Best free antivirus?: Motoring Computer Related forum

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Thread Author: Dog	Replies: 87

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Fri 11 Oct 13 08:32

Best free antivirus? - Dog

What do our learned fiends think about this subject I wonder, I use MSE but, should I/we bin it?

www.pcpro.co.uk/features/379993/best-free-antivirus-for-2013

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Fri 11 Oct 13 08:36

Best free antivirus? - Focusless

Interesting - "Sadly, a very poor performance in our malware detection tests means [Microsoft] Security Essentials is one option we can’t recommend".

Might try their recommended option, Avast.

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Fri 11 Oct 13 09:29

Best free antivirus? - Manatee

Non-learned, but I'm not rushing to change. I have had no problems using MSE, unlike every other AV I have used. They all go up and down the league tables.

Several recent tests have favoured Avast free. If I was setting up a new windows PC I might give it a try, but I'm not messing with the existing ones.

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Fri 11 Oct 13 09:49

Best free antivirus? - Fursty Ferret

Avast Free has decent protection, but adds over a minute to a computer's boot up time (from an SSD too) according to a recent test.

lifehacker.com/anti-virus-boot-times-compared-paid-options-come-out-o-1417057778

I have Windows 7 and don't use anti-virus software. Have never had a problem. Microsoft's own malware removal tool runs from time to time. Never reports finding anything.

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Fri 11 Oct 13 09:59

Best free antivirus? - Dog

I use Windows 7, MSE, and Malwarebytes anti-malware, MSE has caught one or two trojans over the years.

I run a full scan occasionally which usually comes up clear - best to avoid iffy websites ;)

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Fri 11 Oct 13 12:25

Best free antivirus? - Zero

That report is 8 months old and is of no current value.

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Fri 11 Oct 13 22:11

Best free antivirus? - sajid

I use mse plus malaware antimalaware plus crap cleaner, best to rely on different tools

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Sat 12 Oct 13 17:06

Best free antivirus? - Stuartli

Avast! has been my choice for quite a few years now - about once or twice a year nabs a nasty, otherwise works in the background. A key benefit for those who can't or won't update regularly is that it does this itself and informs you it has done so.

SpyBot (Search and Destroy), AntiMalwarebytes, and SUPERAntispyware, along with SpywareBlaster, are also excellent freeware.

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Sat 12 Oct 13 20:59

Best free antivirus? - Dog

Cheers for that Stuartli.

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Tue 15 Oct 13 16:17

Best free antivirus? - Ambo

My expert recommended Avast! but later scrapped it in favour of MSE. The latter takes about 2 hours for a full scan. It rarely finds anything wrong.

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Wed 16 Oct 13 11:56

Best free antivirus? - movilogo

Used to love AVG but lately it became resource hogger and started disturbing too often.

So got rid of it and now using MSE.

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Thu 17 Oct 13 20:42

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

I use MSE, super anti spyware and Linux.

MSE is ok for users like myself who know what they are doing, I have never been infected as I know what I am doing. I try and push a paid version of Kaspersky for my customers as I think it offers the best balance between protection and speed. Avast tends to slow machines down too much unless they are high spec.

Eset is another very good product but it is hard to make margins on it for the home user.

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Fri 18 Oct 13 06:32

Best free antivirus? - Victorbox

>> MSE is ok for users like myself who know what they are doing, I have
>> never been infected as I know what I am doing. I try and push a
>> paid version of Kaspersky for my customers as I think it offers the best balance
>> between protection and speed. Avast tends to slow machines down too much unless they are
>> high spec.

Funny as I use the Avast free version on an old clunker Pentium III IBM T23 laptop with Windows 7 Pro as MSE (which I use on three other PC's) slows it down too much.

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Fri 18 Oct 13 06:43

Best free antivirus? - swiss tony

>> Funny as I use the Avast free version on an old clunker Pentium III IBM T23 laptop with Windows 7 Pro as MSE (which I use on three other PC's) slows it down too much.
>>

I had the same experience.
Due in part to comments on here, I removed AVG, and loaded MSE.
Iy was like putting the machine in reverse! I suffered with it for about a week, but gave up.
Removed MSE, reloaded AVG, and machine returned to its normal speed.

