Soldato
- Joined
- 31 May 2009
- Posts
- 21,257
Is windows defender a renamed MsE for win8?
Do you still install your own anti-virus on W8?
- Thread starter RastaManBob
- Start date
Both anti malware programs I mentioned are totally free and do a excellent job without the need to purchase them. I specifically mentioned Kaspersky as being the paid AV/IS solution I have faith in because a) I use it daily to clean up heavily infected machines and b) I have seen the poor attempts at protection offered by "free" solutions.
Those are 3 pieces of software specifically mentioned that I see everyday offer results in the real world. You are living in some magical dream land if you think Joe public is going to disable java and adobe, never visit a torrent site or use p2p software.
My opinions are formed on daily interactions with peoples pcs from all walks of life, where Betty from number 73 thinks Smiley central toolbar is going to offer her some fun emoticons with no thought to the real consequences.
Where George went looking for help on how to change the fog light bulb on his Volvo, Pistonheads, a well used and trusted forum, the next thing he knows his desktop is changed and his PC is locked. His webcam is now showing a picture of him sitting and his desk. Strathclyde police are demanding he pay a fine of £100 because he has been looking at porn, childporn, acts of terrorism, anything infact to scare your average uneducated PC user into handing over cash. Funny enough, had George been using Kaspersky it would have blocked the malicious script hidden in the advert banner and given a warning as to its sinister actions.
But yea, no problem ignore my really poor advice. The world would be very boring if we all shared the same opinion
Man of Honour
+1
Everytime I see an independent review of AV products, the top paid versions from Kaspersky and Eset always come out on top, granted free versions have their place but to suggest they are 'all' you need is dangerous, especially to the uninformed
(comment meant for poster you quoted) 
Updated version built-in on Win8,
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2013139/windows-8-raises-the-bar-for-pc-security.html
A paid solution doesn't avoid the need to take precautions, such as keeping software patched and disabling potentially vulnerable plug-ins.
Telling clients to spend money on protection isn't doing them any favours but installing something like Secunia PSI will.
Same here, mind you I am getting it for free with my Barclays account, I would stick to Windows 8 own antivirus otherwise.
Soldato
I just used firefox and no script I presume I'm now protected.
A paid solution is exactly the same as a free solution in that you/they are actively taking precautions which is the name of the game. The difference, in my opinion, is that most free AV is poor as i have stated above.
I agree 100% that keeping software and OS up to date and patched is the preferred practice and in a corporate environment where you are directly responsible for the up keep of the machines its quite easy for you to do. However, once i have cleaned a machine and advised my client on how to best keep the machine safe, once the machine leaves my hands its really up to the end user what happens next. In your corporate environment its much easier to manage the machines. When a machine leaves me i have no idea where its going or what it will be doing for the rest of its life. Btw dont take out of context me saying managing machines in a corporate environment is easy.
I stand by my opinions regardless of whether you think they are wrong or flawed simply because they work. I will check out the software you have mentioned though (Secunia PSI) as it might help my clients in the future so i thank you for that.
Soldato
+1 for Secunia PSI.
Unless, of course, your clients just get annoyed with it asking you to update your insecure apps and just start ignoring or disabling it.
The only remaining problem if you keep on top of things with Secunia and some form of AV is that window between an exploit being discovered and a patch being released. Once again Flash and Java are the worst culprits here.
For PDFs I recommend the free Sumatra PDF. It's a dead simple bloat-free open-source PDF reader with no support for scripting or forms or any rubbish beyond simply rendering pages for you to view, so it's a lot less likely to get exploited. I tend to run Adobe Reader in a virtual machine for the odd PDF I encounter that actually needs these features. Normally online forms.
Unless, of course, your clients just get annoyed with it asking you to update your insecure apps and just start ignoring or disabling it.
The only remaining problem if you keep on top of things with Secunia and some form of AV is that window between an exploit being discovered and a patch being released. Once again Flash and Java are the worst culprits here.
For PDFs I recommend the free Sumatra PDF. It's a dead simple bloat-free open-source PDF reader with no support for scripting or forms or any rubbish beyond simply rendering pages for you to view, so it's a lot less likely to get exploited. I tend to run Adobe Reader in a virtual machine for the odd PDF I encounter that actually needs these features. Normally online forms.
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Associate
I'm curious as to why people still bother mentioning chrom when it comes to flash. Flash has been updating itself for a long time now, no browser involved...
I don't even use Chrome,I find using Secunia PSI 3 is all I need ,does the updates for me regardless of your software or browser you use.It works well with Win8 so added protection with Defender and my router firewall etc...
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Soldato
No. Java is worse, though it is more avoidable than Flash.
Soldato
No it doesn't. My parents don't have admin access to their PC's and neither Flash nor Acrobat are capable of installing updates without elevation. Which means the only times they get updated is when I go visit them. So I'm moving them away from those products.
Even for admin users they still nag, nag, and nag again until finally you get time in your day to have a look at what they are nagging you about. Just sodding install automatically like everything else in the 21st century!
Soldato
Use Norton.
I tried AVG, and had massive problems with the pc some time ago now. Uninstalling AVG fixed the problem, and I switched over to Norton. Never had any issues since.
I know some people say its pointless, and poor. But once you turn the annoying stuff off its fine.
Never had any issues it slowing stuff down either. Sitting on an SSD it happily sits in the background.
It might even be a placebo for me, but on well. Never had any issues yet.
kd
I tried AVG, and had massive problems with the pc some time ago now. Uninstalling AVG fixed the problem, and I switched over to Norton. Never had any issues since.
I know some people say its pointless, and poor. But once you turn the annoying stuff off its fine.
Never had any issues it slowing stuff down either. Sitting on an SSD it happily sits in the background.
It might even be a placebo for me, but on well. Never had any issues yet.
kd
Soldato
Sorry, just wrong, I've had various versions of Kaspersky over the last 6-7years and never ever had it brick or mess my pc up!
Sorry but I am absolutely *not* wrong on this at all. Do some research. I've watched over the past 15+ years as Kaspersky, amongst many other AV vendors, always seeming to trip over their own QA processes and end up releasing some sort of broken update which bricks a subset of their customer's machines.
Here are some further reading articles to get you started. You'll soon start to realise that I am actually talking an awful lot of sense.
http://forum.kaspersky.com/lofiversion/index.php/t193701.html
http://bsodanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/kaspersky-guilty-of-causing-bsods.html
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=18742
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/237966-35-bsod-problem-kaspersky
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18237256
http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-...ebooting-after-installing-new-anti-virus.html
Hell just do a search on the official Kaspersky forums for "BSOD" and you'll get 30 pages of results dating back to 2005. I can remember them hitting the news for all the wrong reasons back in 1998.
I'm not even picking on Kaspersky alone... http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2012/07/16/symantec_update_bricks_some_pcs
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/avira-antivirus-update-cripples-millions-of-windows-pcs/12129
But hey, at least Kaspersky gets some things absolutely right: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/...s-behind-microsoft-in-terms-of-security/11706
Soldato
No thanks.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/choosing-anti-anti-virus-software.html
http://thepcspy.com/read/what_really_slows_windows_down/
Over a 2000% impact on I/O performance. I doubt your shiny SSD is performing like one would on an uninfected machine.
Soldato
Norton does, these days, score consistently highly on detection rates.
Unfortunately it does come at a severe performance penalty, so use NOD32 if you must pay for AV.
Unfortunately it does come at a severe performance penalty, so use NOD32 if you must pay for AV.