I worry more about my PC getting infected than about ID theft. The odds of a virus and/or malware destroying your hard drive or gaining access to sensitive personal information, or even taking over your PC gets higher every day.
I have not had good experience with either Norton or Mcafee virus protection programs, which frequently come pre-loaded on new PCs on a trial basis.
Avast is my favorite anti-virus program. There is a free version which works well, but because I use my computers for work and can’t afford to take any chances, I have an upgraded professional version.
I had previously used AVG, which is also very popular, and has a free version as well as paid versions.
Yesterday I found another program which I installed and found immediately helpful: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
I ran the program and it found seven traces of malware on my PC, which I immediately deleted.
Martin, a WordPress developer, wrote about Malwarebytes.
Malwarebytes, which is an excellent product and free to download.
“A couple of years ago I got a Trojan on one of my PC’s which I couldn’t get rid of. McAfee couldn’t find it, Spybot S&D couldn’t find it and Adaware couldn’t find it. But Malwarebytes did. And since then I install and use it on every PC I own and every PC I’m setting up for someone else,” he wrote on a blog.
“As long as you have one of the Internet Security products running you only need to run Malwarebytes manually every few days. Make sure you update it before you run it, because they release new signatures every day. And, by the way, although I’m delighted with the Internet Security product I’m using, Malwarebytes still picks up stuff that it misses.
“The other product I use (also free) is CleanUp!. This focuses more on clearing out your temporary files, but I needed it the other day because I opened a copy of the infected file from my customer’s site to review it on my PC.”
Similar Posts:
- Google Warning Millions That Their PCs Are Infected By Virus
- Use Free Programs To Speed Up PC, Mac and Browsers
- GoDaddy Hosting? You Might Want To Think Twice Before Trusting Your Site To GoDaddy
- Beware Of AOL Scam Using Email Claiming Your AOL Folder Contains A Virus
- Ct Consumers Targeted By Scammers Falsely Claiming Your Computer Needs Repair
- Tips To Protect Your Computer And Yourself From Cyber Damage
My main concern is whether or not I could have malwarebytes Anti Malware on my computer at the same time that I have mcafee.
Malwarebytes, Yes. The other 2, No. If you absolutely MUST have a free Antivirus program, Microsoft offers the free Security Essentials which is more effective and less taxing on your system and less annoying than AVG. However, I recommend Norton Antivirus over both, and it can frequently be purchased for free after rebates, or for as low as $15, $16 a year at Amazon. You get what you pay for, so why entrust your computer and it’s data to free programs?
I agree with David. AVG is a HUGE memory hog and runs constantly in the background slowing down your machine. Avoid it. Run the updates for Malwarebytes and scan your machine frequently. As long as you stay away from unknown sites and don’t open links in spam and phishing emails, you should be safe. “Trust No One”
No, Ruth, you shouldn’t have AVG and McAFee installed at the same time. It’s always a bad idea to have two anti-virus apps that run background software.
The exception is stuff that is aimed at malware/spyware (such as Spybot, MalwareBytes, AdAware, because they aren’t full anti-virus).
But McAFee, AVG, AVAST, Kaspersky, Norton, etc. Should not be installed simultaneously.
I’ve had very good experience with AVG and don’t believe it has any worse resource usage than any other Anti-Virus product. However, I have adopted Microsoft’s Security Essentials as my anti-virus of choice, since it was highly recommended by a fellow consultant of mine (who spends more time with Windows than this Mac-oriented Tech).
I would have to disagree with the recommendation of Norton Anti-Virus. To me that’s the definition of resource hog. And on two occasions when I went to remove it from a PC, the system became unusable afterward. I say avoid it.
Like Ruth (above) I’d like to know if it’s okay to have multiple protection programs on your computer or does that mess things up.
Just refreshed and saw Chris’ answer. Thanks.