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Fri 18 Oct 13 08:15

Best free antivirus? - Zero

Like reinstalling windows, it pays to remove and reinstall your AV.

Avast, particularly, slows the machine up over time, and needs to be removed and reinstalled to get back to where it was.

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Fri 18 Oct 13 14:36

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

I've never noticed MSE slow a machine down unless it is doing something. However I also know exactly what is slowing a machine down. The only machines I have seen MSE play up by hogging resources are the ones that are badly infected.

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Fri 18 Oct 13 15:02

Best free antivirus? - rtj70

>> I've never noticed MSE slow a machine down unless it is doing something.

MSE can have performance issues for the machine if the .NET updates are going to have to regen a lot of native images. On one machine we had these seemed never to complete and so high CPU utilisation was ongoing. Removal of MSE and install of an alternative AV and nothing found with AV or other security scanners. I think .NET needed fixing and perhaps MSE reinstalling.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 17:46

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

It appears that with withdrawal of support for XP tomorrow the MSE/XP combo will no longer function.

Miss B's Toshiba has thrown a wobble while her dissertation is at critical state. She's therefore using my PB/Win7 and I'm stuck with the Samsung N130 netbook for my own stuff.

On comments above it looks like Avast or AVG, probably former, is best bet. What do the experts think?

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Mon 7 Apr 14 18:12

Best free antivirus? - rtj70

I'd look at upgrading XP if it was me. I know a lot of people will think they will be okay but as soon as Microsoft releases fixes for issues with Windows 7 and 8 and Server 2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2 then the vulnerability will be known and then exploited on XP.

And if you were into viruses/trojans and found a hole in XP, wouldn't you wait until XP was no longer patched before you try to exploit a vulnerability? I know I would. Not that I'm into that sort of stuff.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 18:16

Best free antivirus? - Zero

>> On comments above it looks like Avast or AVG, probably former, is best bet. What
>> do the experts think?

The expert thinks you should dump XP and install Win 7. It will work surprisingly well on the XP hardware. If you are a tightwad, install a linux distro.

Last edited by: Zero on Mon 7 Apr 14 at 18:17

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Mon 7 Apr 14 18:30

Best free antivirus? - sherlock47

TechRadar Pro
News
Microsoft extends XP anti-malware support past end-of-life date

Microsoft has announced this that it will continue to provide anti-malware support for Windows XP until July 2015 - a little over one year after its end-of-life date on April 8.

The question must be will this support extend tp to preventing/limiting attacks through any newly identified vulnerabilities?

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Mon 7 Apr 14 19:00

Best free antivirus? - rtj70

>> The question must be will this support extend tp to preventing/limiting attacks through any
>> newly identified vulnerabilities?

Attacks will be detected and if virus/trojan it will stop it. Any underlying vulnerability in XP will not be patched. So if a buffer overflow type problem allows someone to get admin access - you're stuffed. And some of the exploits in past years could not be stopped by AV or anti-malware - the problem was too deep rooted. And firewalls didn't help much at times either.

Upgrade to Windows 7 is my advice.

Of course pay for extended support, and fixes will be available for 12 months.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 19:03

Best free antivirus? - Zero

From Microsoft

As a result, after April 8, 2014, technical assistance for Windows XP will no longer be available, including automatic updates that help protect your PC. Microsoft will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP on this date. (If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will continue to receive antimalware signature updates for a limited time, but this does not mean that your PC will be secure because Microsoft will no longer be providing security updates to help protect your PC.)

If you continue to use Windows XP after support ends, your computer will still work but it might become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses. Also, as more software and hardware manufacturers continue to optimize for more recent versions of Windows, you can expect to encounter greater numbers of apps and devices that do not work with Windows XP.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 19:13

Best free antivirus? - Slidingpillar

I use Avast on both the Windows 8.1 laptop, and the Vista desk PC. Works for me.

A paid for Norton 360 though wrecked the previous desk PC.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 20:09

Best free antivirus? - rtj70

And if there turns out to be a vulnerability in say RPC that means a PC that remains on XP is compromised... then just hope you don't lose out financially. I wouldn't do online banking on an XP machine that's for sure!

There will be some thinking the likes of me and Zero are scaremongering. We're not. We're offering sensible advice.

