 1

Yes they are but only if you want to pay for the up-dates every year. How does the figure $50.00 plus every year to keep your computer software up dated sound compaired to FREE up dates forever?

Keep this as well in mind, the costly Virus programs are bloated with un needed add ons that rob your system.

Below is really all you need and what to do to keep your PC running l;ike new for FREE as well. Heck, next year take the $50.00 and go shopping for something nice for you.

First of all what I have done is try to help you and all others get there computer back to how it should be. All the statements as seen below are very helpful and essential steps to help you as well as maintain your computer now and in the days to come.

There is no set speed that your computer should be running at. What happens is your computer will never run as fast as it did when you first brought it home and hooked it up. We all add programs and install software, this is one reason that a computer gets slower and slower. Once we delete or uninstall a program as well there is always part of it left behind on our hard drive. There for you will need to do a total clean out and clean up to recover your lost speed.

Now before I get into the how 2's this program will help monitor your speed and clear the ram to boost the speed. You need FreeRam XP Pro. Read about it here as well as download it for FREE. http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fi... Guaranteed to help you.

Below is how to do this and keep id running much faster. This is long, so you may want to also print this page for later.

How to clean up a computer and keep it running smooth and what you need to do.

Click on My Computer icon and locate your hard drive (Local Disc C or ?)

Right Click on the icon that represents your (Hard Drive). At the bottom of the drop down window Click on Properties.

Click on the tab (Disk Cleanup) and allow this to run the cycle.

Once complete Click on the tab above (Tools). Now click on the (Defragment Now) tab. Once again allow this to complete the cycle. Once done Click on the Tab (Check Now) tab. This will check for errors and repair them.

Now once again (Click on the My Computer Icon) and then (Right Click on the Hard Drive Icon). Now look for the file called (Programs File) and Left Click on it to open it up. Look for any programs that you do not have installed or may have deleted. These simply have been left behind and never un-installed. Delete any you do not need.

Now you have gotten lots of junk off of your computer. Turn off your computer to end this cycle. Once your computer shuts down, restart it. (This step is very important as you do have to end the cycle).

You now will need to clean out your REG System. (You can not do this with out software). These files are tracks for all your activity you ever have done on your computer as well as installed and uninstalled programs and just lots of Junk Files as well as old shortcuts..

Click this link and download http://www.ccleaner.com and install this program. It's FREE as well as safe. No Pop Ups or SpyWare as well as AdWare.

Run this program once installed and all the junk will be removed from your computer. Left over Short Cuts, left over deleted files etc. To start with this program sellect (The Cleaner tab at top Left) now at the bottom (Click on Analyze) let it complete the cycle. (Click on Run Cleaner) and wait till finished. Now (Click on the Issues tab) and at the bottom of page (Click Scan for Issues) wait and see what really is slowing down your computer! (Click on fix sellected Issues) and you have just overhauled your system.

Shut down your computer once again and restart it.

You now have a clean computer. Run the CCleaner once a week and keep your computer like new.

Here are a few useful add on software programs you might consider downloading if you do not already have them. Please keep in mind that none of these programs come with SpyWare, AdWare or Pop Ups. They are all 100% FREE and extremely very useful.

(1) Windows Defender http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx... Windows Defender is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spy ware and other potentially unwanted software.

(2) CWShredder. http://www.download.com/3000-8022_4-1030... Eliminate an insidious pest that Spybot http://www.spywarebot.com/ and Ad-aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ can't stop.Even if your PC has Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy, you still can't stop some versions of an insidious and virus-like pest called CoolWebSearch.

CWShredder finds and destroys traces of CoolWebSearch. CoolWebSearch is a name given to a wide range of different browser hijackers. Though the code is very different between variants, they are all used to redirect users to coolwebsearch.com and other sites affiliated with its operators.

The CoolWebSearch Trojan installs dozens of bookmarks, mostly to porn sites on your desktop; it also adds a tool bar to Internet Explorer and changes your home page without asking. Furthermore, it significantly slows down the performance of your PC, and introduces some modifications which cause Windows to freeze, crash or randomly reboot.

Hope this has helped you as well as all other readers.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

NO they are not better! Norton is the worst and McAffee is a close second. I could go on and on but take it from a tech that has answered thousands of tech support calls.

AVG makes a good free AV program and Ad-aware is a good spyware scanner.

Good to know you're thinking about these things, but at the risk of sounding irresponsible, I don't use ANY AV or spyware program. They slow your PC down unless configured to not be running and scanning all the time.

I stay away from the "seamy" side of the net, odd-ball porn sites, cracker sites, anything illegal or quasi-legal. That's where 99% of these threats come from. Just be mindful of what you click on, especially pop-up ads etc. And don't open any e-mail attachments unless you're certain they're from a friend.

