Goodbye AVG!

Know how you feel.... it was a hard choice for me to trust MS after the seeing how bad the worthless "Windows Defender" performed over the years, fast forward to more recent times where "Avast" was my 64bit choice for the best part of 3 years due to it's better support in Vista x64 than AVG etc, it was a tough cookie to bite when I finally decided give it up much like I had with Norton back in 2007, they just fell behind the curve after leading it for so long, even the mighty Google is slipping now compared to Bing with recent survey showing google pulling about 68% accuracy on search hits compared to bings mid 80% hit rates.... so seems MS are back on the rise.

I've now been MSE exclusive on all my networked PCs since about March this year without so much as a sniff of a virus infection... some going with my kid using her PC for random web use which would be the most likely attack point, so very impressed.

I have recommended MSE for freeware use, as it is a good solution and easy to deploy. AVG's commercial product may have sense to it, as well as my favorite, ESET NOD32, but I highly (and always) suggest:

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/

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

Hi

Something that is really a lot faster in the last couple of days is Adobe Photoshop start up.

I don't know if this has anything to do with AVG or just a coincidence but it is loading much faster then before.

It has always been very slow loading and all of a sudden it is loading like zip.
I've done it over and over just to see that I'm not imaging it.

Weird.

Mike

Greetings,

I am just curious. What do the posters on Windows 7 Forums think of the newer versions of Norton Internet t Security 2011?

Just curious and would like to know.

Thanks in advance for your help and support.

lrcite

Hi

My criticism of Norton's product is the same as my complaint with McAfee.
It's been my experience that the are a real drag on computer performance.

I can use McAfee for free, it's part of my ISP package but I don't just because it slows things down too much.

As I said earlier I've just found that dropping AVG in favor of MSE has improved the performance of my computer.

I'm not anti Norton, I have used Norton Ghost for years.

Mike

Hello,

Thanks! I appreciate your insight. Do you know anything about Norton Utilities that is supposed to clean up, tune up and speed up your computer? Or is it the same as NIS and is a real drag on computer performance?

Thanks again for your help.

lrcite

Hi

Here are the apps that I would recommend to everyone.

They are all free!

Grant Admin Full Control Gets around those annoying you don't have permission messages.

Take and Grant Full Control Permissions and Ownership in Windows 7 or Vista Right Click Menu « My Digital Life


Defraggler Run it the first time and do a complete defrag when you are not going to be using your computer for a while.
After that use the Defrag File option to keep you hard drive in good shape in just a few minutes a day.

Download Defraggler 2.07.346 - FileHippo.com


CCleaner I run this every day, at least once, some time several times. It has a number of functions besides the basic cleanup.
Use the registry cleaner, it won't remove anything it shouldn't and it backs up the registry when you use it.
It will also let you easily turn off start-up items you don't need, uninstall software and control your cookies.

CCleaner - Download


Malwarebytes Best scanner for malware, will almost always remove a virus it you get one. I run it every couple of days.

Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO removes malware including viruses, spyware, worms and trojans, plus it protects your computer


Mike

The rumor is that Norton himself divested himself of stock in the company and they can no longer use his name right? LOL. Well in that instance I can tell you all of their products are horrendous except for Symantec EndPoint for enterprise environments that are unmanageable and need to lock down the network immediately. Go with ESET. You cannot go wrong with this product.

I agree with MalwareBytes. I prefer Auslogics Disk Defrag to Defraggler since Samsung uses it internally and they are a fantastic company. I would not touch the registry with CCleaner with a 10-foot pole in a work environment. In my opinion, if you are going to start chopping up the registry using automated software, you need not consider the one being paid for by toolbars on the install screen. I would only go with commercial software for automated system maintenance and this list does include RegistryBooster, TuneUp Utilities, and Ace Utilities. Many of these utilities are capable of moving the registry up to the front of the partition table for better performance and are good for aging systems. I cannot honestly trust any non-commercial registry cleaner due to the absolute carnage it could do to a system. At least with commercial applications you have a monetary investment in research and development and these companies work hard to achieve Microsoft Gold Certified status. I didn't start thinking this way until I saw a few systems literally annihilated by CCleaner. Granted they were old and unattended for who knows how long, but we are talking about install dates of 2001. Nonetheless, this never would have happened with better software to carefully manage the condition of the system. When I say I endorse certain products commercially, I really do, for the betterment of forum users, and this does include, especially anti-virus and registry cleaners. Otherwise, I absolutely agree with SuperAntiSpyware, HijackThis!, and MalwareBytes.

As a former Samsung Support agent... i'd have to disagree on the Samsung gear quality...lol, before you ask... I left in disgust at the incompetence of the support framework they imposed on us.