As soon as Microsoft releases a patch for Windows Vista, 7 or 8 that is security related, chances are it applies to XP as well.... And tells the hackers what to target.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 20:20

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

>> And if there turns out to be a vulnerability in say RPC that means a
>> PC that remains on XP is compromised... then just hope you don't lose out financially.
>> I wouldn't do online banking on an XP machine that's for sure!

Will be interesting to see how banks respond. If they think XP is an appreciable risk they'll block or restrict it pdq.

Last time I checked Santander wouldn't allow the Android banking app on a Tesco Hudl, neither was it possible to access internet banking on Hudl + Chrome used as a standard browser. IIRC it took them some time to approve at least one iteration change in IE, perhaps 6 to 7.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 20:31

Best free antivirus? - Zero

>> >> And if there turns out to be a vulnerability in say RPC that means
>> a
>> >> PC that remains on XP is compromised... then just hope you don't lose out
>> financially.
>> >> I wouldn't do online banking on an XP machine that's for sure!
>>
>> Will be interesting to see how banks respond. If they think XP is an appreciable
>> risk they'll block or restrict it pdq.

No they won't, What they will do is completely deny responsibility or any recompense if your account is compromised or money goes missing. As they do if you can not prove the PC you use to access the account is suitably protected, and that includes a windows log on password

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Mon 7 Apr 14 20:54

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

>> No they won't, What they will do is completely deny responsibility or any recompense if
>> your account is compromised or money goes missing. As they do if you can not
>> prove the PC you use to access the account is suitably protected, and that includes
>> a windows log on password

Perhaps I'd better instal that Trusteer Rapport software they've nagged me about for years?

Seriously, I've now got Miss B's lappy fully backed up with data duplicated on my NAS.

Will start a re-install of W7 at 08:00 tomorrow so should have my own W7 machine back by close of play.

Subsequently, as I'll still take it travelling, what is best source/medium for a legit W7 install for my netbook which of course lacks an optical drive?

I guess answer re medium is CD/DVD launched from either a portable drive or another PC on network with its optical drive temporarily enabled as shared - that's how Office was installed.

Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 7 Apr 14 at 20:54

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Mon 7 Apr 14 20:57

Best free antivirus? - Zero

>> >> No they won't, What they will do is completely deny responsibility or any recompense
>> if
>> >> your account is compromised or money goes missing. As they do if you can
>> not
>> >> prove the PC you use to access the account is suitably protected, and that
>> includes
>> >> a windows log on password
>>
>> Perhaps I'd better instal that Trusteer Rapport software they've nagged me about for years?

Seriously, yes. That is specifically a case in point, despite rapport being a back door to being compromised.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 21:08

Best free antivirus? - Kevin

>I guess answer re medium is CD/DVD launched from either a portable drive..

I think I still have a USB DVD drive stashed away in the loft that you can have for a donation of postage costs to the charity of your choice.

I'll try and find it if you want it.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 21:38

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

Kevin,

Thanks, that offer is greatly appreciated. If I need it then presumably I can contact you via profile/mods?

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Mon 7 Apr 14 22:10

Best free antivirus? - Kevin

>Thanks, that offer is greatly appreciated. If I need it then presumably I can contact you via profile/mods?

The mods can give you my email address.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 21:34

Best free antivirus? - Zero

>> I guess answer re medium is CD/DVD launched from either a portable drive or another
>> PC on network with its optical drive temporarily enabled as shared - that's how Office
>> was installed.

Doing a windows install that usually results in failure as the share is lost during one of the install phases. Remote installs are usually done with some kind of boot device or from the host to device.

A USB attached DVD drive is a worthwhile investment, I have a Samsung-SE-208DB - less than 20 quid from Amazon.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 21:46

Best free antivirus? - rtj70

>> Trusteer Rapport

Gets on badly with some other AV software. Or did. Can hang a Windows PC.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 21:49

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

I never uninstall Rapport for obvious reasons but I often advise clients it is what is making their PC run so slow especially on older machines.

It is difficult for me to tell people what to do about XP as I don't want to be seen as scare mongering or trying the hard sell but I simply say the official advise is to upgrade to a new version of windows which in most cases means a new computer.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 22:00

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

>> >> Trusteer Rapport
>>
>> Gets on badly with some other AV software. Or did. Can hang a Windows PC.

