microsoft security essentials

Repa,


I just happened to discover I had the real time protection turned on in Microsoft Security Essentials. Did not realized that. Since I have AVAST, I should turn off the real time protections shouldn't I.

Thanks
Fay

Microsoft Security Essentials contains a real time anti-virus program and you do not want 2 anti-virus programs running at the same time because of conflicts. In my experience, people who have used Microsoft Security Essentials seem to end up with viruses and malware much more often then people using Avast and Windows Defender together for real-time protection against viruses and malware. For one thing, Microsoft does not update the virus definitions daily like Avast does - and Avast sometimes updates several times a day. On computers that people have brought me with viruses and malware to fix that had Microsoft Security Essentials, I uninstalled it and installed Avast along with Windows Defender. That is what I recommend you do - get rid of MSE and use Windows Defender instead for real-time anti-malware protection along with your Avast for real-time virus protection. Avast also has rootkit and some malware protection built in. Schedule Avast to run quick scans daily, schedule a weekly full scan, and once a month do a boot time scan. Update and run Malwarebytes quick scan once a week. Update and run SuperAntispyware quick scan every other week. Run ccleaner daily, sometimes more than once a day depending on how much you are on the internet and if you visit unfamiliar sites. Keep Spywareblaster and Spybot definitions up-to-date weekly to maintain the passive web protection they provide against known malicious websites.

Repa,

You verified what I thought. I did not even realize I had real-time support turned on for Microsoft Security Essentials - I turned it off. Not sure when it got turned on, found it my accident.

I have been using AVAST for quite some time and have liked it . But, I have a FB friend that has the paid version of AVAST and says she has multiple infections and can not use her computer - says she can not even run AVAST. She called them but they were going to charge her for help, so she is going to wait till she can afford to take it to someone in her area. (She has a laptop she can use in the meantime). Just can not imagine how she got so infected with AVAST - especially the paid version.

Thanks
Fay

As you well know, how you use your computer, where you go on the internet, what you download and what emails you open that you shouldn't account for many of the infections people get, no matter how good their security is. Avast will not catch everything, and neither will any other program. That's why we use more than one security application and run scans periodically to check for anything the real-time protection misses. The programs and maintenance procedures I've outlined in the tutorials will give you as good as you can get "for free" in the way of virus/malware protection - if you are a cautious user and disciplined in doing the maintenance procedures on your computer. I don't remember the last time I got an infection on my computer - probably 2005 or earlier, but Avast has caught some things when I got into a hurry and didn't check a website out before clicking a link in Google to go there. When that happens, I run ccleaner immediately, and then restore to an earlier point in time and after that run ccleaner again and malwarebytes just to be sure something didn't sneak through. Some of the sites where that happened on were pretty innocuous sounding too, websites I was exploring when doing Bible research - go figure! So, you have to be cautious - check out downloads before you download them, make sure you aren't downloading other programs along with an application that you download from the internet, don't open emails you don't know where they are from (if you are curious, read the email source code instead of opening the email), and regularly do the maintenance procedures. The likelihood of getting infected drops dramatically if you do these things.

One recent example: I had set up my nephew's new windows 8 laptop for him several weeks ago with all the protection I recommend, and it was running like a charm. He brought it to me this week, slow as a snail, and having problems doing anything on the internet. He had downloaded a program, and along with it download the Finewide Toolbar, a browser hijacker that was making it almost impossible for my niece to do her college homework assignments on the internet, or anything else for that matter. I took care of it and the computer is working fine now. But, this was the classic case of the user not checking to see if anything else was being downloaded with a legitimate program and unchecking the option to have it download with the program. Most computer problems and infections are user induced, not because there isn't adequate security. I suspect that is your friend's problem also. And personally, I think it is not smart to pay for Avast Internet Security when Avast Free with Windows Defender will give you about the same protection, and have less impact on your system resources.

Repa,

This is a friend I have never met in person, she is a friend college roommate. I am not sure enough of security stuff to suggest too much to her, and trying to do it over the computer or over the phone would be difficult. With some help from you, if she and I could get together , might be able to run some other tools to help figure out the problem. I doubt she runs any other tools, I asked her bout Spybot and she does not run that. I am not sure what she means when she says she can not run Avast. I told her I just had the free version, but ran some other tools also.
I asked her if went into safe mode to see what she could run. She doesn't know anything about safe mode. I would like to try to help her, I know her finances are tight, but I really do not know enough , especially from long distance -so guess it is just best to let her take it into someone. I did suggest she run some other security tools in addition to Avast once she got it cleaned up.
I tend to get a little careless myself sometimes, I used to be better at running the tools etc but have gotten a little bit lax lately.
I think Avast at times gives quite a bit of false positive and have read other posts , people complaining about that. But, I think I would rather have it that way than the other way around.

Thanks
Fay

Yes, I've noticed that too - Avast is detecting false positives, much more now than when it first came out. I think it has to do with its heuristic algorithm, which may be too sensitive, but I'd rather have it that way than missing something it should catch.