Antivirus for basic user

[mountaintree16]

My friends mother has been complaining that her computer is slow lately.

She doesn't really know much about AV's and such (at least as far as I know) she just wants to be able to use the computer and not have to configure things and worry about them, and just have it update and scan without her having to do much. She's also going back to school online now, so she needs the computer to work and not be so slowwww.

I've been thinking about the slowness for the past few days. I've run CCleaner on it, ATF cleaner, and I did a defrag or two last time I was there. I've Mbamed it also of course, and the only infection found with that was the AntiVirus 2009 rogue early last year, which is long gone as far as I know, nothing else has come up since in scans. It also is a rather old computer, around when XP came out, but still. XP SP3.

Then a couple days ago it dawned on me what it might be... they have free McAfee Security from their ISP. I then said "a-hah!", that's probably it.

So, I just told my friend that it's probably McAfee as its often a huge system resource hog and that I could either give her directions on setting up a new AV or do it myself next time I can make it over there. The computer always used to have AVG free on it, and a long time ago, Norton. (Probably would be a good idea to run the removal tools on it for all of those as back then I had no idea about any of this stuff other than an AV was necessary, hehe)

I was thinking either MSE, Avira, or Avast!

Regarding MSE for those who have used it or do use it:

From what I have gathered reading about it and reading about it from other people's experience with it on the forum here, MSE is very basic with users in mind who don't know much about security but still need a good security program on their computer.

Does MSE require manual update? I can't put an AV on there that requires a manual update. Also, regarding this: http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.p...st&p=181018, should that also be done for the free Mbam as well? I watched the setup video just now and it also appears that there is a quick and a full scan. Which is best?

I need opinions:

MSE, Avira, or Avast! for her?

[marktreg]

Personally, I like MSE. I have been installing it on a lot of my customer's computers lately. It's basically a 'set it and forget it' type of program. So, in most cases, you can just install it, set it up how you want it, and then pretty much leave it alone afterwards. It automatically updates its virus definitions once every 24 hours, and it will also perform scheduled scans. I have never noticed any 'freezing issues' on XP computers running MSE and the FREE version of MBAM, so I'm pretty sure you only need to set those exclusions in MSE if you have the paid version. The Quick Scan in MSE only scans places on your computer where malware is most likely to reside. And the Full Scan will scan all the files on your computer, but it will take a lot longer to complete than the Quick Scan. The default scheduled scan settings for MSE will run a Quick Scan once per week, but you can change it to a Full Scan or change it scan every day if you like. I usually just leave it on its default settings.

Details about MSE virus definition updates are here:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...e7-d1aca7d3f1ba

And a full guide on how to setup MSE is here:

http://www.malwarehelp.org/microsoft-secur...tings-2009.html

I hope this helps.

~Mark.

[exile360]

+1 for MSE, it's about as simple as it gets and it appears to have decent detection rates.

[mountaintree16]

Thanks you guys!

Marktreg, I'll check out those links later on

Just waiting to see some other opinions too. I have some time also, probably won't be over there for a few weeks yet.

[catscomputer]

Hello Mountaintree

One of the things I like about AVG free is that it is very simple to use, but MSE sounds even simpler ( a true "set and forget product" - to quote marktreg ) and it has much better detection rates than AVG from what I've read and heard. I have yet to switch AVs, but my step-brother has MSE on his new netbook and I had a good play with it the other day. I was impressed with it, and it's super easy to use.

PS I've just remembered the ongoing problem of frequent AVG FPs with MBAM software. That mightn't be the easiest thing for your friend's mother to deal with. Another vote for MSE

[mountaintree16]

Thanks catscomputer.

She doesn't really know how to use Mbam though, at least not as far as I know. I run it when I am there

Thanks for your input

MSE sounds great, and I've heard great things about it from GT500 and Exile and others who've used it or do use it, and it seems great for the very basic user, which is why I was considering using that one the most out of the three I named.