I've avoided it to date for precisely that reason plus my suspicion that its 'spyware' allowing Santander to know more than it does already of my spending habits.

Right now it's just on a netbook that substitutes for my main laptop when travelling or, as at present, necessity means the main device is hors de combat (on loan to Miss B who's own PC threw a wobbly inside last fortnight for submision of her degree dissertation)*.

*{paranoid} the dissertation is on break up of USSR and she's explored/expressed facts and opinions that trigger Russian IT attacks{/paranoid}

Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 7 Apr 14 at 22:01

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Mon 7 Apr 14 22:05

Best free antivirus? - Robin O'Reliant

I had to junk Trusteer after it slowed my PC to a crawl. I made a point of phoning the bank (Who'd recommended it) and asking them to put that on record which they did.

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Tue 8 Apr 14 10:18

Uninstalling trusteer - Meldrew

Re the above I am trying to uninstall but early in the process I get a pop-up sating "Captcha Invalid - uninstall aborted" I understand exactly what that means but it comes up without my having been given a Captcha to enter! Any thoughts please

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Wed 9 Apr 14 12:11

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

Trusteer is utter pants. Installed on Monday night and off again by 10:00 yesterday. Made the Samsung N130 utterly unuseable. So slow it took Control Panel>Uninstall several minutes to sort itself out, in fact it worked quicker to use the uninstall option in CC.

Not easy to get rid of either, needed a Captcha code and some other faffing to get rid.

Feedback sent.

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Mon 7 Apr 14 23:56

Best free antivirus? - FocalPoint

"*{paranoid} the dissertation is on break up of USSR and she's explored/expressed facts and opinions that trigger Russian IT attacks{/paranoid}"

Perhaps I'm being too literal-minded and/or failing to understand your comment (what's with the curly brackets?), but are you seriously suggesting that comments made in a text document (Word or whatever) are/were being read by somebody? If so, then it wasn't the dissertation that triggered the attacks - someone had already got into the computer, otherwise how would they know what was there?

Or am I misreading this?

I have a particular interest, as I'm working on an essay at the moment about Communism, Socialist Realism and the influence of the Soviets on musical composition, in which my opinions are necessarily expressed. So far no-one seems to be taking any interest. Maybe it's not so controversial as the break-up of the USSR.

Last edited by: FocalPoint on Mon 7 Apr 14 at 23:57

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Tue 8 Apr 14 08:56

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

FP

It's a joke - the curly brackets are used HTML fashion to indicate (mock) paranoia on and then off again

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Tue 8 Apr 14 09:21

Best free antivirus? - Clk Sec

Is it worth trying to upgrade my elderly PC to Windows 8.1 via this link, please:

windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/end-support-help

Or should I start again from scratch?

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Tue 8 Apr 14 09:49

Best free antivirus? - FocalPoint

"It's a joke..."

Ah.

Last edited by: FocalPoint on Tue 8 Apr 14 at 09:49

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Tue 8 Apr 14 09:54

Best free antivirus? - Clk Sec

>> "It's a joke..."
>>
>> Ah.
>>

Sorry if it looks that way, FP, but I'm less PC savvy than many (or most) hereabouts.

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Tue 8 Apr 14 10:02

Best free antivirus? - Clk Sec

Too late to edit :-(

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Tue 8 Apr 14 11:50

Best free antivirus? - FocalPoint

This thread has degenerated into a sorry saga of misunderstandings, it seems.

I take full responsibility for starting the rot.

I'm just getting paranoid about my essay, the situation in the Ukraine and the resumption of the Cold War. (Partner's family originally came from the Ukraine - forcibly resettled in Poland when the boundaries were redrawn after WW2.)

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Tue 8 Apr 14 21:38

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

I'm in the same boat. My 11 yr old desktop is running Win Xp.

It had a problem a while back (eventually traced to a couple of duff capacitors in the PSU) and fixed it for a couple of quid.

Now it looks like MS are going to finish it off anyway.

I've got a laptop that runs Vista, but I've never liked using it on a daily basis. Perhaps if I hook it up to my desktop monitor things might be different.

In the meantime will the advice given below help until I replace my aging desktop?

www.tomsguide.com/us/10-tips-safely-run-windows-xp,news-18571.html

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Wed 9 Apr 14 09:12

Best free antivirus? - Clk Sec

>> I'm in the same boat. My 11 yr old desktop is running Win Xp.

