[@Riuck]
I have used every anti virus and anti malware program since the original Central Point PCTools, and Peter Norton bought his anti virus program to compete, from the earliest inventions of Avira, F-Prot, Dr Solomon, and so on, from the 1980s on, including SecureAPlus ( which I found entertaining, but arduous to interpret and test and confirm it’s results ).
2 things:
— I find them all slowing down my computer responsiveness intolerably, and interfering with my control of my own computer, and causing, as you have noticed, misbehavior of my own computer,
— I have become a savvy SELF-PROTECTIVE user, and always submit downloaded programs to VirusTotal, and then making educated decisions, before running them or dumping them in a [ – Malware ] test directory to challenge the next anti virus offering, and I backup and distribute my resources to I am not totally vulnerable from any computer failure regardless of attack, and I do not engage in dialogs asking me to turn over responsibility for any of my resources, see below.
I do not use nor recommend ANY anti virus anti malware program to be running all the time, but reluctantly install FREE Microsoft Security Essentials and FREE Windows Defender ( depending on the operating system ) for people who need to SEE something protecting them, at least Microsoft’s products are competitively designed and test well in reviews, and integrates well into the operating system experience without causing unusual screen pop ups and behaviors that compete or contradict their usual Microsoft interface expectations.
I routinely run FREE Malwarebytes ADWCleaner to fix customer ( and occasional my own ) messed up computer, as it can also reset the network / Internet connections and Chrome’s defaults ( but I manually un-check IObit and Auslogics programs which Malwarebytes has a hair up their arse over ).
But, no matter how many locks I try to put on the front door of a customer’s computer, invariably, they themselves open the door and invite a spear phisher in, and voluntarily if unwittingly turn over their computer, their credit cards, their bank account, and more, in spite of my rule that I have drilled into them, that I have had them repeat to me daily, on or off the computer:
— Never execute a transaction that you did not initiate.
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Regarding hard drive performance, we forget that Microsoft offers us FREE [ ChkDsk C: /r ] to scan and repair surface defects ( keep the drive cool, I use supplemental cooling fans, never letting a drive exceed 99 degrees F ), and there are great NOT FREE drive repair programs from Steve Gibson’s Spinrite and Dmitriy Primochenko’s HDDreg, plus, NOT FREE replacement hard drives are CHEAP.
Also, I myself forget that it’s easy to reinstall Windows 7, and with free Ninite and other multi-program installers, within two days, have a clean and new system once again, but no, instead I waste weeks struggling with a system that I could simply reinstall fresh:
— Nothing beets a new installation.
Tell us more about your challenges and victories, good luck, and thanks for sharing.
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