[noknojon]

@ mountaintree16 -

The program (MSE) seemed to update quietly in the background , but I always do a manual update check once every week (Just to be sure) -

Very light and very 'quiet', also much better than nothing - If using MSE on XP with MBAM Pro read this from GT500 -

http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.p...st&p=181018

Regards -

[Firefox]

I see from reading that it is smooth and light, can someone tell me how much memory it takes on a computer for its processes?

thanks

[Maniac]

Surely this antivirus program called Microsoft Security Essentials.

System requirements:

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentia...t=en-pk&s=1

Antivirus program already being tested by the independent organization AV-Comparatives, so you can see more information in their tests.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

[Ibrad]

I had McAfee from my ISP once and my PC was slow! I vote for MSE or Panda Cloud

[Blaze]

I'm also using Panda Cloud Antivirus, and I'm very satisfied of it.

My second opinion would be MSE, as it's also pretty light and silently does the job.

Hope that helps .

[mountaintree16]

The ISP is ditching McAfee and going to Norton. I am currently uninstalling it & installing MSE & if she doesn't like that then I told her she can go to the Norton if she wants

Thanks everyone for your input & I am sorry to have not replied to you all sooner.

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Another for MSE.

[mountaintree16]

hehe. It was either that or Avira I think but I think the pop up would really, really annoy her. So we'll see how this goes, and I hope she has faster computer reports for me!! She's been complaining that its slow. I also left a defrag running when I left & CCleaner-ed it too, since it hadn't been for a while, since the last time I was there. If she doesn't like it for whatever reason, I'll uninstall it and she can do the Norton.

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Sadly, I wonder if it would be better if you left norton? I really don't care for norton, but that might be the best idea.

[mountaintree16]

Norton isn't that bad anymore

There WAS no Norton though. McAfee was still on there, the ISP is switching from Norton to McAfee, but she hadn't made the switch yet. So I told her if she doesn't like MSE we can try the Norton

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Sounds good. But I'm still not a fan of it.

Maybe she will like McAfee? My mom has it and considering all the IS options out there its quite low on space. Only about 45 MB. Avira is over 60 MB and she has McAfee security center(firewall, av, hosts protection ect). Quite impressed that most everything is quite large and McAfee is very low. That still doesn't mean I don't like Avira compared McAfee.

[mountaintree16]

Buttons I think you are quite confused.

Read the first post if you haven't already

I just got RID of McAfee, it seems as though McAfee was dragging down system resources quite a bit, and when I checked it in Task Manager prior to uninstall it was quite high compared to some other AV's. It was the McAfee security center. I've replaced it with MSE for now

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Probably.

Just did.

Doesn't seem too bad on my mom's computer. The computer is a little slow, but not too slow. Maybe that's what's causing it? Anyways I won't do anything for a few months as her subscription is still active. I'll check on it in a little bit.

Edit: added picture link to photobucket for background scan of McAfee. http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac185/B...kgroundscan.jpg

Here's a image for McAfee size in programs and features. http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac185/B...cket/McAfee.jpg

Here's the last for scan wit McAfee's scan window open. http://i898.photobucket.com/albums/ac185/B...et/openscan.jpg

[mountaintree16]

Well, it's a very old XP & has 504 MB of RAM, so, that isn't helping either

Thanks for the pics, I'll check them out & glad you figured out the links! hehe.

Time to update some Java on there too (screen shot you showed me)

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Took a while.. I need to put adblock, flash block and hostsman on. Hate the ads.

[mountaintree16]

hehe.

You need to update Java too

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Super. Maybe that will help. Got to put openoffice on first.

[mountaintree16]

And you know, I don't know what version of McAfee was on there, but one of the processes in the background, no scanning or anything, just running, was 110,000k in the Task Manager... :/ Seems much lighter on your moms machine.

[enes]

hi,

if you want a different opinion then me

i say avira MSE uses more than mcafee

320 avira uses 14 at most