I've had mine almost that long, so I think I'll start looking for a new one.

Bought online previously, but I might start by asking a local Rattle equivalent for a quote this time.

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Wed 9 Apr 14 09:33

Best free antivirus? - Ambo

I use MSE and it seems fine but a full scan takes nearly two hours. I also use free Malwarebytes (also very long on full scan). In addition I use free CrapCeaner on the assumption that cookies hanging about on the computer can harbour bugs but is that true? (I use the automatic "delete history" option but a lot of cookies remain anyway.)

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Wed 9 Apr 14 09:41

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

>> In addition I use free CrapCleaner
>> I use the automatic "delete history" option but a lot of cookies remain anyway.

In the settings you can decide what cookies you want to keep or trash.

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Wed 9 Apr 14 09:54

Best free antivirus? - rtj70

>> assumption that cookies hanging about on the computer can harbour bugs but is that true

A cookie is just a text file which has details of your visit to a website. They then use the information when you return. Or another website can use cookies from other websites you have visited. So perhaps you go to a new website and it has adverts related to a hotel search you did on Booking.com or items you looked at on Amazon.com.

The Telegraph website uses a cookie to try to stop you viewing too many articles for free in a month. Deleting the Telegraph cookie soon overcomes that restriction.

Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 9 Apr 14 at 09:54

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Wed 9 Apr 14 10:03

Best free antivirus? - FocalPoint

"I use MSE ... I also use free Malwarebytes... In addition I use free CrapCeaner..."

I use Malwarebytes, CrapCleaner, Ghostery, CryptoPrevent, Superantispyware, HitManPro and Avast.

Paranoid, moi?

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Wed 9 Apr 14 11:27

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

A good local PC person should take all the hassle out of everything but will cost a bit more but you should get a much better quality PC out of it but if you go down that route make sure you what brand of motherboard and power supply are going in. For example I tend to sell

Intel G3240 processor
Asus H81 Motherboard
8GB of Kingston or Corsair RAM
500GB Western Digital Black hard drive
Coolermaster case
Corsair 430W Power supply
DVD RW etc
Windows 7 Home Premium
Logitech keyboard and mouse

That will cost my clients around £440-£480 depending but at the very least it includes transfer of all the old data and setting up on site. I also offer a 1 year on-site swap out warranty so if a component does fail they will be without the computer for hopefully only a couple of days at the max.

Hopefully that should give you an idea of price, if you want to source your own computer then the general going rate round here is about £45-£60 for a setup onsite and full data transfer etc. This would also include removing any crap the computer comes with and also making sure all the updates are installed inc the latest service pack.

If you really don't want to spend a lot look for a registered Microsoft Refurbisher, they should be able to sell you a system with Windows 7 on it for less than £120 and because they are registered the process is tough. You have to do a three pass wipe on the hard drive, test the RAM, power supply, hard drive and everything else before you can sell it.

A company called Tier One is a very good source of these. They sell some very nice Lenovo desktops, although a bit old they are more than good enough for basic use and are much better quality than the crap you get in the sheds.

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Wed 9 Apr 14 12:02

Best free antivirus? - Clk Sec

That's very helpful, Rattle. Thanks.

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Wed 9 Apr 14 12:13

Best free antivirus? - Bromptonaut

MSE replaced with Avast. Even if virus sig files are being updated MSE is in permanent 'at risk' status.

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Wed 9 Apr 14 12:34

Best free antivirus? - Manatee

Interesting, Rattle.

Slight drift down this byway - should I suggest to my very elderly friend whose almost equally ancient XP machine needs replacing to look at say this at £309, 320GB hdd, Win7 Pro

ThinkCentre M90p Intel Core i5-650 3.20GHz 4GB
goo.gl/JuzpP8

in preference to this (he trusts Dell)

www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-3847-desktop/pd?oc=cd84712&model_id=inspiron-3847-desktop

at £299 with a similar powered processor, 1TB hdd and Win8?

I just have a feeling he might adapt more easily to Win7 but I could be wrong - any thoughts or experience on that?

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Wed 9 Apr 14 12:40

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

He will almost certainly prefer Windows 7 but there is a new update coming very soon (8.1 sp1) which will basically bring back the start menu as we know it.