Also ditch Internet Explorer. Download Firefox and install it. I've been using it for two years and NEVER get spyware/viruses. All that garbage is targeted to IE users.

Answer 4

Purchased Anti-Virus/Spyware programs are the best way to go because for one, you are guaranteed of getting appropriate updates as they become available and with the purchased software, it will contain more features than the free and or trial version.

We mostly use Norton 2007 Antivirus for our Antivirus (Norton Corp), Spyware Doctor (PC Tools) to block spy intrusions and Zone Alarm Firewall by (by ZoneLabs) and we have not had any intrusions since installation; however it’s up to the user preference on what they want to use as in AVG Antivirus and so forth.

So ask yourself, is it better to have a fully registered version and get updates when they become available or stay with a free or trial version that may expire without notice and no updates?

Answer 5

Usually since the need more support so you have to pay them, but free anti-virus/spyware are better than nothing. I would recommend Norton or Mcafee or Spy sweeper for protection. However, good free spyware are Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-aware SE. Good free anti-virus software are avast and AVG.

Answer 6

having tried several malware defece packages over the years, i've found that the freeware programs often caused me more problems than they solved or prevented.
mcaffee and symantec tended to use up a lot of system resources slowing down system performance.
trend-micro pc-cillin i've found is the BEST of all the defence and protection suites i've tried over the years.
get your free trial from http://www.trend-micro.com read about pc-cillin internet security 2007 and get your free trial copy.
the suite protects your wireless network, it acts as a child internet safety feature to block certain websites or categories of website when required, it can protect you against sensitve data used by I.D. thievs etc from getting on to the net without you authorising the site or person the data is being sent too even between your home LAN. it warns of unsafe websites amongst many other wonderful features that symantec charge triple the cost of the trend micro product for the same level of features which requires more than one product from the likes of mcaffee and symantec to do the same job as the trend product.

the trend product scans every sector of your drive including the system volume information where windows stores your systems restore points which some other software can not get access too which is why you are told to disable system restore if a virus is found and then restart your computer.
the trend micro product does not require you to disable system restore if an infection is found. and it does not require you to restart your computer either, except in exceptional circumstances such as an update occasionally will require your system to restart.
hell i use this trend product on all my home computers and have never had a virus or other infection on my system while using the program set at maximum protection level. the only problems it finds are the cookies from the websites i allow to download cookies/ access.
i had malware break through every other defence package i used.
avg, norton/symantec and mcaffee.

to boost your systems overall security and stability use adaware from http://www.lavasoft.com

clean out your web browsers cache at least once a week.

keep your primary or C: drive at least 20% free.
and your PSU should have at least 20% more power than your system requires under full load. If you want a system that is stanble and 100% reliable.


i use one of my systems as a family web, email and FTP server observing all the above points and i have never had a problem with the system. it is on 24/7 at least 9 out of ten days on average & often on longer than that.

good luck.
you have been warned. oh and the trend product is around £40 a year, bargain if you value your time and a reliable system.

Answer 7

YES --
To the extent they have been at their field for some time, there is a financial community oversight (they need to answer to a higher source if they "let one get by"), their reputation is always at risk (they must answer to a larger user community(consumer & business), they often have additional features with their programs, they are easily (automatically) updated, they are a known quantity, etc.

These are the dominant:
McAffee, Symantec, Windows Live OneCare.
I've used them all --currenlty using latter as had a good intro price and covered 3 PC's

I've also used freebies, and not-so freebies which were more targeted probes. They did their specific jobs, but for general use, I would recommend one of the big-boys noted above.

Make sure you get one with a firewall -- to guard against the junk some of the visited sites are trying to dump onto your PC.

Safe computing

Answer 8

Purchased software will give product support and product update. I can give a few links that offer free virus and spyware removers...! Norton, AVG , Avast are free antivirus software. Ad-aware, Ewido are free spyware removers. You can download free softwares at
http://fixit.in/antivirus.html and http://fixit.in/spywareremover.html

Answer 9

If you try a new anti-virus, be sure to uninstall the old one first. But before you do all that; Reboot into SAFE mode. Just hit the F8 key during the startup sequence, but BEFORE the first Windows screen appears. Timing is critical, so wait for it. Pick SAFE mode from the black menu that comes up. Then run your anti-virus scan while in safe mode.

I recommend that you go to http://www.download.com and get AD-AWARE and SpyBot Search & Destory. Install, run, update and scan your computer with both programs.

Good luck and Happy Computing!

Answer 10

Yes, because they are updated better than the free ones
i recommend you get Norton Internet Security or ZoneAlarm.