I wouldn't pay £309 for that Lenovo, as it is 3 generations behind as that is a first generation i5 and we are now on the fourth. The first generations were not that quick compared to the second generation Sanybridge.

The £120 Core Dou machines make good value web surfers though.

If you do go for a ready made Desktop try to avoid Zoostorm as they have cheap and nasty power supplies in them.

Ebuyer sometimes have some good Acer nettops for sale for around £160 but you will need to add Windows to that, even so for less than £240 you get a brand new desktop but they are not very powerful.

Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Wed 9 Apr 14 at 12:40

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Wed 9 Apr 14 12:44

Best free antivirus? - Manatee

Very helpful thanks Rattle.

Do you cover as far as Llanfair Caereinion:)

Probably a bit of a schlep for one new customer - takes me half a day from here!

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Wed 9 Apr 14 12:59

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

After having owned two Advent PCs (with minimal problems), I'm toying with the idea of yet another one.

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Wed 9 Apr 14 14:52

Best free antivirus? - Ambo

Thanks for the tip re Telegraph, rtj 70.

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Fri 18 Apr 14 02:05

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

>> After having owned two Advent PCs (with minimal problems), I'm toying with the idea of yet another one.

Toyed no longer. Bought my 3rd one Thursday afternoon. PC World had knocked £50 off the one I had been looking at earlier in the week. I guess it's an Easter promotion deal.

On my Win XP machine I removed MSE and installed Avast instead. Avast seems very processor hungry at times. I also switched from IE to Google Chrome. Although it seems a faster browser, I'm not that overly impressed with it. Occasional hang ups and crashes. It also doesn't seem to handle websites that require Adobe Flash either.

Now the fun begins with transferring all my data, emails, etc over.

I do hope Win 8.1 isn't the PITA that some people are making it out to be.

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Fri 18 Apr 14 08:19

Best free antivirus? - Clk Sec

>>After having owned two Advent PCs
>>Toyed no longer.
>> I do hope Win 8.1 isn't the PITA that some people are making it out
>> to be.

Please let us know how you get along, VxF.

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Fri 18 Apr 14 21:20

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

>> Please let us know how you get along, VxF.

Actually, first impressions aren't too bad. Granted I've not had much playing time with it yet as I've spent an age registering my life away, etc. Then upgrading win 8 to 8.1 (which also took ages). Now in the process of creating recovery discs. Advent kindly included 2 blank DVDs as well as a comprehensive step by step guide.

Anyway, once you get past the Apps screen it's *almost* the same as previous versions of Windows.

Yes, it's different, but not that user unfriendly (so far!)

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Sat 19 Apr 14 10:20

Best free antivirus? - Clk Sec

>> >> Please let us know how you get along, VxF.
>>
>> Actually, first impressions aren't too bad.

Thanks.

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Sat 19 Apr 14 11:08

Best free antivirus? - Pezzer

I have just bought a new i5 desktop and it shipped with W8 and I hated it. However the 8.1 upgrade resolves much of this and you can default to the desktop view now and it has restored the minimise and close buttons in the top right hand corner. So now you get the best of both worlds. For example I quite like the Bing News tile and how it lets you scroll through with the mouse wheel.

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Sat 19 Apr 14 15:36

Best free antivirus? - No FM2R

>>and you can default to the desktop view now

How do you do that?

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Sat 19 Apr 14 16:11

Best free antivirus? - Robin O'Reliant

>>
>> How do you do that?
>>

I did mine by downloading Classic Shell.

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Sat 19 Apr 14 16:13

Best free antivirus? - No FM2R

Herself has Windows 8.1, I barely use it having W7 myself and so I've never really got the hang of it.

I was hoping that Microsoft had put some way in of changing the default. If not, maybe I'll have a go with Classic Shell.

Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 19 Apr 14 at 16:14

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Sat 19 Apr 14 19:44

Best free antivirus? - Pezzer

Right click on the task bar - select the Navigation Tab - tick under 'Start Screen' When I sign in or close all applications on a screen got to the desktop instead of Start

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Sun 20 Apr 14 02:05

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

>> >>and you can default to the desktop view now
>>
>> How do you do that?

I've no idea how I did it.

It just seems to have defaulted to the desktop view of its own accord. I haven't made any setting changes other than going into the power options and enabling hibernate mode.

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Fri 18 Apr 14 11:38

Best free antivirus? - Robin O'Reliant

>> I do hope Win 8.1 isn't the PITA that some people are making it out
>> to be.
>>

Go in with an open mind and it is no problem.

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Wed 9 Apr 14 16:09

Best free antivirus? - No FM2R

Rattle,

Since you are known and trusted here, why don't you offer a service?

I am not in the UK at the moment, so I could quite see paying your train, car or bus and other expenses and a bit of profit for you to supply and sort out a PC for a [probably elderly] member of my family.

I reckon what I'd pay you in expenses would be more than covered by the reduced cost and increased standard of the machine and service quality.

In fact, that situation may well arise. Is it the sort of thing you would consider?

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Thu 10 Apr 14 01:00

Best free antivirus? - Stuartli

>>A company called Tier One is a very good source of these. They sell some very nice Lenovo desktops, although a bit old they are more than good enough for basic use and are much better quality than the crap you get in the sheds.>>

I have a Lenovo laptop - the Chinese company originally used to make the IBM laptops before eventually buying out the brand name. Excellent quality and family and friends I've advised to buy one of its models have invariably been delighted.

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Thu 10 Apr 14 10:56

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

I am soon wanting to buy a new laptop to replace my cheap Medeon netbook I can't get a replacement battery for. A second hand 12" Lenovo thinkpad is my only consideration. Thinkpads are simply the Mercedes 190 of the laptop world. They are about £230 and have the first generation I5, I will simply replace the HD with an SSD and it will fly.

The problem with long distance is it would be too difficult to offer proper support, say if anything went wrong the distance would make it very hard. The furthest job I have done was Warrington and that was covering for another technician I sometimes work with. I occasionally do a job in Milnrow and that is about the furthest I could go.

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Thu 10 Apr 14 11:06

Best free antivirus? - devonite

Seem to be plenty of Thinkpad batteries on Ebay - £10 - £20 ! if it helps.

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Thu 10 Apr 14 11:11

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

It is a Medion netbook I need one for, but they don't seem to exist, I think it is made by Asus but I cannot find an Asus battery that fits either. It is a shame as I like my Netbook, paid £150 for it brand new, upgraded the RAM to 2GB and it flys with Linux despite being an Atom.

Be very careful with Ebay batteries, too many fakes and a lot of the cheaper ones are fire hazards. I usually source batteries from Anker.

Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Thu 10 Apr 14 at 11:12

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Thu 10 Apr 14 11:24

Best free antivirus? - Focusless

Daft question Ratts but presumably you've looked here?
www.medion.com/gb/service/start/_search.php?groupID=1&groupName=Laptop

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Thu 10 Apr 14 11:28

Best free antivirus? - RattleandSmoke

I did and the parts listed are all in German. They want 340 euros for the 10 inch display. The cost of a 10" LED screen is about £25.

They have 1000% markup on the parts.

Found the battery is actually not too bad at 70 euros, but with delivery and everything else is not worth it on what is a 2 year old scruffy well used netbook.

Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Thu 10 Apr 14 at 11:31

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Thu 10 Apr 14 14:53

Best free antivirus? - Stuartli

>> Daft question Ratts but presumably you've looked here?>>

...or the UK division?

www.medion.com/gb/welcome

Medion isn't a manufacturer. It's a distributor of products made to its own specifications and sells them in Europe and the States.

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Thu 10 Apr 14 12:50

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

>> In the meantime will the advice given below help until I replace my aging desktop?
>>
>> www.tomsguide.com/us/10-tips-safely-run-windows-xp,news-18571.html

No views whether it will or not then?

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Thu 10 Apr 14 12:58

Best free antivirus? - No FM2R

If you do confidential stuff on your system, then you shouldn't be using XP. Its difficult to get past that basic point.

However, since you asked for opinions, then overall I think those steps are either good practice which you should be doing anyway or pointless things that I couldn't be bothered with..

Specifically.....

1. Fully update your system.

Makes sense, but I would assume you do that anyway.

2. Ditch Internet Explorer.

I would definitely do this.

3. Use Webmail instead of Outlook Express.

Bit OTT if you ask me. The Webmail is safer, but only if you're prone to opening attachments you don't expect or from people you don't know.

4. Ditch Microsoft Office.

If Libre & Open office will do what you what, then it makes sense. However, they don;t for me because of formatting in Word & Macros in Excel.

5. Install antivirus software, and pay for it.

Not for me. Free is good enough.

6. Create and use limited accounts.

Good practice anyway. (but not advice I follow)

7. Turn on your system's firewall

Should be on anyway.

8. Turn off automatic opening of files on a USB stick.

I have automatic opening turned off for everything.

9. Maximize Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

This used to drive me nuts on XP. It just interferes too much.

10. Install the Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET)

NAFC. Dunno what it is, never used it.

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Thu 10 Apr 14 13:30

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

Thanks Mark.

Yes, I do regular updates. Well up until the 8th for MS anyway.

I use ZoneAlarm as my firewall.

I know I got to change browsers away from IE. I tried Safari last night but it was slow and kept crashing. Haven't tried Google Chrome yet.

I must ditch MSE and install Avast. I previously had AVG but it became so bloated that I ditched it in favour of MSE a couple of years ago because it slowed the PC down to a crawl. Not sure if AVG is still the same. Not willing to risk it, although on my Laptop running Vista it's fine.

No problems using Outlook Express, but I do at some point want to migrate my emails to Outlook 2007.

I tend to only do things like internet banking on my iPhone or on my work PC which is running Win7.

Ultimately I need to update the desktop, but I want to shop around a bit first.
Another option is as I previously mentioned, to install the underused Laptop instead and plug all my desktop peripherals into that instead and also get a USB hub. Ideally though I want to be able to switch on the Laptop without having to keep lifting up the lid. Googling last night there are methods to do this.

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Thu 10 Apr 14 13:57

Best free antivirus? - movilogo

I have also migrated from AVG to Avast.

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Thu 10 Apr 14 14:38

Best free antivirus? - No FM2R

A couple of points Dave;

>> I use ZoneAlarm as my firewall.

I used to until about 2 years ago and then it started interfering with stuff. So I changed to the Windows Firewall, however perhaps the Windows one is much weaker in XP, I don't know.

>>Haven't tried Google Chrome yet.

I like it but find it a memory hog. Currently I am using Waterfox and it is not annoying me at all, which is about the best you can say for a browser.

>> I must ditch MSE and install Avast.

I just use MSE, although I occasionally do a scan with other stuff, like Panda for example. But I use W7. No. 1 still uses XP sometimes, but there is nothing confidential on that machine nor anything confidential done with it.

>>Not sure if AVG is still the same.

Three months ago it still was.

>> No problems using Outlook Express, but I do at some point want to migrate my
>> emails to Outlook 2007.

That's not an easy thing to do. I'd start planning and investigating now if I was you. Outlook Express uses a weird structure that nothing else seems to use.

>> I tend to only do things like internet banking on my iPhone or on my
>> work PC which is running Win7.

>> Ultimately I need to update the desktop, but I want to shop around a bit
>> first.

I think you're just going to need to bite the bullet. PCs are quite cheap unless you are into video manipulation or gaming and need extra performance.

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Sat 19 Apr 14 12:55

Best free antivirus? - Zero

>> That's not an easy thing to do. I'd start planning and investigating now if I
>> was you. Outlook Express uses a weird structure that nothing else seems to use.

I use express assist when I migrate. It is singularly the most useful and impressive tool I have ever used since windows 95. It has kept up to date with all levels of windows and will migrate any email/address book to any other.

ajsystems.com/expressassist/ea.html

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Sun 20 Apr 14 02:10

Best free antivirus? - VxFan

>> I use express assist when I migrate.

>> ajsystems.com/expressassist/ea.html

So am I right in thinking I can convert my OE emails to Outlook using this program? Basically export and import?

And is it free?

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Sat 19 Apr 14 19:54

Best free antivirus? - Meldrew

Chrome has a very good Ad Blocker. For various reasons I have been using Mozilla recently and screen is a blizzard of flashing, dancing pop-ups. unuseable in its present form, to me at least

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Sat 19 Apr 14 22:44

Best free antivirus? - Duncan

I use Waterfox. Adblock still works on Mozilla stuff.

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